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.

31. Code Bravo

(WARNING: This is a warning!

…

Okay, on a serious note.

This is going to be the first time for this story where there is NO DINOSAUR FIGHT! HOWEVER, I tried to incorporate as many chibi dinosaur scenes as I could as well as move the plot forward to help compensate for this.

I apologize everyone.

Also to the anonymous Guest that left a review saying diabetes can eat anything… No, they cannot dude. That's the whole point of being diabetic. You're either lying or your friend is lying. Either way, you're wrong. Sorry to tell you that buddy.

ONTO THE STORY!)

---

"This is Channel 7 news!" announces a news anchor on a TV in a dark room. "New York City congressman, Sean Taggart, has been awarded a bust completely made out of a rare amber by the mayor of New York City, Julio Ochoa, in recognition for his anti-terrorist acts that have been passed by Congress itself."

The TV suddenly switched to the congressman accepting the bust by the mayor, as said bust was nothing more than sculpted to look like a fist. "Mr. Grossman has stated that he had outside help in making this act, consoling a former U.S. Navy Seal General to help make the act a reality, whom he has said he would like to keep his identity a secret. Truly, this is one of New York City's greatest days. In other news, the driver who drove a party truck into the Hudson River that killed 4 people, was he himself killed by New York City Detective, Ma-"

The TV suddenly turned off, revealing that Seth was in front of it holding a remote in his hand, in front of him was a computer monitor and the only source of light in the room. "I don't think I need to clarify why that bust is important to you." Seth says to an unknown person. "You have been searching far and wide for this element, and now an opportunity has presented itself. The question is… are you going to take it… Grand Master?"

In front of him was the computer monitor, with the screen lacking any visual aside from the text AUDIO ONLY on the screen. "The Fist is undoubtedly the U.S. General that woman was talking about, and if that congressman has connections to the Fist, then you can bet he will be an obstacle in my goal. Allow me some time to come up with a plan. I will call you later. Let Roscoe know he might be needed for this. The DinoMond is imperative to my goal, and I must have it. Anyway I can."

---

*Seven Nation Army Glitch Mob Remix plays…*

I'm gonna fight 'em off

MAX TAYLOR

*Max is shown riding on a horse*

A seven nation army couldn't hold me back

REX OWEN

*Rex looks up into the sky as a huge shadow passes over his face*

They're gonna rip it off

ZOE DRAKE

*Zoe drives around the city recklessly as she puts the pedal to the metal*

Takin' their time right behind my back

URSULA, ZANDER, ED, DR. Z

*The gang stand tall and proud as their logo appears behind them with Dr. Z cackling evily in front of them*

And the message comin' from my eyes

Says, "Leave it alone"

FRANCIS

*Francis walks out of a field of smoke wearing a gas mask*

*beat drop; epic part*

*Terry roars viciously at an opponent; Spiny slams his tail against a pillar, completely obliterating it; Chomp rams through several vehicles with his horns*

Yeah!

*Paris fires out Emerald Garden; Tank smashes through a wall and roars; Ace steps on a muddy puddle and roars into the air*

*the D-Team and the Alpha Gang are standing on a mountain side cliff with their chibi dinos standing either on their shoulder or beside them. Zoe is holding Paris in her hands, Ace is standing next to Rex's legs, the Alpha dinosaurs are standing next to each other as their owners stand over them, and Francis is shown kneeling down as a chibi Pachycephalosaurus stands idly next to him; Max, with a scowl on his face, aims his DinoShot as his hair flows through the wind as Chomp sits on his head.*

A seven nation army couldn't hold me back!

Dinosaur King: Prehistoric Peril

Yeah!

---

BLACK EAGLE'S 2ND HEADQUARTERS; SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE WEST

It turns out that along with the Grand Master, the Fist himself was watching the same television broadcast, albeit on a different channel, as he watched New York's congressmen accept the bust of recognition. Next to the TV were both Adam McCallum and Sebastian Wheeler, or Wrench as everyone calls him, standing on opposite sides of the television. "As you can see," Wrench starts off. "that bust is made out of an expensive element that could fetch a high price for any dinosaur cards that have been found. It would be a great trade in return for the cards, I'll admit."

"Yes, but as I told Sabre before, Fist, it's a risky move." McCallum interjects.. "We'd be exposed out in the open. We can't risk doing a deal with some shady congressman for a bust that may or may not even help in your plans. Who knows, maybe the buyer won't accept it."

"Believe me, Fist, I've checked the element that bust is made out of and it can AND WILL be more than enough for any buyer to not refuse."

"Fist, please, I beg of you to think through his cockamamie plan of his-"

"Do you have a plan yourself, Adam?" the Fist's second in command, Jack Hammer, asks.

McCallum opened his mouth but found no words coming out. "Well, I- Uh… N-No… Not at the moment." he admits.

"Refusing a plan when you yourself don't have one of your own is quite foolish, don't you think, Fist?" Hammer asks his superior.

The Fist smoked his Cuban Cohiba and blew some smoke in the air. "That it is." he agrees. "Wrench, settle a deal with the Congressman. He owes me a favor. I'll send Blaise and Sabre down to New York to do the deal."

"But, Fist-"

"That's enough out of you, McCallum." the Fist interrupts him. "Ever since we brought in Sabre to our side, you have barely shown any usefulness."

"I assure you, Fist, I am the top paleontological mind there is in this world." McCallum attempts to convince his boss.

"Really? Then why is Sabre here?" Once more, McCallum was at a loss of words while Wrench sneered at him from the side. "That's enough from you two. I'll call the congressman and settle a deal."

"Excuse me, Fist." McCallum suddenly spoke up. "May I… talk to you in private?"

The Fist eyed his paleontologist for a moment before turning to his second in command. "Take Wrench with you. Have a cigarette break." he calmly orders his man.

Hammer nodded his head before approaching the door. "Let's go." he tells Wrench whom followed suit.

"I don't really smoke but okay." Wrench reveals before exiting the door.

Now it was just McCallum and the Fist inside the room together. "What do you want?" the General asks the man.

"It's about Chase." McCallum whispers as he approaches his desk. "I know you wanted him for extra help but there's something you need to know about him. He's untrustworthy. He's an alcoholic and dare I say a heroin addict. I saw him shooting up in his quarters one time. He's a loose cannon, he can't be trusted."

"Is that so?" the Fist asks.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, the very man they were conversing about was right outside the door, eavesdropping on everything. "Sooner or later, Fist, he's gonna bail out of Black Eagle. He doesn't care about your cause, he just wants money to buy more heroin from his dealer, that's all. I've worked with him before, remember? I can see it in his eyes… He's a lost cause."

Chase showed no sign of emotion when he heard this, his poker face still retained as he continued to listen in on the conversation. "Until that happens, McCallum, Sabre stays here." The Fist sternly responds. "Now I suggest you get back to work instead of creating school yard gossip. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." McCallum agrees. "But remember what I said."

"Don't worry… I will."

Chase suddenly grew an enraged look. "Traitor." he mumbles in seething anger.

---

Normally, Reese would be at the D-Lab doing various assignments or something. Still don't know what exactly that lab does on a daily basis. Because of the ever so rise of dinosaur cards being located as well as both the Fist and the Grand Master advancing on their plans, the Ancients had requested for Reese to work with them part time, in hopes of restoring the system that has been disabled ever since the Backland got taken. This has only proved to be effortless as even months in, the entire Backland was STILL disabled.

As of right now, Reese was sitting in front of the Backland's main supercomputer, currently trying to restore any files that had been lost since the hijack. As of now, she had only restored a quarter of the files that were lost due to the shutdown, which means restoring the rest of the files could take up the rest of the year, if not, another year entirely. The blonde sighed in exhaustion before grabbing a cup of coffee, with the mug reading I HATE MONDAYS and taking a sip from it.

"I should probably take a break soon." she says to herself after restoring another file. "I'll take one after one more file."

She clicked on another file on the computer only to find one thing…

…there was no file.

Reese silently widened her eyes upon seeing this. To the outside viewer, it meant nothing, but to Reese, it meant everything. "Oh no." she whispers to herself in shock.

---

Of all places Zander and Ed were hanging out, the last place you would expect would be the D-Lab's pool which is shaped like a plesiosaur. How that works, I don't know. As of right now, Zander was lounging on one of the chairs beside the pool, currently playing Animal Crossing on his DS he had bought a while back. Ed meanwhile was in the middle of the pool, in his trunks while lying on a pool floatie and watching whatever he was watching on his phone.

"Heheh. Heh. Heheheh. Heheh. Heheheheheh." he chuckles lazily as he watches whatever he was watching on his phone.

Right at that moment, the automatic doors opened as Dr. Ancient suddenly walked in, holding several papers in his hand. "Hey, Zander," he greets the tall man, approaching him. "sorry to interrupt you on your day off but something came up that requires your chemistry expertise and-" The paleontologist suddenly noticed Ed floating in the pool, staring dumbly at his phone while chuckling equally. "Uuuuuh, what's up with Ed?"

"Oh, I gave him some painkillers." Zander answers, raising up a bottle of Oxycontin for emphasis. "I wanted to see what he would be like while on them, so I slipped some in his drink an hour ago. Since then he's just been watching Conan O'Brien clips on YouTube on that floatie." Zander gestures to Ed.

The two of them turned back to Ed. "Heheh. Heheh. Heh. Heheh." he chuckles to himself as he continues to watch YouTube on his phone.

Dr. Ancient turned back to the lanky man. "Riiiiiiiiiiiiight." he says, a mixture of uncertainty and concern in his voice. "Anyway, Dr. Z and I have suddenly come across an obstacle in our path of research that requires your field of expertise. Chemistry. Again, sorry to bother you on your day off."

Zander closes his DS. "No worries, Dr. Ancient. Don't ever tell Dad this but I rather work for you than him… And don't tell him I called him Dad." he adds the last part in a panicked hurry.

The sound of automatic doors opening caught their attention to see Reese quickly approaching the two. "Dr. Ancient, I need to- Oh, Zander." Reese says in sudden surprise. "I didn't know you were spending your day off here."

Zander shrugged in response. "I wasn't planning on it until I drugged Ed so I figured someone had to watch him in case he dies. Not that it matters anyway." he explains.

"What? Why would you say that?" she asks in utter shock at Zander's cruelness.

"Dr. Z has a clone of him in case he dies. He has a clone for all three of us. In fact, I'm a clone." Zander reveals.

To say Reese was shocked to hear this was an understatement. "What?" was all she could say.

"Wait, you didn't tell her?" Dr. Ancient asks Zander.

"I thought Ursula told her." he replies in surprise.

"Why would Ursula tell her?"

"I dunno! Cuz they're both girls?!"

"When did you become a clone- How- How did you die?! WHEN did you die?!" Reese frantically asks the tall man.

"Uuuuuh, it happened a year after that whole Space Pirates, Dark Pterosaur fiasco two years ago… So like a year ago… in the future." he explains.

"But… how?!"

"I'm not sure." Zander replies while scratching his head. "Dr. Z scooped that part of my brain out before I got released from the clone vat so I wouldn't remember. Too bad he accidentally scooped the part of my brain that tells me when my birthday is."

"When IS your birthday anyway?" Reese questions him.

