Tom was mimicking Thunder's behaviour to his mother, which made her laugh.
"No," said Olivia as he began crawling across the floor like a dog.
"Yup!" said Tom. "And if you hold another fish nug like this, he'll go all…" He then began panting and sticking his tongue out like a dog.
"Wow!" said Olivia.
"Just like that."
"So that's the reason the general store is always out of them."
"But then he'll get all, like, distracted by his tail and be like…" Tom then began crawling around in circles like a dog chasing its own tail.
His mother laughed, and he soon joined on the couch. "It's such a relief that you finally know about dragons."
"I'm your mom," she reminded him. "You can tell me anything."
"I know. I know. I'm just… I'm just glad things are cool between us again."
"Yep. And tonight, after work, you can take me down into the Hidden World," she said.
"Um…" said Tom nervously.
"You don't seem happy about that," Olivia noted.
"Not happy? No! No, that's… I-I'm very happy about… that. Yeah! I mean, today, the thing is, me and the other Riders were going to, uh, you know, do our own…"
"Uh-huh," she said, looking unconvinced. "I think you understand. I am going there with or without you, and you are not going down there again until I've determined if it's safe."
"I get it!" said Tom, jumping to his feet. "I get it. But it is safe! Really, it is! It's really, really, really safe."
"Great," said Olivia. "Then you can safely show me later on."
She kissed him on the cheek and walked away as Tom laughed awkwardly.
After that, he immediately went to the Lair to hold an emergency meeting with the Riders.
"Your mom is coming down here?!" Jun stared.
"And you just okayed this?!" said D'Angelo incredulously.
"She didn't exactly ask for permission," said Tom. "She wants to see for herself, and, uh, she wants to make sure it's safe, and if it's not, I'm probably not allowed back."
"Uh, Tom? 'Safe 'isn't exactly what I call the Dragon Realms," said Alex.
"Yeah! I can think of at least 17 mission no-gos in the Rakke Exploratory Safety Procedure manual alone," said D'Angelo.
"And the rest of them are on the teetering edge of said manual," James added.
"It'll be fine," said Tom optimistically. "Let's just try to stay positive."
At that exact moment, Plowhorn fired a loogy blast at Webmaster, who barely had time to duck. The loogy blast carried on, just missing Wu and Wei, who suddenly launched themselves at Plowhorn and Webmaster.
"Okay!" said Tom calmly.
"Wu! Wei!" said Jun.
Wu and Wei continued their charge at Plowhorn, and Webmaster accidentally stepped on Feathers' tail.
"What are you doing?" Jun cried. "No! Don't!"
Wu and Wei flew off of Feathers' tail firing, and she then fired off a sonic blast at Tom, knocking him to the ground. He looked up to see the two-headed dragon snarling at Plowhorn and Webmaster.
"Okay, sure," said Tom, looking at the others. "It can get a little dangerous down here. But it doesn't matter how safe it is. It matters how safe she thinks it is."
"I see where you're going here," Jun nodded. "Hypnosis."
"Uh, no."
"Okay, then I'm at a loss."
"Look, we set things up so she only sees what we want her to see," Tom explained. "We collect the most docile, friendly dragons we can find, place them along a safe prearranged route, and then show them off. It'll be like a guided tour of a zoo, except all the animals are dragons. And Thunder will be her flying shuttle. What you think?"
Everyone looked at one another solemnly.
"It's not too late to try hypnosis," Jun offered.
They decided to go with Tom's plan and began collecting dragons throughout the Hidden World.
D'Angelo and Eugene were currently in the Crystal Realm to grab a few Terrible Terrors, the small dragons. Tom and Jun had translated enough of the book to find out a few names of the different types of dragons.
Eugene attempted to capture a few Terrible Terrors, but they ran away as he launched himself at them. The only thing he managed to accomplish was falling flat on his face.
On the other hand, D'Angelo pulled out some fish and showed it to the Terrible Terrors. "Hey, little fellas. Come and get it."
The Terrible Terrors instantly stopped running around and dashed over to D'Angelo, running over Eugene in the process.
Alex and James were in the Ice Realm to collect a few Snowtails, the common Ice Realm dragon, but one of them walked away from the pack.