"Oh, it's uh… Um… Shit."

"N-Nevermind about Zander being a clone." Dr. Ancient suddenly interrupts. "Why did you need to see me Reese?"

The blonde was then suddenly reminded on her actual visit to the D-Lab. "Oh, uuuuuh, where's your wife, Dr. Ancient?" she asks him.

"She's out in town. Don't know where though."

---

Dr. Cretacia could be seen firing a fully automatic machine gun at a shooting range, screaming like a madwoman with an equally mad smile on her face. "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH! DIE! DIE! SUCK ON THIS! YEEEEEEEEEAH! DIE!" she shouts before cackling like a maniac. "HAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

It turns out what she was really shooting at was a picture of Santa Clause tape on a target which had been completely vaporized by the amount of bullets that pierced it. Next to Cretacia was a familiar man with a plain white T-Shirt that read "Sup, I'm Stoned Chompski" on it, the man having a very visible disturbed expression on his face as he watched this random lady completely go crazy at the shooting range. The man himself slowly took steps away from the woman before exiting the gun range all together.

---

"Why do you want to know?" Dr. Ancient asks the blonde.

Reese suddenly got in closer to whisper to him. "We've got a problem. Call Cretacia and have her meet us at the war room in the Backland. It's an emergency." she whispers to him.

Dr. Ancient realized something was very wrong when Reese began whispering to him. "Alright." he whispers back, walking away while grabbing his phone and dialing up his wife.

"Reese, what's going on?" Zander suddenly asks the blonde.

Reese turned to the tall man, a grim look on her face. "There's been a security breach." she whispers. "I want you to come with us to discuss it. Other than the Ancients, you're the only other person I trust about this."

"What about Dr. Taylor and the D-Kids?" Zander asks her.

"Spike and the kids are out of the country on a trip." she reveals.

"Where are they at?"

---

"YOU'RE WHERE?!" Dr. Z suddenly shouts at his phone in utter surprise.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in the island of Manhattan, New York City, Max - along with his friends and his dad and their chibi dinosaurs - could be seen inside an elevator currently going up to an unknown floor of an unknown building. "I told you, Dr. Z." Max replies on the phone. "Me and my friends were invited to New York City by Dr. Owen to show us something. My dad bought the tickets and we're there now.

"New York City?" Dr. Z asks in bewilderment. "Yankees Baseball? Statue of Liberty? Ugly women? Sleazy politicians? Gun crime? The most self absorbed place on the planet? THAT New York City?"

"What other New York City is there?" Max sarcastically asks.

"I don't know. There's a second New York City in the future. It's in Chicago of all places." Dr. Z replies on the other end.

"Well we're going to be here for a few days so we're not going to be available for any sort of 'special project' you want us to work on." Max replies as Chomp sat atop his head, nibbling on his hair.

"Great! Now I'm going to need someone else to help me steal the fastest boat in Sanjo City." Dr. Z responds over the phone. "My three morons all have day offs, and I don't know where Frankie's at. He went AWOL a few days ago and I haven't heard from him since… Hope he's alright."

"Yeah, that's a shame. Listen, we're getting off right now so I'll talk to you later, Dr. Z." Max impatiently and rudely tries to end the phone call.

"Yeah, whatever, bite size. Be sure you take a photo of the Statue of Liberty. It doesn't exist in the future, it got destroyed during World War 4."

"Wait, World War 4? You mean there was a World War 3- Hello? Hello?" Max then realized that Dr. Z hung up on him

"Everything alright, Max?" his dad asks him from the side.

Max turned to his father to see him giving him a concerned look before suddenly bludgeoning his father with his phone in his hand, although Spike appeared to have been unfazed by this action. The teen shut his eyes tight while trying to regain his composure before finally returning back to normal. "I don't know anymore." he grimly replies.

It's been almost a week and Max was STILL having these reality breaking hallucinations, while continuously seeing the Shadow symbol everywhere around him while also seeing the Grand Master's hooded face for brief seconds in his day.

The elevator suddenly dinged before opening up, the team finally reaching their floor destination which was revealed to be a lavish penthouse fitted with an L shape couch, a big coffee table in front of it and a 72 inch plasma TV screen on the wall in front of it along with various dinosaur themed decorations. Needless to say, the kids were taken by surprise by how rich and luxurious Dr. Owen's penthouse was. When they entered the penthouse further, they saw Dr. Owen himself was talking to another man whom was smoking a cigar. Said man wore a simple red jacket with a large blue and orange stripe on the front, a fitted pair of black jeans followed by a pair of Timbs on the bottom. The man also sported a gold Rolex on his left wrist.

"So I said to the cat, 'If you want the VIP treatment, you're gonna have to come to the club on the weekends.' nahmean? Hahahaha." the man laughed as Dr. Owen joined in as well.

"Ha!" he guffaws. "Oh, Jason, you never fail to amuse me." It was then the paleontologist realized he had guests. "Huh? What the?! Who is this stranger? I don't remember inviting him here."

Spike chuckled in response. "That's funny, I was about to say the same thing about you and your face." Spike retorted before the two went on their usual rhyming dinosaur greeting… thing.

"T-Rex and Tri-cer-a-tops. They're both ol-der than my grand-pops. Get it! Hahahahaha!" the two greeted each other while doing their usual dance.

The three D-Kids and the man named Jason both awkwardly stared at the two's weird greetings. "Do these cats do this often?" Jason asks the kids.

"They're not cats. They're our dads." Rex answers oblivious.

"It's so great to see you, Spike! How the hell have you been?" Dr. Owen excitedly asks.

"Aah, you know. Usual stuff." Spike replies. "I heard you got stranded in Russia a while back. How'd you make it out?"

Dr. Owen grew a bitterly expression almost immediately. "Agh! Don't remind me!" he exclaims angrily. "That Ursula pretty much car jacked me and left me on the side of the freezing road! That witch! God I love that woman. You want to see a picture?"

"Uh, I'm good. Thank you." Spike awkwardly but politely declines.

Dr. Owen then noticed his surrogate son. "Rex, my boy! Come give your old man a hug!" Dr. Owen exclaims as he stretches out his arms.

Rex immediately went in for a hug and the two embraced each other. "Hi, Dad. How've you been?" he asks his father.

"Oh, I'm doing alright. In fact, I'm better than alright. I'm good." Dr. Owen responds, letting go of the hug. "Oh, I've missed hugging you ever since you went into the future two years ago."

"What?" Jason questions from afar.

"I'm so glad you guys could make it." Dr. Owen tells the rest. "As soon as I found out I got some time off, I KNEW I had to invite you and the kids Spike to my penthouse here in New York! It's the first time they've ever seen this place."

"It has been a few years since I was last here." Spike reveals before noticing something was off in the house. "Hey, what happened to that naked woman statue?"

"Oh, that fell off the balcony and hit Ms. Dickenson three years ago. You know, that 87 year old widow who lives five floors down from me." He suddenly got close to Spike. "I think she was stealing my newspapers."

"Wouldn't put it past her." Spike blandly replies.

"Uh, Dr. Owen." Zoe suddenly speaks out. The paleontologist turned to the pinkette to see she was staring at Jason. Meanwhile, the chibi dinosaurs were already doing whatever they wanted in the room, with Chomp and Ace chasing each other while Paris was sleeping on the couch. "Not to be rude but… Who's he?" she points to the man.

"Ah, where are my manners?!" Dr. Owen pretty much scolds himself. "Spike, kids. I would like to introduce you to Jason King."

"Jason King?" Spike replies in a tone of realization. "You mean the Jason King? The guy who owns the three hottest nightclubs in Manhattan? That Jason King?"

"With a fourth one on it's way, money." Jason replies, taking another puff from his cigar. "I practically own this city. Hell, this IS my city. I got more connections to this city than a Rosenberg and Sachs lawyer in this bitch. It's Christmas everyday when you're rolling with this cat." He took another puff from his cigar. "The mayor's my best customer."

"Jason here was discussing opening up that fourth nightclub he mentioned down in Miami." Dr. Owen explains..

"I want to diversify my territory. Nahmean?" he generally asks the group. "Them cats in Miami know how to party. Nightclubs with alcohol sprinklers and shit. I got a lot of competition down there but that's what I love about the nightclub business, nahmean? Full of surprises and never running on empty imagination."

"Jason wanted me to own part of the nightclub since I pretty much helped him get to where he is now." the paleontologist explains.

"He's my mentor." Jason reveals. "He saved me from the streets. Back in the old days, I was doing all types of crazy shit. Slinging rocks on the corner. Sticking cats up. All types of shit, playa. I owe it to him. 20%- No… 25% of shared business. That's the best offer you can have, Jefferey."

"I'm fine with 5%."

"Naw, for you… 30% shares." Jason tells him with a smile, taking another puff from his cigar.

"Sounds like a grand idea!"

"Hahaaaa! That's what I like to hear, playa." Jason replies before approaching the opened elevator. "Anyway, I got business to tend to, dawg. So I'll talk to you later, yeah? Take care, money."

With that, the elevator doors closed as Jason left the floor. "He seems cool." Zoe comments aloud.

"Oh, you kidding? He's the coolest guy in the city. He's called the King of Manhattan for a reason." Dr. Owen reveals.

"Because his last name is King?" Max guesses.

"Actually, that's his title name. His real last name is Vore."

"Ooooh, I feel sorry for him." Spike sympathetically says while shaking his head and looking at the ground.

"What's Vore?" Rex whispers to Max.

"You don't wanna know." he whispers back.

"Anyway," Dr. Owen continues. "welcome to my humble abode! When I'm not out discovering fossils, I'm here drinking the finest whiskey, watching the finest television shows," he gestures to the TV.

"Awww, baby! I used to go here as a kid!"

"And look, Ellis. It's Kiddie Land!"

"Do I look like some sort of queer to you?"

"and the finest dinners you'll EVER see in your life!" Dr. Owen finishes.

A DING! sound suddenly came from the kitchen before suddenly Patrick walked out of the kitchen wearing an apron and oven mitts while holding a tray of hot pockets. "Dr. Owen," he calls out. "the Hot Pockets are done."

"Oooooh! Perfect! Just set them down and I'll eat them later."

Max turned to the kitchen to see Patrick standing there with the tray. However, that wasn't what caught his eye. What DID catch his eye was when he saw a framed painting behind Patrick that was the Shadow symbol, followed by a brief flash of the Grand Master's hooded face that flashed before his eyes. Max shook his head and shut his eyes before turning back to Patrick, seeing that the painting had changed and it was now a painting of Dr. Owen wearing nothing but a towel over his waist… with massive muscles.

It appeared that Max was still suffering from brief hallucinations ever since his encounter with the Grand Master, which he had forgotten.

"Say, Spike," Dr. Owen suddenly says, breaking Max out of his thoughts. "since you're here, wanna come along with me and Patrick to the Natural History Museum? Ever since we discovered that new vertebrae back in Russia, we've uncovered more of the skeleton and it's being displayed today. Part of the reason why I wanted you guys to come to New York."

"Heeeey, that sounds like a great idea!" Spike suddenly turned to the kids. "How does that sound, kids? You wanna head to the museum and see the new species?"