"Hey! Hey, you!" said Alex strictly.
Feathers then suddenly appeared in front of the dragon, scaring it into rejoining the pack.
Jun had managed to wrangle a Hobgobbler, the small, chubby little dragon, with the aid of Wu and Wei.
"You're coming with us, buddy," she said, taking the little fella up.
Tom and Thunder dragged a few volcanic rocks out of the Fire Realm, which D'Angelo found rather amusing.
"Hey, I think you forgot your drag…" He stopped when he heard a familiar growl and turned around to see the Magma Breather standing directly behind him. "Hello, friend."
The Magma Breather snarled at him, clearly still not liking him, and immediately began to chase him through the crystal maze.
Eugene had failed to have any dragon and just sat on the ground leaning against Webmaster.
"This is so lame!" he said.
He stroked Webmaster, and a split second later, he sat up here in a small growl. Eugene got up and then suddenly saw movement in the crystals.
"Who's there?" he said as he went to investigate.
At first, he was a little nervous, but stepping out into the open was a small two-legged dragon, and he immediately relaxed.
"Oh, hey, little guy," he said, walking up to him. "You seem nice. You think he wants to be friends?"
Webmaster looked at the little dragon suspiciously but failed to notice and watched as the dragon ran around him affectionately.
"Sure he does. It's me!" he said confidently.
Jun soon returned with Wu and Wei, and the two-headed dragon scared a few Ice Realm dragons back to their area of the crystal maze.
"Over here! This way, guys," said Jun as she began leading the dragons.
She stopped as D'Angelo walked by with a few Terrible Terrors. "D'Angelo, where are you putting those Terrors?"
"I'm thinking next to your Snowtails," he said. "They're cousins, so they should get along."
"Sounds good," said Jun.
"And I got this guy," said Eugene as he arrived, but there was no trace of the dragon he collected. "Huh? Hey!"
The dragon then appeared round the corner, tripping over his own feet.
"Uh, that dragon wasn't on the list," said Jun.
"I put him on the list," said Eugene proudly.
"When?"
"Uh, when I saw him."
They then watched as the dragon began chewing on some crystals.
"Look at him! He's great!" Eugene smiled.
"We don't know anything about him!" D'Angelo pointed out.
"He's my bud. What else do you need to know?"
Webmaster didn't look particularly happy upon hearing that, and Jun comforted him.
"Uh, if he's dangerous?" said D'Angelo.
"This little bag of doughnuts? Come on!" Eugene scoffed as the little dragon head-butted into a crystal. "You're harmless, aren't you?"
"You don't know that we haven't encountered this dragon before," James pointed out.
"Tom tripped the sensors by the Lair," Alex informed them. "That's the signal he and Dr Kullersen are on their way."
Jun looked at Eugene. "Eugene, can you just… Huh?"
They then blinked when they saw the little dragon chasing his own tail.
"Uh, what is it doing?" Alex asked.
"Don't judge! I'm sure that's perfectly normal behaviour for this type of dragon," said Eugene confidently.
"Jun, we got to get our places!" said D'Angelo.
"We don't have any time to take this dragon back where Eugene found it," James added.
"Fine," Jun sighed. "Put that one, like, off to one side or something."
She and the others then rushed over to their positions in the crystal maze.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," said Eugene as he mounted Webmaster and then looked down at the little dragon. "You get over there, okay?"
Little dragon then watched as D'Angelo fed a few Terrible Terrors.
"You hang right here," he said, giving them some fish nuggets. "Okay, little buddies?"
However, when he left, the little dragon rushed to the Terrible Terrors and screeched. The moment he did, the Terrible Terrors winced in pain, and the little dragon used that opportunity to grab some nuggets.
He then screeched again just as some Snowtails arrived, aggravating the dragons. They instantly began to engage with one another while the little dragon ate all the nuggets.
At the same time, Tom and Olivia had just entered the Lair where Thunder was waiting for them. The last time Olivia had been in the Lair, it was dark, and she was rather angry at Tom at the time to look around the place.
"This place is fantastic!" she said, taking in the surroundings.
Tom looked at Thunder and kept his voice low. "Okay, Pal. Everything should be in place by now. At least, I hope so. Best behaviour. Got it?"
"You ready?" Olivia asked, approaching them.
"Yeah! Yeah, of course," said Tom, a little nervous. "Can't wait."
Olivia noticed this. "You seem… nervous."
"Me? No! No, I'm just, uh, excited, that's all," he said. "Finally, I get to show you around. Right, Pal?"
Thunder growled in agreement.
"This is exciting!" Olivia smiled as she placed her hand on Thunder's snout and approached Tom. "We're exploring a whole new world together."
"Yeah. Guess that must be why I'm a little nervous," said Tom.
"You want me to fly the dragon?"
"Huh? No way!"
"I don't know. You're a little young to have your pilot's licence," Olivia teased.
"Mom, I know what I'm doing," said Tom and mounted Thunder. "Now, if you'll just have a seat we can begin our exploration into the Hidden World. Please keep all arms and legs on the dragon at all times."
He pulled his mother onto Thunder's back, but she nearly fell off when he moved.
"Don't worry!" Tom smiled. "You'll get the hang of it. We come from Vikings, remember? Take us out, Pal."
Thunder roared excitedly and spread his wings.
Tom then quickly looked back at his mother. "Oh, and, uh, hold on tight."
She then quickly wrapped her arms around his waist, and Thunder took off and flew out of the Lair and into the fissure.
At first, she closed Olivia's eyes but opened them and gasped at everything around them. She got even more excited when they flew past the lava falls.
"The firefalls!" she gasped. "That is a natural phenomenon! Slow down! Slow down!"
"Sorry! Not part of the tour," said Tom.
They flew past the thermal vents, which excited Olivia. "I need a journal about those!"
"You ain't seen nothing yet," Tom smiled.
They then flew into the entrance that led them to the Crystal Realm.
"Whoa," Olivia gasped when she saw the large crystal formations. "Tom, this is like being on another planet! How could you keep this from me?"
They then made their way to the crystal maze and soon landed.
"Welcome to the wonderful world of dragons," said Tom as Thunder carried them the rest of the way on foot.
They soon turned the corner and saw their first dragon, a Hobgobbler.
"That's a Hobgobbler," said Tom. "Pretty cute, huh?"
He then looked back and saw that Olivia had disappeared.
"Huh? Mom?" he blamed him and saw his mother approaching the Hobgobbler. "Mom! Oh, oh, hey, hey, wait, wait, wait! You need to, uh, stay on Thunder…"
"You expect me to fly by all these amazing creatures?" she said as she pulled out a pencil and notepad. "I need to take a closer look."
Tom and Thunder smiled as it looked like everything was going according to plan.
Plowhorn was looking at her reflection in a crystal, licking her lips.
"Hold on, girl," said D'Angelo, pulling her back. "We want to save chow time from when Tom's mom comes by."
He then heard several distant screeches.
"That sounds… not good," he said and looked down at Plowhorn. "Come on. Let's check it out. Quickly!"
They then began to fly over towards the source of the noise.
The next dragon Tom and his mum encountered was the Magma Breather, who was currently eating some molten rock and spitting out lava.
"A creature that expels actual liquid magma?" Olivia stared as she took notes. "How is that possible?"
"I… I don't know, actually," said Tom honestly. "D'Angelo might have a better idea. He's kind of our dragon doctor."
"That's impressive," said Olivia, but she had some concerns. "But how exactly are dragons that spit lava safe?"
"Well… Um…" said Tom, unable to come up with a good answer. He was then suddenly saved when Eugene flew down towards them. "Oh! Oh, look! It-it's Eugene!"
"Hey, Dr K!" said Eugene as he and Webmaster landed in front of them. "Delightful to see you down here."
"Ew," said Olivia as she looked at Webmaster. "That dragon is… different?"
"This is my good friend, Webmaster," said Eugene, rubbing him. "Say hi, buddy." Webmaster then immediately nuzzled her. "That means he likes you."
"Oh! Uh, he's… friendly," said Olivia awkwardly.
"Perhaps you should give her some breathing room, Eugene," said James as he arrived on Blade. "Hey, Dr Kullersen, I wanted to introduce you to my good friend Blade."