"Do you even have to answer that question, Dr. Taylor?" Zoe enthusiastically says as she falls on the couch, sending Paris flying in the air.

Behind the group, Ace and Chomp could be seen chasing around a basketball that was just lying around carelessly in the penthouse. "You know we're in." Rex excitedly replies.

Spike turned to his son, waiting for his answer. "What about you, kiddo? You wanna join?" he asks.

Max was brought back into reality, having been lost in his own dark thoughts before regaining his composure. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. That sounds exciting." he replies half thought.

Spike raised an concerned eyebrow in response. "You alright, Max? You've been acting strange since you were found unconscious in the D-Lab last week." he asks him.

A gun suddenly appeared in Max's hands, which were just as suddenly violently shaking as if he was fighting control over them, before pointing the gun directly at Spike, whom like all the others had an unperturbed expression on his face. "I'm- I'm fine, Dad. Really." he lies to his father.

Spike couldn't help but feel as if Max was leaving something out, but had no evidence to confront him about it. "Alright, if you say so." he ends it. "Shall we head to the museum, Jeffery?"

"Let's! Patrick, get my Pimpmobile ready!" he excitedly orders his assistant.

"Uh, Dr. Owen, that car was totaled in Russia." he informs his boss.

"Oh." he stupidly replies. "Then, just get the Cadillac. I don't care which one."

"Wait, you have more than one Cadillac?" Zoe questions in utter shock.

---

"WORK YOU CHEAP PIECE OF CRAP!" Dr. Z's booming voice was so loud that it scared the birds outside the Backland. Right at that moment, Reese, Dr. Ancient, and Zander walked inside the kitchen area of the timeship to see that Dr. Z was hitting the toaster oven with his hand. "YOU DO THIS TO ME?! HUH?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE YOU TIN CAN DONKEY! Aaaaargh!"

Dr. Z suddenly approached the dining room table and grabbed his pistol before suddenly shooting the toaster oven on sight right then and there.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"SCREW YOU!" he yells at the broken piece of machinery.

"Why are you shooting the toaster oven, doctor?" Reese asks in a slightly angry tone, mostly cuz she was startled by the loud gunshots in the small room.

The crazed doctor turned around to face the three. "It wouldn't heat up my Hot Pockets. Its broken! What else was I supposed to do?"

"Well, maybe because it's not plugged in." Dr. Ancient reveals, pointing to the cord.

"What?" Dr. Z suddenly turned to the cord to see that it was indeed not plugged into the wall, making him realize he just destroyed a perfectly working toaster oven. "Awwwww. No matter! I can buy a million more of these things."

"Yeah, somehow I doubt that. Do you know where my wife is?"

"How should I know? I don't keep track of her. She's probably off with another man for all I know."

"That's not likely… She scares away any other man besides me. They all think she's crazy."

"Crazier than Dr. Z?" Zander questions.

"I said crazy, not criminally insane."

"Aren't those the same thing?" Reese asks.

"No, crazy is when you're locked in a rubber room full of rats. Being criminally insane is shooting the friggin toaster oven because it's not plugged in."

"I said I'd buy more! What do you want from me? Get off our case, old man!" Bartholomew yells at the last second.

"You're older than me! Both of you are! Anyway, that's besides the point. Where's Cheryl?" he asks for the final time.

"Like I said Danny, I don't know! Now if you excuse me, I got some Hot Pockets to heat up!" Dr. Z loudly declares before walking away with a plate of Hot Pockets. "That microwave better be plugged in!"

The trio were momentarily silent before the paleontologist spoke up. "Is it just me or has he gone over the deep end more than usual?"

"I think it's Bartholomew. He's probably affecting his own sanity." Reese theorizes.

"Not like he had some to begin with." Zander comments.

The moment was suddenly interrupted when the automatic doors opened, revealing Cretacia and Mr. Mills in the doorway. "Aaaaaaah." Cretacia sighs in relief. "Just got a whole bunch of rage out of my system. I love the shooting range."

"A little too much if you ask me." Mr. Mills replies in a somewhat disturbed manner.

"Thank you, Mills for driving my wife to town for me today. I was just too busy with work all day to take her myself… That and I don't know how to drive." he sheepishly adds the last part.

"Being stuck in the past for 20 years gives you a lot of time to practice driving 21st century vehicles." Mr. Mills comments.

"Uh, honey." Dr. Ancient says to his wife. "Reese is holding an emergency meeting and she wants to talk to us… In private."

Cretacia's smile quickly faded away, immediately figuring out the seriousness of the situation. "Oh, uh," she then turned to Mr. Mills. "Mr. Mills, could you uh-"

"No no." Dr. Ancient quickly interjects. "He's fine. I trust him completely."

Mr. Mills grew a thankful smile in response. "Thanks." he replies.

The group of five headed towards the war room where Dr. Ancient immediately locked the room for privacy reasons before regrouping with the other four. "Alright," he says quietly. "what's the problem, Reese?"

"There's been a breach." she grimly replies. "Someone or something has hacked into the Backland's mainframe and deleted several files from the system. Files about both the stones and the cards. While I was restoring the files, I noticed they were all gone. All of them. Any information pertaining to the element stones or the dinosaur cards have been deleted."

"Shit." Dr. Ancient grimly mumbles. "Who did it?"

"I don't know!" she loudly whispers in response. "I just found out today. These files could have been deleted this morning, last night, could be even as far as months ago and we're only now discovering this."

"We couldn't have been hacked. The Backland's security systems are too complex for this century's computers to break in." Cretacia explains.

"I know. Which only leads to one conclusion." Reese replies.

Dr. Ancient's expression grew grim, immediately knowing what the conclusion was. "We've got a traitor in our group." he concludes.

"Maybe it was Carter? I- I mean we just captured him a few days ago." Zander theorizes

"No. No, no it couldn't have been him." Mr. Mills immediately dismisses. "I've worked with Carter. He's not a tech geek. He's purely a poacher not a hacker. Besides, I doubt he'd know how to even operate our systems given that it's from 2129."

"And the fact he's been under constant supervision." Cretacia adds. "Helga has been monitoring his room ever since we captured him, making sure he doesn't escape. Not once has he ever left his room. It's not him. I know it."

"Then who? Who could have it been?" Zander questions in a slight panic.

"It MUST be someone from our time." Dr. Ancient sternly replies. "No one in this timeline knows how to work our systems besides us. It's too complex for them. Now, we can rule everyone in this room. We trust each other completely. I trust Mr. Mills and my wife obviously."

"And I trust Zander. With my life." Reese adds, making Zander slightly blush in response.

"Yeah, and besides I'm a chemistry guy. I don't know how to work computers. The only one who does knows how to is…" Zander suddenly stopped, realizing the only person who was capable of doing this.

"Who? Who is?" Cretacia asks.

Zander was momentarily silent, daring not to even answer the question but knew how serious this situation was. His heart was telling him no, but his mind was telling him that it was the right thing to do. Even if it shatters a relationship.

"Ed." he whispers.

To say everyone was shocked was an understatement. "Are you sure?" Dr. Ancient asks.

"Am I sure?" the tall man rhetorically asks. "No, I'm not sure! He's my brother! I've known him my entire life! He's not capable of doing this but… He's the only one who knows how to."

"What about Dr. Z?" Mr. Mills questions. "He's capable of doing this."

"Trust me, it's not him." Dr. Ancient immediately dismisses. "The old geezer would sooner sign his name on the sabotage than act in secret. He's not really known to work in the shadows. He's a whore. He hogs the spotlight at any given chance. This is not his work."

"Maybe- Maybe it was Seth? M- Maybe he broke in one night and deleted the files. I mean, you said so yourself, Reese, it could've been months when these files were deleted." Zander stammers.

"Can't be him." Mr. Mills responds. "He's too involved with the Grand Master's plans. He doesn't have time to fly all the way here in Japan just to break into the Backland and delete some files. It MUST be someone we know. Here AND now."

A moment of silence followed afterwards. "So what do we do?" Reese asks.

"The only thing we can do." Dr. Ancient responds. "We start our own investigation. We look into EVERYONE involved in this. In both timelines. Regardless if they have the necessary skills or not. We can't afford any shortcuts or cheat sheets. This is officially a Code Bravo. None of this leaves this room and stays between us. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." the four respond simultaneously.

"I really hope it's not Ed." Zander grimly whispers, fear in his voice.

"Same here." the paleontologist replies. "You know, out of all you guys in the Alpha Gang, I liked Ed the most."

Zander made an offended face in response. "Thanks, jerk." he sarcastically replies.

Unbeknownst to any of the five, Dr. Z was secretly eavesdropping outside the room, thanks to his enhanced hearing due to his dinosaur DNA fused to his own. Even though he was a crazy doctor with questionable morals, he still cared for those he called his children, even if Bartholomew was slowly taking control over his mind, slowly altering him into a rabid, rage induced beast. There was still a part of him that was still human after all.

---

Back in New York, the two paleontologists and the three D-Kids had finally arrived at the American Museum of Natural History, just located off West off of Central Park… only to realize that it was closed. "What?! Closed?!" Max shouts in shock.

In front of the museum were several police cars and a coroner van as the entire building was blocked off. "Excuse me, officer." Rex politely asks one of the officers. "How come the museum is closed?"

"Some Einstein thought it was smart to smoke a cigarette inside the building near the Cavemen exhibit. Stupid jerk burnt the entire exhibit down and made the cavemen extinct a second time." the officer replies.

"So what's with the coroner van?" Dr. Owen questions.

As if on cue, a pair of men had walked out of the building with a gurney that held a burnt cavemen statue buckled down in place. "How else are we supposed to transport a friggin caveman across town?" the officer rhetorically asks.

"On the bright side, at least I can carpool." the coroner calls out before loading the statue inside the van.

"Seems like a waste of a coroner van if you ask me." Spike responds.

"Budget cuts." the officer replies.

"That explains why the van says 'Corner' on it." Rex dryly responds.

"Do you know when the museum will be opened again?" Dr. Owen asks the officer.

"I don't know." the officer shrugs. "All depends on the curator. Could be days, weeks. Hell, it could be months."

"Who smokes inside a museum?" Zoe asks in utter bafflement.

"Are you kidding me? It's New York City? People smoke crack in the subways all the time. Any place is a smoking place if you make one. Now if you excuse me, I gotta go smoke." With that, the officer walked away while taking out a packet of cigarettes.

"So… What now?" Spike asks the group.

Dr. Owen pondered for a moment. "Hmmm." he hums. "Well… It's Manhattan. We could do whatever we want."

Zoe quickly raised her hand. "Can we go to the mall?!" she excitedly asks.

"Who took one of my cigs?" the officer asks in the background.

"The mall?!" Rex shouts in bafflement.

"Ugh, God, I hate malls!" Max loudly complains.

"Come on! It's New York City! We GOTTA go to the mall to shop! Come on, Dr. Taylor? Pleeeease?" Zoe practically begs.

Rex gave a tiresome look in response. "Just say yes, Dr. Taylor. You know how Zoe gets." he tells him.

"Hey!"

"Actually, Spike, I've been meaning to hit the mall sometime this week. Might as well get it over with!" Dr. Owen replies with a huge grin.

"Then it's decided! We're heading to the mall!" Spike excitedly exclaims.

The moment was interrupted when Patrick honked the horn of the Catillac they arrived in. "Everyone hop in!" he tells the group.

"Oh my God. I forgot you were here." Max comments.

---

Back in Sanjo City all across the world, the Alpha Jet could be seen landing in an apartment courtyard, either scaring away some people or at least catching their attention. The Alpha Jet's door opened revealing Dr. Z as he walked out of the aircraft, no doubt getting everyone's attention due to his prehistoric dinosaur head.

"Wooooah! That shit is like straight out of a movie!" exclaims a random guy in the courtyard.

Dr. Z entered the apartment complex and walked up several flights of stairs, passing by several other people whom were hanging out in the hallways. "All my American girlfriends smoke like chimneys!" a Russian man loudly proclaims.

"That is true, I suppose." his Russian friend replies.

"My ex-wife could put out a cigarette with her pussy."

"Ya ponimayu. (I understand.)"

Eventually Dr. Z made it to the floor where he needed to be, approaching an apartment that read 4-C on the door, to which he knocked. After a moment of silence, the door slightly opened due to the chain, revealing Ed's face behind it. "Dr. Z?" he questions before closing the door and unlocking it before opening it back up again. "What're you- What're you doing here? Have you come to visit? You never visit us in our apartment!"

"You think I want to visit this dump of an apartment? We've gotta talk. That means now, fathead." Bartholomew adds the last part.

Ed grew a depressed look in response. "You didn't have to be so mean." he defeatedly replies while letting his adoptive father in the apartment, closing the door afterwards. "Can I get you something? We got soda in the fridge."

"No, thanks. I'm good. Do you have any tater tots and chocolate?"

"Uuuuh, we have the chocolate."

"PERFECT!" Bartholomew suddenly ran to the fridge where he violently opened up the door before devouring any chocolate bars that were in the fridge.

"I was- I was saving those." Ed depressingly states.

Dr. Z took back control of his body before turning to his adoptive son, his snout covered in chocolate. "We've got a problem." he tells the purple haired man.

"Yeah, of course we have a problem. You're eating my chocolate!"

"Noooo, not that, fatass! I mean the Ancients have a problem! Which means all of us do." Dr. Z then took another bite out of Ed's candy bar.

"Wha- Uh, what is it then?"

The mad doctor swallowed his piece of chocolate. "There's a traitor somewhere among our group." he grimly tells him.

For a moment, Ed was waiting for Dr. Z to suddenly laugh out loud or contradict himself as he usually does whenever he gives bad news. However, once he saw his serious expression, he knew he was being for real. "What?" Ed whispers in shock. "Wh- Who?"

Dr. Z closed the fridge and approached the fat man. "They think it's you." he tells him.

"WHAT?!"

"Hold on! Hold on! Before you freak out, I don't believe them in the slightest… It was Zander who said it might be you."

"Zander?! Him?! Why?! What happened?!" By now, Ed was panicking.

"Someone hacked into the Backland's mainframe and as I'm speaking to you right now, the Ancients' plus Reese and Mr. Mills are looking into EVERYONE involved in this. Me included. The only reason Zander said it might be you is because you're really good at computers. They say it must be someone from our time period because the Backland's security system is far too advanced for 2011 technology."

Ed still retained his offended expression before he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, that is true." he says, trying to remain optimistic. "But… Zander? He's my brother! He- He and I played little league together. We were in boy scouts! I WAS GOING TO BE THE BEST MAN AT HIS WEDDING!"

"Hey," Dr. Z suddenly sternly says to try and calm the fat man down. "In his defense, he doesn't think it's you. Not in the slightest. I can see why he thought it was you. You're the only one in our group that's from our time period who's a computer wizard."

Ed however was too busy feeling betrayed by his brother, taking a seat on the couch where a sleeping chibi sized Tank was lying at. "He gave me Oxycontin."

"Zander's emotionally detached from anyone but that Reese chick because of the Oxycontin!" Dr. Z booms. "He takes too much of them! It's all painkillers in his generation. Back in my day, it was coke and downers, that was it. I even skipped the Ecstasy. That stuff messes people up."

Ed gave his adoptive father a look while Tank suddenly climbed on the fat man's lap. "You did coke?" he asks him in surprise.

"And downers. I even dabbled in meth for a short time but I stopped once I found myself in a halfway house with three hookers. Believe it or not, that's when I decided to get my life together and get my PhD." Dr. Z reveals.

"You worked for the Yakuza and you did a lot of drugs in your day… Is there anything else I should know about you, doctor?" Ed asks him, no longer believing he can't get anymore shocked.

"Yeah, I got an Orchiectomy when I was 37. Prostate cancer. It's a bitch." he casually reveals. "Anyways, back on point. They think it's you, you and I obviously know it's not you. No offense, Ed, but you're too dumb to do all of this under the table."

Ed gave his father an offended look in response before it suddenly vanished. "Thank you." he thanks his adoptive father.

"No, problem. It's why I'm here." the crazed doctor responds. "Anyways, once I found out, I immediately came to you. We need to do something about this, and we can't do it alone."

"Get Francis." Ed suggests as he pets Tank's head. "I mean, he's your personal errand boy. Having him running all over town hanging out with bad people doing bad things, making idiot moves."

"He's an idiot. He moves." Dr. Z waved his arms around for a dramatic effect. "Anyways, I can't get a hold of him. He's either ducking my calls or dead in some alley. I haven't seen that kid in a few days now that I think about it. Point is, he's not here and I don't feel like combing the entire city just to get that sack of uselessness. No, we need someone else."

"Well, who? You just ruled out everyone! We obviously can't ask the Ancients or Reese. I don't even know if we can trust Zander or Mr. Mills."

"For the record, I don't trust Mills one bit. Something about him seems off to me. I don't know what or why. He just rubs me the wrong way." Ed opened his mouth to make a witty remark, only for Bartholomew to interject. "You make a dirty joke, I'll bite your hand off, fatty!"

"Can we stop with the fat jokes, Bartholomew?!" Ed begs the dinosaur.

"You're right, for once. We can't ask the Ancients or Reese." Dr. Z continues after gaining back control of his body. "Zander is a maybe, Mills is an obvious no. But there is ONE group of people we can trust… Those D-Kids."

"The same D-Kids you have little to no respect for?" Ed asks.

"Hey, what can I say? Even an old man can grow fond of those kids. They're like grandchildren to me now. After all we've been through, I can confidently call them family."

Ed was taken back by this statement, never in his life ever hearing Dr. Z saying anything nice about anyone, especially his former enemies. "Has Bartholomew been in your head for too long, Dr. Z?"

"I'm being serious! They're the only ones we can safely trust."

"Even Rex?"

Dr. Z shrugged in response. "He's a maybe." he reveals.

Ed blew an exasperated sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. "I trust Max and the others. I really do… Aaaah, oh alright. We'll go talk to them. Where are they at?"

"New York. They're visiting that Dr. Owen guy."

Ed turned to the clock to see that it read 1:30 A.M.. "It's 1:30 so it'll probably be 11 A.M. over there. Probably a good time to see them." he says.

"What're you doing up this late anyway?" Dr. Z asks the portly man.

"Painkillers… Remember?"

"Oh yeah."

"Wait, hold on. What're you even doing here at 1:30 in the morning anyway! I could've been asleep!"

"Ed, you've been accused of being the traitor! You think this could've waited for the morning?!"

Ed took a moment to think before realizing he was right. "Okay, yeah. You're right. I'll give you that."

"Of course I am." Dr. Z suddenly grabbed a jacket off the coat rack and tossed it to Ed. "Put your coat on. We're going to New York right now." he tells the fat man while walking to the apartment door.

"This- This is Zander's." Ed points out, holding the coat in his hand.

"Just get your coat!"

---

Back in New York, after almost an hour of driving, thanks to the New York traffic, the group had finally arrived at Manhattan Mall, in Midtown. Because it was the middle of the day, the entire mall was packed with shoppers, completed with a bored sounding announcer on the speakerphone.

"To the owner of the red sedan in the parking lot, you left your lights on." the announcer announces in a bored tone.

"Finally!" Zoe exclaims. "I've always wanted to visit a New York mall! I bet there's so many stores to shop in! I can't wait!"

"It's pretty much like any other mall in the world, you know that right, Zoe?" Rex asks his friend with an unamused look.

"Yeah, but New York malls are always more glamorous than any other mall in the world." Zoe points out.

"Now kids, remember." Spike warns the kids. "This is New York, meaning anything can happen. Be on constant alert. There's a lot of crazies in this city. What happens in New York stays in New York."

"That's Vegas, Dad." Max reminds his father.

"That too."

"Aw, come on, Spike." Dr. Owen assures his best friend. "Let the kids be kids. Meanwhile, you, Patrick and I can go shopping for new clothes. I've been meaning to buy this nice leather jacket that's only sold in this store."

"He won't stop talking about it." Patrick comments.

"Weeeeell…" Spike pondered momentarily before answering. "Alright. But keep the price to a minimum. I don't have any dollars on me, just yen."

"Don't you forget I'm a multimillionaire, Spike? They can just use one of my credit cards." Dr. Owen holds out a credit card.

"How rich are you?!" Zoe yells in utter shock.

Rex gladly took the card from his adoptive father's hands. "Thanks, Dad." Rex thanks him. "I'll make sure these two don't buy anything too expensive."

"Awww, let them buy whatever they want. It's on the house. Now come on you two. I want to get that jacket before someone else nabs it."

Zoe giggled excitedly, no longer being able to contain her excitement. "Shopping spreeeeeeeeee!" she shouts in the air with vigorous enthusiasm.

With that said, the group entered the mall and immediately went their separate ways, with the mall announcer speaking up once more. "Attention shoppers, please do not use the go karts to run over infants. Thank you."

And so the adults and teens went their separate ways as they began their shopping spree, visiting several stores - mostly thanks to Zoe dragging the two of them along wherever they go. Various shops and stores were shown throughout their shopping montage, which included:

Max trying out several Rolex's while Zoe was wearing a diamond necklace while putting a pearl one on Paris; Rex however was astonished at how large the prices were.

Rex trying on a pair of Timbs while Max was covered in clothing thanks to Zoe whom took a picture of him.

Max and Chomp riding in that toy rocket ship that takes quarters, a happy smile on his face while Zoe and Rex stared at him with unamused looks.

Max and Rex fighting over which large dinosaur plush toy they should buy, the Triceratops or the Carnotaurus. Zoe bought the Parasaurolophus for an obvious reason.

The three enjoying a meal at the food court, with Chomp and Paris eating a salad while Ace ate a hamburger. Max had three hamburgers on his plate while Rex had a simple corn dog and Zoe had some salad as well.

The chibi dinosaurs sliding down the indoor playground slide, with Max coming out last and falling on his butt.

The three taking several photos in the photo booth with their dinosaurs, making various faces like funny faces, scary faces, angry faces, and the last photo was ruined when Max sneezed in the middle of it, startling the trio while the chibi dinosaurs fell out of shot.

"Custodian in the Build-A-Bear department. Repeat: Custodian in the Build-A-Bear department." the bored announcer says over the speakerphone.