Olivia then immediately approached Blade, fascinated by his metal-like scales. "This one's scales look metallic."
"I know, but I assure you they're one hundred per cent organic," said James.
D'Angelo, meanwhile, was trying to search for the source of the screech and saw the Terrible Terrors and Snowtails at each other's throats.
"You see that?" he said.
Plowhorn growled, clearly not liking what they were seeing.
"I hear you, girl. Something's got them flustered."
Tom then took her over to Alex, who was playing with Feathers by having her chase a light.
"Get it, Feathers!" said Alex.
"This one has… feathers," said Olivia stunned. "Then again, some dinosaurs, mostly theropods, had feathers."
"She is not a dinosaur," Alex glared.
Tom quickly mimed her to smile.
"Uh, sorry," she said quickly, smiling at Olivia. "I mean, can a dinosaur do this? Feathers, let's hear it."
Feathers then gave off a sonic blast.
"See? Not a dino," she said, guiding Olivia closer to Feathers.
She then placed Olivia's hand on Feathers' head, which she enjoyed, and Olivia laughed.
"Tom. Tom!" said D'Angelo frantically as he landed on Plowhorn and quickly rushed over to him. "We got to talk!"
Tom winced and gestured his head over to Olivia, who was nearby.
D'Angelo smiled and waved. "Hi, Dr Kullersen!
He then dragged Tom to one side, and Alex facepalmed herself.
"It's going well, right?" Tom smiled.
"We got a problem with the Snowtails and the Terrible Terrors," D'Angelo whispered. "Dude, they were going at each other hard! I think we should call this off."
"What?" Tom gaped. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We can't call it off. My mom is almost convinced this place is pretty safe. Can't you just separate them? You're Dr D."
"Tom?" said his mother, looking concerned. "What's going on? Is something wrong?"
"Everything's fine!" Tom smiled and elbowed D'Angelo hard in the chest, who then laughed.
Olivia didn't look entirely convinced, and Alex quickly jumped in.
"Watch this, Tom's mom!" she said and gestured towards Feathers, who then vanished. "Cloaking ability. Ooh, ah…"
Tom looked at D'Angelo firmly. "Please take care of this. Find James and Eugene and get them to help."
"I'll handle it," D'Angelo promised.
Tom then returned to his mother as Alex showed off Feathers' cloaking ability.
Tom then took her to Jun, where she was introduced to Wu and Wei. The two-headed dragon was taking a drink, and she was just amazed.
"A two-headed dragon," she said, taking some notes.
"In Chinese myth, two-headed dragons are said to represent rebirth," said Jun.
Wu and Wei then smiled at one another, and Wei unleashed his steam blast.
"Wow," said Olivia.
"Don't worry, Dr Kullersen. Wei's just blowing off steam to relax," Jun assured her.
"I have to say, when you told me this place was safe, I had a hard time believing it," said Olivia, putting her arm around Tom's shoulders. "But these dragons are all so docile. I mean, that Magma Breather is… I would avoid him. But, other than that…"
A peaceful moment was then immediately shattered when they heard several shrieks.
"What's that?" Olivia asked.
"Uh, probably nothing," said Tom. "You know, dragons doing dragon stuff."
However, Wu and Wei looked a bit agitated themselves.
"I'm sure it's nothing," said Jun confidently. "You continue the tour. I'll check it out."
"Yeah! Come on, Mom. Let's move on," said Tom, guiding her away.
D'Angelo, James and Eugene were doing their best to calm the Terrible Terrors and Snowtails, but nothing they did worked.
"I thought these guys were supposed to be calm!" Eugene yelled.
"They are!" D'Angelo yelled.
"Maybe you should rethink that 'doctor' name of yours because, uh, this ain't calm!"
"Would you just let me figure this out?" he said, then bent down to the dragons. "Take it easy, everybody."
Jun then arrived on Wu and Wei. "What is going on? Dr Kullersen can hear this! They're going to blow our cover!"
"I know what's gotten into them!" said D'Angelo.
"They were perfectly fine when we let them here, but suddenly, they were at each other's throats," said James.
"All right, that is enough!" Eugene yelled at the dragons.