They had decided to stop their shopping spree after the photos and were now just aimlessly walking around the mall while Zoe held the photos in her hands. "Other than the last photo, these came out great." Zoe comments. "I'm gonna hang one up in my locker."

Max however was too busy looking at the various stores in the mall. "Disco Pants and Haircuts. Man, lots of space in this mall." Max says in an impressed tone as he passes the store.

"You know, Zoe? For once I actually enjoyed shopping with you." Rex says to the pinkette.

"Gee. Thanks." Zoe replies in an annoyed tone before turning to the brunet. "What about you, Max? Did you enjoy today?"

Max turned to Zoe and was about to answer her question, until he suddenly looked at the photos to see that their faces were replaced by the Shadow element symbol. He then focused on her goggles, only to see various flashbacks of events that had happened in his life flash in the lenses. Events such as discovering the stones, meeting the Grand Master that day, getting corrupted by him, and finally battling Seth aboard the Backland. Screams were heard all around Max as he suddenly pulled out a metal pipe before violently swinging it directly at Zoe's head, knocking her to the ground while - just like all the others - had no reaction to it. Max looked away from the photos to regain his composure.

"Uh, it was… Uh…"

Max suddenly stopped when he noticed something from afar, causing him to stop in his tracks. The other two stopped as well once they saw that he stopped, curious as to why he did. "What's the matter?" Rex asks his best friend.

"What's up with them?" Max questions, pointing ahead.

The two turned to the direction he was facing to see a group of men walking down the hall, most of the men wearing black suits and sunglasses while only one of them had an open button black suit with a white collared shirt underneath and a red tie. This man was also holding a briefcase in his hands while he was surrounded by the black suit men; this man was New York City's congressman Sean Taggart, whom was being escorted by a group of bodyguards. "Must be someone important." Zoe comments.

Max then suddenly noticed a suspicious looking character in a hood, lingering around the entrance of a shoe store as he carefully watched the men, looking like he was up to no good in the process. Max felt like he had seen this man before but couldn't figure out where.

However, before he could put another thought in his head, he felt a small object whizzing by his head by MERE millimeters. Suddenly, the guy holding the suitcase fell to the ground as blood splattered on the ground before finally a loud gunshot rang out.

BAAAAAAAANG!

Time slowed down for Max as he just stared at the dead Mr. Taggart ahead of him with wide open eyes, completely frozen in shock and awe. The brunet then took a quick glance around him, to see everyone running away as the screams and shouts echoed in his ears, still frozen in place with a thousand yard stare. Like a soldier in the middle of a battlefield. Never in Max's life had he seen someone get shot in front of his eyes ever before in his life, but it wasn't that fact that worried him. He placed his hand to where the bullet whizzed passed him, realizing that the tip of the left horn on his visor was chipped due to the bullet.

Just a few more millimeters and he'd be on the ground as well.

Time reverted back to normal when Max was suddenly pulled to the ground by Rex, whom forcefully dragged him behind a concrete planter. Max took this moment to regain his composure as Rex and Zoe tightly held their respective partners in their chest while Chomp stuck closely to Max, whom still had his thousand yard stare.

"What's going on?!" Zoe yells amongst the chaos.

"I- I don't know!" Rex yells back.

Max peered passed the planter to see the group of bodyguards all on alert while some of them hid behind cover. One bodyguard tended to the fallen Mr. Taggart.

"Mr. Taggart's been hit! He's been- AAH!"

A bullet suddenly entered his torso as he fell to the ground, followed by another loud gunshot.

BAAAAAAAAANG!

More bodyguards all fell victim to the currently unknown gunman as Max went back into cover; however, a glare suddenly flashed in front of his eyes, prompting him to cover it with his hand. It was then he noticed a glint in the distance on a nearby building through the window, which only meant one thing: A sniper. Max turned back to the bodyguards to see that the sniper took out another one of them.

BAAAAAAAAANG!

The brunet suddenly noticed the hooded man rushing towards the chaos while another bodyguard fell to the ground from the sniper.

BAAAAAAAAANG!

The hooded man quickly grabbed the briefcase before running away, while being noticed by one of the bodyguards.

"Heeeeeeeey! He stole the case! Stop that- AHH!"

BAAAAAAAAANG!

The bodyguard collapsed to the ground as he too fell victim to the sniper; the hooded man quickly ran towards Max's direction. In a brief act of heroism, Max stuck out his foot in an attempt to trip the guy. It was a success as the hooded man tripped on his leg and fell to the ground while tightly clutching the suitcase, his hood however fell, finally revealing his face. Max then finally realized who this was as the two made eye contact with each other.

It was Nick Roscoe.

The two just stared at each other, not knowing what to say as they just laid there in silence, with Max having a shocked expression on his face while Nick had a more surprised one. Nick suddenly came back to reality as he grabbed the suitcase and ran off with it, just as another bodyguard fell to the ground followed by another gunshot.

BAAAAAAAAANG!

Nick was in so much of a hurry, he didn't even take the main entrance, instead just throwing his entire weight at one of the glass windows, completely shattering it before making a beeline to a gray sedan with the back window rolled down. The man didn't even open the door and instead just dove inside the car through the window.

"Get me out of here, Vince!" Nick yells at the driver as the gray sedan sped out of the parking lot just as another shot rang out.

Max watched Nick escape the massacre before touching the tip of the broken horn on his visor once more.

BAAAAAAAAANG!

---

"I'm here at Manhattan Mall where not less than an hour ago, multiple shots were fired inside the mall." the news reporter from earlier announces as she stands in front of a camera crew. "One of the main casualties of the mall's shootout was none other than New York congressman, Sean Taggart, along with several of his bodyguards. Witnesses have come forward although no one has been able to identify the shooter. Police later found out that the shooting was caused by a sniper, whom was perched right across the mall inside the 6th story of the Empire State Building…"

"Attention shoppers. The mall has been temporarily closed early due to an assassination. Please form an orderly line and exit the building. Also would the weeaboos stop touching the Hatsune Miku statue? Thank you and have a nice day."

Behind the reporter were several civilians, whom were all giving their witness reports to the police while some took the moment to rest, most notably Max while Zoe and Rex were talking to the police. "No, like we said. We didn't see who the shooter was. All we saw was the mall floor." Rex repeats to the police officer.

Max however was sitting by the very same mall planter he hid behind during the shooting, his eyes over at the many bodies of the bodyguards as the entire area was tapped off while police were taking crime scene photos of the bodies. Chomp was down below his legs, nuzzling them to try and comfort his owner, but to no avail as Max's mind was on other things besides his pet dinosaur. He didn't realize it but he was fidgeting with the broken tip of his visor horn, a constant reminder that he was mere millimeters away from death.

"Max." Zoe's voice suddenly spoke up. Max didn't respond, his focus too busy on the bodies. "Max." Zoe repeats once more, albeit louder. "Max!" she shouts, finally grabbing his attention.

"Huh?" he asks, snapping his head to her.

"Are you alright?" she asks him.

Max glanced back at the crime scene before shaking his head, standing up from the planter. "Uh, yeah… Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just… I'm just shaken, is all." he responds.

Rex joined in right then and there. "We all are." he tells his best friend. "This is going to be a day that we're never going to forget."

"Max! Rex!" shouts a familiar voice. The three turned to see their respective fathers plus Patrick running towards them. "Thank God you guys are alright! Are you guys hurt?! What happened?!"

Spike and Dr. Owen immediately tended to their own sons. "The congressman, he was uh… shot." Rex answers.

Patrick eyed the crime scene from afar. "I can see." he responds.

"We were at the food court when we were the gunfire. My heart sank when I thought you were hurt!" Dr. Owen cries out as he tightly hugs his adoptive son.

"We're fine dad." Rex reassures his father.

"Who would shoot the congressman?… Actually, scratch that. I can think of multiple people who would want to kill that guy." Spike adds at the last second. "I always heard bad things about that guy."

"I didn't see the shooter but uh… I saw who stole his briefcase." Max reveals.

"What?" Spike gasps. "Who was it?! Did you tell the police?!"

Right at that moment, a lady with a clipboard approached the brunet. "Here's a copy of the sketch you provided me." she tells him as she hands over a piece of a paper.

Max handed said piece of paper to his father. "Take a look." he tells him. The three adults took a good look at the sketch, revealing that it was a near perfect sketch of Nick's face. "It's that Vegas gangster we told you about that one time, dad. Nick Roscoe. He's one of the Grand Master's Four Horsemen."

"Wait, if he's a Vegas guy, why is all the way here in New York?" Dr. Owen asks.

"He gets around a lot." Rex responds, tightly holding onto Ace as a form of a coping mechanism. "We saw him in Costa Rica then in Washington. The state, not the capital. My guess is that he was hired by the Grand Master to steal that briefcase. Why and what the contents were, I have no idea. Then again, this probably has nothing to do with the Grand Master and this could all be one big coincidence."

"Yeah, but when was the last time we ran into Roscoe without the Grand Master being involved?" Zoe asks as she pets Paris in her arms.

"Point taken. Still though, we don't know anything about it. The police aren't going to get far with this. Only we know who Nick works for. They won't believe us in the slightest."

Down below, Chomp was nibbling on Max's pants cuffs to try and get his attention, which worked as the brunet bent down and picked up his prehistoric friend. "So much for our fun in New York guys." he says in a crestfallen tone.

"The police are going to close off this mall early. We better head back to Dr. Owen's penthouse." Patrick informs the group.

"That's probably the best idea." Dr. Owen agrees to the idea. "Come on, kids. Let's let the police do their job. We've done all that we could here. Besides, you guys are staying the week! There's a whole bunch of other activities for you guys to do besides go to the mall! Like Coney Island!"

"Oooh! I want to ride the Ferris Wheel! Don't you, Rex?" Zoe asks her blonde friend.

"Uh, no. No, I'm good. Thank you." Rex sheepishly denies.

"Baby."

Max once again fidgeted with the broken visor horn before regrouping with the rest as they all walked out of the mall. "I just want to know what Nick is planning to do with that briefcase and if it has anything to do with the Grand Master."

---

To answer Max's question, after the shootout, Nick was driven across Queens, having arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The gray sedan drove into an empty hangar bay where three black SUVs with tinted windows waited for them along with one single private jet. Nick got out of the car and approached the SUVs, where they all opened up to reveal several Mala Noche cartel hired gunmen along with Jericho and Gabbro, with the latter also holding a briefcase. The three approached each other before stopping in the middle, a good 10 feet distance set between them.

"Is that the bust?" Jericho questions, gesturing his head to the case.

Nick opened up the briefcase to reveal the bust completely made out of Dinomond, or amber as he was told. "You got the money?" Nick asks.

Jericho turned to Gabbro and gestured for the alien to hand over the case. Gabbro set the case on the ground and kicked it, causing it to slide towards Nick whom stopped it with his foot. "It's all there. 2,000,000 big ones. Unmarked bills. No history, no need to launder." the Australian tells the low level thug.

Nick opened up the briefcase to see that it was filled to the brim with $100 bills, much to his happiness. Nick slid his briefcase towards the two, to which Gabbro caught and picked up. "I guess this makes up for Ronald Pose not paying for weed… Then again he is dead. Cut apart and stuffed in boxes for a thrift shop." Nick oddly mentions. "Is that it? Am I done working for the Grand Master?".