The little two-legged dragon then ran by and tripped, closing its mouth. Mere seconds later, all the dragons began to calm down.
"Back off! Shoo! No more!" said Eugene, and the dragons complied. "Huh. That's better."
James stretches his in confusion. "I know what calmed them down, but it looks like it's over."
The two-legged dragon then got back to its feet and opened its mouth, and instantly, the dragons became aggravated once again.
"And I have to jinx it," James groaned.
In fact, it got even worse because all their dragons started to lose control.
"Wu! Hey! Calm down!" said Jun and looked at D'Angelo. "Why are they all freaking out, D?"
"What do you want me to do?!" D'Angelo asked, panicking.
Things got worse when one of the Snowtails head-butted a Terrible Terror, sending it flying and crashing into Plowhorn, who instantly fired off a loogy blast.
"Girl, no!" D'Angelo yelled.
The blast exploded over the crystal maze.
"That was not good," said Jun.
"Maybe Tom's mom won't see it," said Eugene optimistically.
A Terrible Terror then shot out some flames, and they watched as the Terrible Terrors and Snowtails began to battle it out.
"I think we can hide this," James grimaced.
Olivia was now examining the crystals with great interest.
"These crystal formations are the largest I've ever seen!" she said.
Tom then heard the noise of the battling dragons and instantly knew something was not right.
He quickly looked at his mother. "Uh, y-you know what? Maybe we should head home."
"Home?" she frowned. "All right, Tom. I wasn't born yesterday. I know something's going on."
Then, they saw the flashes of flames coming from the crystals.
"Uh, would you believe that that's just a little dragon fireworks show?" Tom smiled.
"No more games," she said strictly. "Take me over there. I want to see."
Reluctantly, Tom led Olivia to the source of the noise and lights, and that's when they saw all the chaos. The Riders tried their best to calm the dragons down, but it was impossible, and even their own dragons were acting erratically.
"Plow! Plow!" D'Angelo yelled, chasing after Plowhorn.
"Blade, take it easy!" said James, trying to calm his dragon.
"Wu! Wei!" Jun pleaded to the two-headed dragon. "Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Calm down. It's okay."
"Careful!" said Eugene until a bunch of Terrible Terrors jumped him. "Not the hair!"
All the chaos was going on; the little two-legged dragon continued eating all the fish nuggets.
Eugene managed to grab a few Terrible Terrors, but they dragged him across the slickly surface to Tom.
"Tom, they're going feral, man!" he said. "They've lost it!"
Tom quickly looked at his mother. "I know this looks bad, but I promise these dragons are harmless." He then saw a Terrible Terror swooping down towards them and quickly tackled his mother to the ground. "Ah, look out!"
Jun tried to calm Wu and Wei but jumped off Wu's saddle to grab flying Terrible Terror.
"Don't worry, Dr K!" said Jun as she wrestled with the Terrible Terror. "We got this."
"Yeah! Perfectly normal!" said D'Angelo as he ran away from the Magma Breather.
"This is normal?" Olivia questioned.
"It is a little bit more hectic than normal!" James yelled as he chased after the Hobgobbler.
The Hobgobbler was dropping burning saliva as it flew and ignited the tail of one of the Snowtails. It instantly ran around with its tail on fire.
Olivia then looked at Tom. "Is this what you mean by 'safe'?"
"Yeah, it's not going well," Tom admitted and turned to Thunder. "Pal, I need you to get my mom out of here."
Unfortunately, something was upsetting Thunder.
"Thunder? What's wrong?" Tom asked.
A Terrible Terror began shooting flames in different directions, and one struck a crystal tower. It hit it with so much strength that it cracked and began falling towards Tom and Olivia.
"Tom! Watch out!" Olivia yelled, grabbing Tom.
Fortunately, Thunder was able to catch the falling crystal tower on his back.
"Thanks, Pal," said Tom and Olivia said in unison.
However, something was still aggravating Thunder and the other dragons. Thunder dropped the crystal tower and then flew towards the other dragons.
Tom looked at his mother. "That was close. You okay?"
"It'll take more than some falling rocks to take us down," she smiled.