"You're done when he says he's done."

"Hey, you said over the phone this would be the last job. Apparently I've already financed the 'Grand Master's' entire operation."

"You still gotta go to the next meet, ya know that right?" Jericho asks the thug.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever." Nick replies in an irritated tone. "Look, after the next meeting, I want to talk to the Grand Master. I can't keep leaving Vegas for him. I've got my own shit to deal with over there. The DEA is coming down on Big Bear and he's making deals behind our backs. Just let me talk to him."

"I'll see what I can do."

"'I'll see what I can do' is not good enough, Jericho."

"Look, we said we'd look after ya and that's what we're doing. If you don't like it, too bad. If not, shut the fuck up and keep doing your job. The next meet is gonna be held in Miami. Club Descent's basement, 6PM next Friday. Don't be late… Your plane is waiting for you."

"At least I won't be shoved in a secret compartment this time. Thanks for the headache from that time by the way… dick." Nick grumbles in anger before turning away.

Jericho turned to the alien and his men, gesturing his head as a signal for them to leave the hangar while Nick boarded the jet, the driver that drove Nick to the hangar already leaving when he saw everyone else was leaving.

Looks like the Grand Master now has another important asset to his 'Grand Scheme' whatever it may be.

---

Back in Japan inside the Backland, the bulletin board that was usually inside the War Room was filled up with various files of employees and personal information. The photos of Dr. Ancient, Cretacia, Mr. Mills, Zander and Reese were all crossed out in red marker.

"Okay," Dr. Ancient says as he reads a file on someone. "now we know for a fact it's not Rex. I mean, come on. He's my son. He wouldn't hurt a fly if he wanted to."

"I don't think he even COULD hurt a fly. I'm- I'm pretty sure a fly could suplex Rex if it wanted to." Zander says from his seat with Cretacia sleeping beside him.

"Zzzzzzz enslave all men zzzzzzzz." Cretacia talks in her sleep, prompting Zander to give her a worried look in response.

Dr. Ancient quickly drew an X across Rex's photo. "We can rule out Zoe for the exact same reason." Reese adds as she crosses Zoe's photo out. "Besides, she's not really the type with computers. The only things she knows about computers are the on and off button and writing essays and fanfiction… Don't tell her I know by the way."

A thought suddenly entered Dr. Ancient's head. "Wait a minute." he speaks up. "I think I might know who it is."

"Who?" Mr. Mills asks.

"Zzzzzzz bad haircuts zzzzzzz." Cretacia snores next to Zander.

Dr. Ancient grew an angry look. "It's that guy, yeah. I know it is. I saw it in his eyes, you know? That guy! That guy that Dr. Z brought in! The new recruit, the teenager!"

"That's Francis." Reese clarifies in a hasty manner. "He's my sister's boyfriend. It's not him. Yes, he's a moron, yes, but he's a good person."

"I don't even know who Francis is." Mr. Mills speaks up.

"I don't trust him." Dr. Ancient firmly stands his ground.

Reese threw her hands in the air in response. "What? I just told you!" She then slammed her fists on the table in frustration. "Dr. Ancient, it's not Francis! He doesn't know anything about us. He's never even been with us for that long to even understand what we do?"

"She's right." Zander agrees.

"Thank you, Zander."

"I mean, if anything he's just Dr. Z's personal dog he orders around to do whatever odd job he wants." Zander continues. "I mean, I don't think Francis even cares enough to even betray us. I doubt it's him. He's too busy working for Dr. Z than to work for anyone else. He has no ties to us other than Zoe, I mean he's a nobody! Just some guy on the street. No one actually cares about him. It's not him, trust us, Dr. Ancient."

"Where is he?" the doctor quickly asks.

Zander was caught off guard by the question. "I- I don't know. We don't know where he is actually." Zander admits. "He's been gone for a few days now. We usually see him a couple times a day. Dr. Z keeps trying to call him but he won't answer. He tried to get us to call him but he won't answer us as well. His phone is either off or he's dead."

"Call him right now."

Zander blew an exasperated sigh as he grabbed his phone, quickly dialing Francis' number. "I'm telling you, he's not gonna answer." he tells his superior before putting the phone on speaker.

The line rang for a few moments before the answering machine picked up. "Hey, this is Francis. I can't answer the phone right now. Call me back some other time and I'll get back to ya."

"See? No answer." Zander replies. "I've- I've called him 8 times in the past 5 hours. No response."

Dr. Ancient drew three question marks on Francis' headshot. "Usually in my experience, when a person doesn't answer their phone, they're either dead or in hiding. Still, it's better safe than to be sorry. Especially when his disappearance is too close to a timing to all of this anyway" he says.

"Next one up is Max." Reese announces. The four people that were actively awake in the discussion turned to one another before silently agreeing on something. "Yeah, what was I thinking?" Reese asks as Dr. Ancient immediately marks off Max's headshot.

"The only two people on here left are Ursula and Dr. Z." Mr. Mills announces.

"And we have reason to believe that neither of them is the traitor." Dr. Ancient adds.

Reese tossed her papers in the air in frustration. "Great!" she yells. "So all of this was in vain. We're back to where we started. While we're here twiddling our thumbs the traitor is out there stealing more information from us and we don't even know who!" Reese blew an exasperated sigh in response. "I need some air."

With that, she stormed out of the war room, leaving the three men confused in their spots. It wasn't until Zander spoke up that broke the momentary silence. "I'll go talk to her." he quietly says as he follows her out the door, leaving Dr. Ancient and Mr. Mills in the room with a sleeping Cretacia.

"Zzzzzzzz enslave all men zzzzzzzzzz." she talks in her sleep.

"You want coffee?" Dr. Ancient asks his assistant.

"I would LOVE some coffee. Thank you." he responds.

Reese lit her cigarette with a lighter before taking a puff from it, blowing smoke in the air while checking her heart rate through her watch Zander gave her one time. Speaking of who, Zander had just exited the Backland to see Reese standing beside it looking down at her watch with the cigarette still in her mouth.

The tall man approached the blonde. "You okay?" Zander asks his love interest.

"95." Was all Reese replied.

The lanky grew a confused look in response. "What?"

Reese looked up at Zander, taking another puff from her cigarette. "Normally my pulse is 70. When it gets to 95, I realize how mad I am. I-I'm working around the clock putting everything I got trying to figure out who's who in there!" she yells in frustration as she hands Zander her cigarette.

"Reese, you're too hard on yourself." Zander attempts to console her before taking a hit from her cigarette.

"What? No, no! I'm not mad at myself! I'm mad that there's a traitor somewhere in there and they're not telling us who they are!"

Zander blew smoke in the air. "What's your pulse at now?" Before she could answer, Zander grabbed her wrist and placed his fingers on it, literally checking her pulse. "101."

"You could tell from my wrist?" Reese asks in astonishment.

Zander took another puff from his cigarette before handing it back to Reese, letting go of her hand in the process. "No, I checked your watch." he reveals. Reese smoked some of her cigarette some more as the two of them stared up at the night sky that wasn't being blocked by the forest trees.

"Beautiful night." Reese mentions as the two of them staring up at the stars together.

"Yeah." Zander responds. "Hey, I know the Space Pirates exist but, I've been meaning to ask you a question."

"What is it?"

"Well…" Zander took a moment to ponder on what he was going to say next. "For a moment, let's just pretend the Space Pirates… and Goma, don't exist… Do you think there's intelligent life on other planets?"

"I don't even think there's intelligent life on this planet. I mean, I saw what was in Dr. Z's fridge. Tommy K's head and hearts and all that." Reese answers.

"Yeah, I still don't know what he plans to do with it but it's best if we don't ask."

Reese took another hit from her cigarette. "You know, Zander," Reese says. "I'm sure if there is something else out there in the universe, looking down on us… they're wise enough to stay away from us." she reveals as she hands Zander her cigarette.

Zander took the cigarette before looking up, staring at the night sky above them. "Always count on you saying the smartest things or quoting someone in times like these… It's why I like you." Zander casually confesses while smoking the cigarette.

Reese has always been aware of Zander's crush on her and respected that he made no attempt to push it onto her. She knew he was giving her some space to let her figure out her emotions, but he was just glad to be near and talk to Reese and if she had to be honest… She felt the same. It was small but there was a fire inside her heart that was slowly getting bigger every time she spent a second with Zander. It was like… he completed her. There was hardly anyone that ever made her feel whole before. She didn't know if it was a crush or love but something inside her was growing. Some unknown emotion she had for Zander, an emotion she hoped she would find out later down the line.

"'The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.'… Einstein." Reese quotes.

Zander chuckles in response. "Heh." Zander finished off the rest of the cigarette before snuffing it out with his boot. "You wanna grab a drink?" Reese turned to Zander with a surprised expression on her face. "As in, like, a total platonic two friends having a drink type… drink. I could invite the Ancients if it makes you feel better."

Reese giggled in response, finding Zander's awkwardness cute. "I would LOVE a drink right now… Can it just be the two of us?" she nervously asks him.

Zander's face flushed red in excitement. "Uh, y-yeah! Sure! Of course!" he stammers, trying to hold his feelings together. "There's this bar, the Red River Bar, open all night. I could drive you there if you want in my new car. The other one got smashed by an Agustinia."

"Who's gonna drive us back home?" Reese wonders as the two walk out the forest together.

"Eh, I'll just call Ursula. She's doing a modeling gig up in Inferno Heights so she'll be done within the next few hours." Zander answers.

"Why not just call a cab?"

"There are cabs here in Sanjo City?!"

---

After the assassination in the mall, the D-Team had decided that it would be safe to return to Dr. Owen's penthouse and call it a day. Currently, the adults were inside having a drink with each other while Zoe and Rex were in the living room, their chibi dinosaurs sleeping beside them. While the adults were drinking, the teens were watching whatever crap was on TV.

"Thank God this is almost over!"

"Yeah, it looks like those planes are here to rescue us! Look! They're droppin' us presents!… Why are they explodin'?"

"I hope mine's a football!"

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!"

*chainsaw revs*

Zoe suddenly glanced towards the large balcony outside to see Max sitting alone in the dark on a chair while Chomp looked up at the night sky. She couldn't help but worry about him, considering what he went through today.

Over with Max, the teen just watched his dinosaur partner whom was staring up at the night sky as if he was memorized by it. His attention suddenly turned to his horn, half of it being replaced by a titanium-like alloy that fused to Chomp's broken horn to a molecular level, made by Dr. Z. Max briefly had a flashback to when Chomp's horn first got destroyed, back in the fight with the Chimera a few months back. The teen scowled at Chomp's broken horn, regretting that he didn't try harder to save him. He touched the tip of his broken visor horn before glancing back down at Chomp, where he couldn't help but notice that now both of their horns were damaged in some way.

It was even the same left horn for the both of them.

His little moment was interrupted when Zoe suddenly sat down next to him, she too staring up at the night sky above them. "Beautiful night." she says, staring up at the stars above.

Max looked back up to the sky once more. "Yeah, it is." he agrees.

The two momentarily sat in silence before the pinkette spoke up. "Are you alright?"

"You ever wonder what happens after we die?" Max suddenly asks.