However, the dragons were still in a mad frenzy and showed no signs of stopping. They were wrestling with one another and shooting flames and lava in different directions.
"We got to find cover!" said Tom.
"Over here!" Alex yelled, gesturing to some crystal formations.
They instantly hit behind the crystals and watched as the dragons battled it out.
"It's getting bad over there," said Jun.
"Tom, we need to leave," said Olivia.
"No. We need to fix this," Tom argued.
"Yeah, they could hurt each other," D'Angelo agreed.
"These are wild animals. Isn't this in their nature?" said Olivia. "As scientists, we act as observers. Let nature take its course."
"No, no, it-it… it's kind of our fault," Tom admitted.
"Respectfully, Dr Kullersen, it's mostly Tom's fault," said Eugene.
"We brought them together," said Jun. "These dragons are all from different realms."
Tom looked at his mother. "The thing is, I thought if I made it seem safe down here, you wouldn't stop me from coming down. So we collected the smallest, calmest dragons we could find…"
Then, the entire ground shook.
"But they're not domiciled today," said D'Angelo. "Something is driving them crazy."
"I guess some dragons don't get along with one another," said Tom.
"Should have done your research, Tom," said Eugene, looking disappointed. "Guess you don't know them like you thought you did."
"But none of this makes any sense," said Tom. "The dragons we brought, I could understand, but our dragons are acting nuts, and they spend a lot of time with one another."
"James is right," said D'Angelo as he looked back at the dragons. "The only thing we don't know is what's driving them crazy."
He then noticed the small two-legged dragon opening its mouth every time the dragons went crazy. However, during the brief moment its mouth was closed, the dragons returned to normal, and that's when it suddenly hit him.
"There! It's that one!" D'Angelo yelled, pointing at it.
Jun glared at Eugene. "You brought that one in!"
"Which one? There's a lot of dragons over there," Eugene pointed out.
Tom frowned when he looked at the two-legged dragon as it was unfamiliar to him. "W-what is that? Was that dragon on the list?"
"Oh, that one? Yeah, it wasn't on the list until I saw him, and then I put him on the list," said Eugene, leaning against his shoulder. "So what?"
D'Angelo rolled his eyes. "Apparently, Tom's not the only one who didn't do his research, Eugene. Things started to go south after that one showed up."
James shook his head. "How come every single time you act independently, we end up cleaning out your messes, Eugene."
"Since when?" Eugene scoffed.
Olivia then walked up to observe the two-legged dragon. "He keeps opening his mouth like he's screeching. But I can't hear anything."
"The dragons sure can," said D'Angelo.
"It's like a dog whistle," said Jun.
"It must be some sort of defence mechanism against larger dragons," James assumed.
"We got to quiet that dragon," said Tom.
"Easier said than done."
"Sound is messing with them, too," said Tom, looking at their dragons, who were getting agitated. However, Feathers just sat there looking perfectly fine. "Well, everyone except…"
"All except mine," Alex noted. "Feathers must be immune to its call!"
"No doubt because of her sonic attacks," said James.
"Ooh, good for Feathers!" said Eugene unenthusiastically. "So what do we do? Get the other dragons' earplugs?"
Tom thought for a moment and then smiled as a small idea crept into his brain. "Kind of. I think I have a plan."
Olivia looked at the others as Tom ran off. "How many plans does he come up with?"
"It's pretty constant," said Alex.
Tom then grabbed and pulled her away.
The Riders immediately made their way to their dragons to calm them down.
"Okay, team," said Tom. "Be ready to go when you hear the scream."
Alex then flew off on Feathers, heading straight towards the little two-legged dragon, avoiding all the other crazed dragons.
"There it is!" said Alex and looked at Feathers. "All right, Feathers. Hit him with the high note."
Feathers flew down, landing before the little dragon and unleashing a sonic blast. The little dragon tried to screech, but Feathers' sonic blast drowned its voice and knocked it to the ground.
The dragons began to regain their senses when the little dragon was drowned out.
"You okay, Pal?" Tom asked Thunder.
Thunder shook his head to clear himself and then nodded at Tom.
"Yes," said Tom, beaming and quickly mounted him. "Go, go, go!"