Zoe was briefly caught off guard by the question before turning back up at the sky. "Sometimes." she answers. "Me, personally, I believe we go to heaven where we can live in peace. Up there with the angels in the sky, looking down on our loved ones. It sounds… Peaceful… What about you?"

Max slightly shook his head in response. "I'm not sure." he replies. "But that doesn't mean I'm ready to find out just yet…" Max suddenly took off his visor and without taking his eyes off the sky, handed it over to Zoe. "Look at my visor, at the tip of the horn."

Zoe grabbed the visor and noticed the broken tip. "It's broken." she states.

"That was from today… In the mall."

His friend gawked at him in response. "Max… Any closer and you-"

"I know… I wouldn't be here right now." The brunet then turned to Chomp, whom was chewing on a stick in front of them. "When Chomp's horn broke during that fight, I felt so helpless. Like I couldn't do anything to help him… I bet he feels the same way right now with me… I've traveled in time, fought dinosaurs, fought aliens… saw a dead body… but not once have I ever been this close to death before… It feels… refreshing."

"Refreshing?" Zoe wonders, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"For me, this broken horn doesn't remind me of how close I was to dying." Max begins. "Instead… it reminds me how fragile life is and how precious it can be. That's why I don't believe in an afterlife because if there was… What would be the point in living? Personally, I believe life was given to us as a test to see what we'd do and how we'd do it. What makes us us, you know what I mean? Our environment may change us but it doesn't change the fact we're still on this planet living every second of our life that was given to us. Life is precious… and we must make the most of it… Because a few millimeters could end that precious life right then and there."

Zoe couldn't help but stare in shocked awe at her friend, never in her life ever seeing this emotional before. "Are you alright?" she asks him, extremely concerned for his well being. Max said nothing and continued to stare up at the night sky… before suddenly taking a swig from a beer bottle he had hidden beside him. "Oh my God! No wonder you're emotional! You're drunk! You're 14 years old! Why are you drinking?!"

"We're in New York, Zoe." Max slurs. "Besides, my dad was the one who gave me the bottle. He said, and I quote, 'After today, you deserve a drink. Here, drink up son.' and then he vomited in the toilet… I think he got food poisoning."

"Are you sure he wasn't drunk when he gave you the bottle?!"

"Who cares. He's right anyway." Max shrugs off. "Besides, I'm not planning on drinking at this age. I just wanted a drink after today. Hell, even Rex is having a drink with those three."

Zoe turned back to the inside of the penthouse to see Rex drinking from a beer bottle. "Atta boy, Rex! Drink up!" Dr. Owen cheered at his son.

"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!" Spike and Patrick cheered as Rex downed the bottle.

The blonde then threw the bottle to the ground, smashing it into pieces. "I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!" he drunkenly stammers before collapsing to the floor. "I am the master of my domain."

"Would you believe me if I said that was only his first beer of the night?" Max asks Zoe while still staring up at the sky.

"Yes! I would… actually! Rex doesn't really have a high tolerance to… anything really. I've seen him bleed profusely from a paper cut once."

"Ha! Wuss." Max guffaws.

"He's your friend!"

"So what?! I'm allowed to make fun of him because of it." Max went back to drinking his beer only to realize he had finished all of it. In response, he carelessly tossed the bottle over the balcony. Down below, a homeless man was shown sleeping in the alley only for the beer bottle to fall on top of his head, smashing it into pieces while knocking him out completely. "Besides, I'm not drunk. I'm just buzzed a bit. I'm perfectly capable of deciding what's wrong and what's not."

"Evidently not." Zoe mumbles. "At least I know when you're kind of drunk you articulate more and become smarter than usual."

"Artic-what now?"

"Nevermind."

Their moment was suddenly interrupted when they heard the sound of a jet engine flying over them, prompting them to look up to see an unidentified flying object hovering over them. "Are those aliens or Space Pirates?" Max lazily wonders.

"Aren't those the same thing?" Zoe asks.

The flying object suddenly landed on the roof next to the penthouse, as the balcony was too small for it to land. There it was revealed to be one of the Alpha Jets, with Dr. Z and Ed hopping off of it and landing on the roof next to theirs. "Oh hey, it's Dr. Z and Ed… Wonder what they're doing here." Max lazily wonders.

The two men hopped the little gap in between buildings and landed on the balcony. "Max. Zoe." Dr. Z simply greets the two.

"Hi, guys!" Ed happily greets them.

"Hi, Ed." Zoe waves back. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're because we have important news to te-… Is he drunk?" Dr. Z asks, noticing Max's state.

"I'm buzzed, not drunk." Max rudely corrects.

Dr. Z confusingly stared at the brunet before turning to the female teenager. "What's up with him?" he asks.

"Brief stint with death." Zoe casually replies.

"Ah, that'll do it. Where's Rex? I need to talk to all three of you."

"Now HE'S the drunk one… He's back there." Max points behind him.

The two men turned to the penthouse to see Rex with the three adults loudly singing by the island counter. "Show me the way to go home, home, home! I'm tired and I wanna go to bed!" they loudly sing in the kitchen.

"Ed, get that drunk donkey so we can talk." Dr. Z orders the fat man.

"Yes, sir." Ed obliged before heading inside.

For a brief moment, the three said nothing until Zoe asked a question to the doctor. "Sooo… How are you doing?" she asks him.

"How am I doing?" Dr. Z rhetorically repeats. "I got a boss who's a paranoid wreck, three morons who are constantly chasing their own tails, and I got a guy who disappeared on me for the past 24 hours with a brain like an overcooked artichoke… Things are great."

"Really? Sounds like crap to me but whatever." Max shrugs off.

At that moment, Ed suddenly came back dragging a drunk as hell Rex behind him. Reminder, Rex only had ONE BOTTLE of beer that night. "Get your hands off me! I can handle my alcohol!" Rex slurs at the fat man.

"Here he is, doctor." Ed says.

"Oh, Jesus. I can't talk to you guys drunk." Dr. Z rolls his eyes in annoyance. "And this can't wait until morning, this is too important." The mad scientist suddenly pulled out a syringe gun-like device from his labcoat. "Hold still while I stick this in you."

"Hey, get your hands off me old man!" Rex drunkenly stammers as Dr. Z stuck the needle in his neck. "OW!"

"What did you just- OUCH!" Max yells as he too was stuck with the syringe. "Why did you do-"

All of a sudden, both Max and Rex felt a sudden flow of vomit in their throat which quickly came up to their mouths. Covering their mouths with their hands they quickly ran over to the balcony and threw up off the side, the vomit landing directly on the knocked out homeless man from moments earlier.

"Ugh! Yuck! That was disgusting! What did you give-" Max then realized something was off. "Hold on, am I sober?"

"Why do I feel a wave of regret in my body?" Rex asks in a normal, non-drunken state.

"I gave you guys a special serum that I designed that'll immediately sober you up after you had too many drinks. Unfortunately, it doesn't destroy the alcohol, instead it just makes you vomit while also taking away the chemicals that cause you to get drunk in the first place. It's an instant sober device that I call… The Instant Sober Device." Dr. Z reveals.

"How original." Max dryly responds while Rex just smacked his lips.

"Eugh. I got this bad aftertaste in my mouth."

"Oh yeah, uuuuh the serum has that side effect on some people. You're gonna taste fish for the next hour or so depending on your weight and height and all that." Dr. Z explains.

"Sounds fishy." Ed comments from aside.

"Well, thank you for ruining my night… Anyway, why are you here?" Max rudely asks the doctor.

"It tastes like tuna." Rex mumbles, still smacking his lips.

"I heard the Ancients are having a little internal dispute." Dr. Z reveals.

"Yeah, where'd you hear that from?" Max asks.

"From Ancient."

"You talked to my dad?" Rex questions in slight surprise knowing their history together.

"Everyone talks to your dad, tough guy. Heheheheheh." Dr. Z chuckles before noticing Rex's annoyed look on his face. "Aaaah, he's a good guy. Little superiority and morality complex but uuuh he's a good friend when you need one."

"Dr. Z here says there's a traitor amongst you guys." Ed tells the three.

"Oh, yeah? Who? And how the hell does he know about it?" Max asks in sudden hostility in his voice.

"Alrightrightrightrightrightright, don't go biting my beard, alright?" Dr. Z interrupts, attempting to ease away any hostility that might erupt in the conversation. "I heard from Ancient about this about an hour ago. And listen, I understand where the guy is coming from - and on one hand, I don't give a shit. Bunch of cooped up paleo-nerds want to play an all nighter game of real life Clue be my guest. They're all adults… sort of, heh. But right now, I need calm. Frankie went AWOL on me, I need a steady flow of income pouring into my bank, so it's in my best interest to see these guys calm things down. END this little squabble then get back to work."

"Who does my dad think the traitor is?" Rex asks.

"As of right now, he thinks it's either me or Ed."

"Well coming all the way to New York sure looks good for you, doctor." Zoe sarcastically tells him.

"Hey, if we were the traitors, we wouldn't be here discussing it with ya, now would we. Now come on, I know I come off as insane and out of control that puts no thoughts into his schemes but I'm not an idiot. I'm the most intelligent scientific genius in this world in this time period. An evil genius like me isn't dumb enough to make a rookie mistake. Besides… I trust you three."

"You sure Bartholomew hasn't gotten into your head completely, Dr. Z?" Rex asks the crazy doctor.

"That's what I asked earlier." Ed states.

"He's asleep right now so I have the wheel. Sharing the same body puts a lot of stress on the both of us especially when he and I are constantly fighting over control of it 50% of the time. So now he needs his beauty sleep. I've got roughlyyyyyy…." Dr. Z quickly checked his watch. "10 hours and 36 minutes left before he wakes up. Trust me, I'm in full control right now and that means I'm not bullshitting you, twerps. Dr. Ancient says there's a traitor among us and as much as I despise the guy, he has a point. He wouldn't lie about this. The only reason why I'm here is to clear both mine and Ed's names. I made the mistake of betraying Ancient in the past, I'm not doing it again - and Ed? Oh boy, I'm not sure who's the crazy doctor here. The guy with the literal dinosaur head or the guy accusing Ed of being the traitor."

For a moment, the D-Kids were silent as they pondered on the new information. "That does sound kind of stupid to be perfectly honest." Rex acknowledges.

"Okay, so it's neither you or Ed. What about the others?" Max asks.

"Well, as of right now, the Ancients think it's us. You and I know differently. Now, I can say in full confidence the mole isn't in the Alpha Gang."

"What about Frankie? You said he went AWOL." Max wonders.

"Trust me, it's not him." Dr. Z answers. "He's too occupied with his own personal issues to even think about betraying us. Besides, he doesn't even know how to operate the toaster that comes from our timeline let alone hack into the Backland. Knowing Frankie, he's probably off boosting cars for those Jap bastards for money, that hog."

"We're right here you know." Zoe dryly comments after hearing the doctor say 'Jap bastards'.

"You Yakuza?… No? Then be quiet. As I was saying, it's not Frankie or anyone else in the Alpha Gang. I would immediately know."

"So who is it?" Rex questions.

"How should I know? I just came down here to warn you guys that they're investigating everyone involved in this. You three included… Except Rex for obvious reasons."

"Guess being the son of the leader of this whole group has it's advantages." Ed comments.

"Dr. Ancient may be the leader of this dance party of his but I'm still the Dinosaur King, Ed. I have the head to prove it!" Dr. Z then turned his attention back to the teens. "Anyways, we couldn't call you three in case those guys tapped our phones so we decided to come here instead. We just wanted to warn you is all." The crazed doctor suddenly reached into his lab coat and pulled out several small circular devices. "As of right now, we're the only ones we can actually trust. The five of us know we're not the traitors but that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep our guards up. If any of you spot anything fishy about anyone involved in this, contact me with this. Don't use this to just call me and ask for money. These devices are solely used for gathering intel and informing any of us what we have. You got it?"

The four of them each grabbed a device and placed them in their pockets. "Why are you doing this, Dr. Z? You'd never team up with us." Zoe tells the doctor.

"If I have to be honest, you three grew on me. Like I told Ed earlier, I kind of see you three as my grandchildren now as weird as that sounds considering I already have two grandchildren. Trust me, I may be some insane scientist for goals of world domination but I'm no evil mastermind. You three are the only ones besides my Alpha Gang that I fully trust. I hope you can say the same thing about me and the gang."

"I've worked with you guys for two years, I already trust you guys." Rex reveals.

"Yeah, plus you saved us several times in the past. You earned our trust a long time ago." Zoe explains.

"That's good to hear." Dr. Z says before turning to Ed. "Come on, Ed. Let's get back to Sanjo before those guys start wondering where the hell we went."

"You sure we can't stay in New York for a day? I've always wanted to have a picnic in Central Park." Ed explains.

"Another time. We've got more important things to do back home." Dr. Z politely declines. "I'll see you kids later. Again, contact me on that device when you have information about the traitor. Ciao."

With that, the two men jumped roofs and entered the Alpha Jet, the D-Kids watching the aircraft fly off into the distance leaving themselves to their own thoughts. "So there's a traitor among us, huh." Max wonders aloud. "Lots of things are happening today… Makes you wonder what tomorrow has in store for us."

---

While Reese and Zander were hitting up a bar, the Ancients and Mr. Mills were still inside the Backland trying to figure out who the traitor was and after hours of thinking and connecting the dots, they still don't know. "Uuuugh." Dr. Ancient tiredly groans as he holds his head in his hands. "We've been at this for hours! We still don't know anything."

"Maybe it's best if we just drop it and pick it up another time. We're not gonna do much good by working ourselves until we hit a burnout." Mr. Mills suggests.

"Yeah, that's a good point… I'm glad I hired you as my assistant, Leonard. Way better than Seth ever was."

Mr. Mills stirred the spoon in his coffee mug for a moment before taking a seat next to his employer. "You know," he begins. "for as long as I've worked with you… you never did tell me about Seth. Obviously I wasn't here when that happened. I mean, the only thing I know about Seth is that he created a large… T-Rex that looked like it was made out of magma."

Dr. Ancient heavily sighed in response. "Long story short, Seth betrayed all of us for his own personal goals." he reveals. "He and Dr. Z are the reason why Rex was adopted and that they were trapped in the past two years ago. His whole goal was to genetically alter dinosaurs so they could evolve faster and become these 'super animals' or whatever. He even betrayed the Space Pirates."

Mr. Mills suddenly grew a concerned look. "Is he… known for betraying people?" he cautiously asks.

Dr. Ancient turned to his assistant with a smile. "Mills," he says. "Seth has betrayed everyone he worked with. He betrayed three groups," he holds up three fingers. "Us, the Alpha Gang and the Space Pirates - and now that he's working with the Grand Master I bet he's gonna betray him too."

Mr. Mills glanced away for a moment, deep in thought about this new information. "Well, that's good." he says. "I mean, we know nothing about the Grand Master, maybe… maybe Seth will betray him and maybe actually leak his identity to us? Make it easier for us to take him down?"

Dr. Ancient took a sip from his coffee mug. "Yeah, I guess that's true." he turned back to his assistant. "I'm so glad you didn't turn out to be Seth. I was hesitant to hire a new assistant because I thought they would betray me again but you? You've actually proven to be a helpful ally… Thank you."

"Anytime, Dr. Ancient."

"And stop with the formal stuff. You used to call me Dan."

"I… I guess living in the past for 10 years tends to do that to someone."

Dr. Ancient raised an eyebrow in response. "I thought it was 20?"

"What about Dr. Z?" Mr. Mills suddenly asks.

"What about him?"

"Do you trust him?"

Dr. Ancient pondered for a moment. "I mean… he and his gang saved my son several times… I can at least acknowledge he's trying to redeem himself… Personally, I don't think it's Dr. Z."

"Where is he?"

Again, Dr. Ancient pondered for a moment. "I- I don't know."

"Well, maybe it is him? I mean, he disappeared like that Francis character. Maybe Dr. Z actually is the traitor. Don't tell him I said this but… I don't trust him one bit. Too much history in his character to trust him… We should find him."

"He's gonna show up, don't worry. He's got nowhere else to go. He always stands out amongst all of us."

"How do you know for certain though, Dr. Ancient?" Mr. Mills asks in frustration.

"Look," Dr. Ancient says in an exasperated tone. "you can count on three things happening everyday here in the Backland. The coffee machine is gonna break down, Cretacia swearing she hasn't used Zander's credit card - which we all know she does on a daily basis - and Dr. Z is gonna blow something up. Don't worry, he'll show up. He's not very hard to miss."

"I hope." Mr. Mills responds.

"He's very scaly." Dr. Ancient bluntly describes.

Mr. Mills chugged the last of his coffee before placing it back on the table. "Alright," he says. "I'm gonna call it a night. We've been theorizing about this whole traitor business for hours now. I'm super tired and I really wanna go to bed."

"Alright, feel free to take the day off tomorrow if you want, Mills. I'll talk to you then." Dr. Ancient waves goodbye as Mr. Mills exits the lab.

Dr. Ancient was now left alone in the war room with his wife, whom was still sleeping and snoring beside him. "Zzzzzzz enslave all men zzzzzzzzz."

"I hope she spares me when she eventually takes over the world… God I love this woman." Dr. Ancient smiles at her sleeping wife.

"Zzzzzzzz divorce Dan zzzzzzz."

"What?"

---

BLACK EAGLE 2ND HEADQUARTERS, SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE WEST

Needless to say once the Fist found out his deal didn't go according to plan, he was NOT happy, evident when he had called Blaise and Chase into the room - the two of them whom were sent in to do the deal - as well as the General himself holding his head in his frustration. "What happened?" he sternly asks.

For a moment, neither Blaise or Chase said anything, until they did. "We… We don't know." Blaise replies.

The Fist looked up at her, a furious expression on his face. "What do you mean?" he asks, his patience worn thin.

"I- I mean we weren't there when it happened."

"You weren't on time for the deal?"

"Sir, it's New York. You picked the busiest time in the busiest part of the city. We got stuck in traffic for two hours-"

"Who was driving?"

The two said nothing as Blaise slowly turned her head to Chase, whom looked down in disappointment. "I'm sorry." he quietly apologizes.

"You're sorry?" The Fist repeats. "You're… sorry?" Right at that moment, the Fist stood up from his seat and approached the young. "I distinctly remember saying, 'Take the subway'… Yes, that's right. 'Take the subway'. Not 'Don't take the subway.' Now I'm very specific with my words… 'Take', 'Don't'. 'Take!… 'Don't'… Do those words sound remotely the same to you?"

"I- I thought driving would've been better, sir. I- I've never been to New York-"

"I fail to see how that is my problem!" The Fist screams, for once raising his voice and startling Blaise simultaneously. "It is by my grace that your head isn't impaled on the antennae of my car! Therefore I would like it if you obey a direct order from your superior! Do you understand?!… I ASKED YOU A QUESTION!"

"Yes! Yes, I understand!" Chase whimpers.

The Fist massaged his face in utter frustration before approaching his window. "You sack of uselessness… Has your heroin addiction gotten the better of you."

"I- I don't- I've- I've never- When- How- Wha-"

"I- I- Uh- Duh- Dur- Is that all you're gonna say?" The Fist mocks Chase's stutters. "Get out of here. I don't want to see you for the rest of the week. Any sooner and you're gone, you understand?"

"Yes, sir." Chase defeatedly mutters, his head hanging down low.

"Good… Now get out of here. Both of you."

With that, the two Black Eagle members exited the main office and briefly stood outside for a moment. "I've never seen him that mad before." Blaise admits.

"Adam." Chase angrily mutters under his breath.

"What was that?"

Chase however didn't say a word, continuing to glare down at the ground as he blamed only one person for this whole mess. "Adam." he mutters once again in seething anger.

---

THE GRAND MASTER'S HIDEOUT, UNKNOWN LOCATION

"Yes, Grand Master, it was a success." Seth says to someone over the phone as he stood alone in a dark room. "I'm looking at the bust right now. Undamaged and in our hands… I'm sorry, 'you're' hands… I'll keep it safe until you come back. Don't worry," Seth then suddenly placed a sort of device on the bottom of the bust hidden away from view. "it's in safe hands. You can count on it. Everything is going according to plan, don't you worry."

Seth suddenly hung up the phone before smiling deviously at the bust in front of him on the desk.

---

But wait! Where was Francis and Ursula all this time?!

"Zzzzzzzzzzz… Zzzzzzzzzz… Zzzzzzzzzz." Francis snores from his bed, having slept in all day.

Ursula meanwhile was elsewhere in the city currently in a tanning booth while listening to some music on her earbuds. "'Cause baby, you're a fiiiiiiirework. Come on show 'em whaaaaaaat your worth." Ursula then turned to the camera. "What? A lady can't have a day off to herself? Get out of here you creep!"

She broke the camera by jabbing her fist into it.

I got lazy writing this ending to be honest.

---

(Alright, before anyone said anything, yes I know time zones exist, I'm just really stupid lazy.

On a more serious note, I have something to say. At the time of writing this (9:10 PM March 25 2024) approximately two nights ago my fanfiction account got hacked by an unknown intruder. it happened because i shared the same password with another account from a compromised account (which i later found out it was Wattpad, of course its that shit site) and the hacker proceeded to send nasty messages such as "kill yourself" or "fag" or just the n word over and over again. I would like to formally apologize if any of you received a PM from me with a nasty message. it was the hacker's doing and not my own. luckily i changed my password to a more… random keyboard spam one so now it won't happen again. Again, I apologize if any of you received a nasty message from me. trust me, when i find out who hacked my account i'm gonna cut their dick off and mail it to their mothers. I'm not a man to be screwed with especially when it compromises something I worked hard on.

Thank GOD they didn't delete my stories, which makes me think that A. they have no idea how fanfiction works or 2. This was a personal attack towards me. It isn't the first time someone has tried to hack into an account of my own. My PS4 account back when the console was released got hacked by some call of duty loser who I kept killing over and over again and a few months back my Steam account got hacked into. luckily that one was saved.

Anywho, that's pretty much all I have to say. uuuuuh stay safe, don't reuse passwords and don't share them and fuck the hacker's mother, i dunno tbh. I'm not good with advice.

anyway i got shit to do in real life KOKBYE!

OH DON'T WORRY I'LL BRING THE PIZZA TOO MAN!)