The Riders immediately took to the air.
"Be careful!" Olivia yelled as they flew off.
Tom looked at Jun when they flew over a group of dragons. "Jun! We need some heavy mist! They won't fight what they don't see."
"Let's turn on the blinders," said Jun.
Jun then flew down over the dragons, and Wu and Wei unleashed a powerful mist cloud over them, blinding them from one another.
"Now, let's shut up, our friend!" said Eugene.
He and Webmaster then flew down into the mist, where Feathers was still drowning out the voice of the little dragon. She then quickly jumped to one side, giving Webmaster a clean shot.
"Webmaster shoots…" said Eugene, and Webmaster fired some webbing, muzzling the little dragon's mouth, preventing it from screeching. "…he scores!"
"That'll so, girl," said Alex as she and Feathers landed.
"Woohoo! Yeah!" Tom yelled as he, James and D'Angelo flew overhead.
They then flew into the mist and quickly approached the dragons.
"Who's hungry?" said D'Angelo, tossing some fish nuggets to the Snowtails.
"Follow us if you want more," said James, holding out his own box of fish nuggets.
The Snowtails followed them as they led them around, but the Terrible Terrors tried to follow them. Tom and Thunder then quickly blocked their path.
"Uh-uh! No!" said Tom. "Nothing to see over there!"
"Let's move out," said D'Angelo as he and James led the Snowtails away.
"All right, little ones," said Tom to the Terrible Terrors. "Party's over. Time to head home."
He then flew down to the ground, and the Terrible Terrors followed but then came to face with the Magma Breather.
Jun then appeared beside him, holding some volcanic rock. "Alex and I'll get that guy home. Why don't you go see about your mom?"
Tom nodded and approached his mother, but not before scolding Eugene as he walked by.
"Take your friend back to where you found him," said Tom.
"Come on, Webs," Eugene sighed as he mounted him.
They flew over the little dragon, and Webmaster grabbed him. They then started to make their way back to the Crystal Realm.
Tom soon approached his mother, who was relieved to see that he was perfectly fine.
"Hey," she said. "Good work up there. You're not hurt?"
"Nope. Made it all in one piece," said Tom, then looked at her concerned. "You okay?"
Olivia looked at the destruction that had been caused by the mayhem. "I'm… definitely ready to go home."
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Tom sighed.
She climbed onto Thunder, and they began to make their way back to the Lair in silence.
Once all the Dragon Riders gathered in the Lair, they all looked at Olivia, knowing she would give them her final judgement.
Tom looked at Thunder and stroked him as his mother approached him.
She sighed as she looked down at him. "Listen, boyo…"
"Wait," said Tom as he rose to his feet. "Can we at least say goodbye to the dragons?"
"Goodbye?" Olivia frowned.
"Well, after everything you've seen today, I'm guessing I won't be allowed back," Tom assumed.
"I don't think any of us will," said Jun as she stroked Wu and Wei.
"Look," said Olivia, looking at all of them. "I understand why you did what you did. Truth is, after what I saw today, I think it's all that safe down here."
The Riders looked at the dragons, thinking this would be the last time they would ever see them again.
"But I see the bond that you have with these dragons and their bond with you," Olivia continued. "The respect that you have for all dragons. That… impressed me."
"Wait. So, you're, you're impressed?" said Tom surprised.
"This is confusing," said Eugene. "Your mom is confusing, Kullersen." Tom and Olivia then both looked at him, which made him uneasy. "I, of course, mean that in the most respectful way possible."
"I'm not going to stop you from coming down here," Olivia continued. "In fact, I have a feeling that I wouldn't be able to, even if I tried."
"Got that right," said Alex.
Tom looked at her, stunned. "Mom, I… I don't know what to say."
"Just say that you won't keep me in the dark," she said.
"Deal," Tom promised. "Hoo! I feel much better."
"She's not going to tell our parents?" Eugene beamed. "Hoo! Swicked!"
"Uh, I didn't say that," said Olivia, and everyone grimaced. "It doesn't feel right keeping them in the dark, either. The dragons' safety is important, but so is yours. They need to know."
Everyone looked at one another, uneasy, as a new problem replaced the old one.