Zephyr Gravemaskr stepped out of his van and was immediately buffeted by a gust of cold, salty sea breeze.
He was a tall and thin boy with an unruly mop of brownish-gold hair atop his head. He wore a gray hoodie and a pair of gray sweatpants that were caked with mud near the bottom. He fidgeted with his right hand for a moment, looking out on the rest of the small parking lot that sat on a cliff just above the shore.
There were a few other cars parked around and a large, yellow school bus letting out a large number of high school students and a handful of teachers.
The beach itself was a protected marine area located down a long winding slope that had been carved into the cliffside and it was covered in tidepools. Above the cliffs were high, sloping mountains covered in protected forest and ringed in dense fog.
If he were here voluntarily, he would've been happy to be there. But alas, he was forced to be a part of a group project for his school science class. He was supposed to go down and categorize as many different species of animal as they could and write down their role in the ecosystem.
He walked over to the rest of the group as one of the teachers was taking attendance. He had already been told who was going to be in his group. Taking a moment to locate them he stood, somewhat awkwardly, next to them.
His group members took a glance away from their phones to side eye him, confirming he was the final teammate.
Allison was, in Zephyr's opinion, one of the best-looking girls in school. She had long blond hair that today was wrapped up into a messy bun, she was wearing a yellow jacket with white accents that displayed the logo for the Orca Point Aquarium and black leggings that hugged her legs tightly. But Zephyr tried not to look out of respect, as he had a slight crush on the girl and he secretly hoped that he could get in good graces with her during their assignment.
Ben was quite a popular guy, as one of the best linebackers the school had seen in its one-hundred year history, it seemed just about everyone wanted to be in his good graces, but he seemed to prefer to stay away from all that attention. It was hard though, as the guy was massive, at 6 '8 and pushing 300 lbs of muscle, he was always easily visible wherever he went. He had long messy black hair and was wearing a blue and white leather jacket emblazoned with their school's emblem and mascot, atop a floral and tiki printed Hawaiian shirt and athletic shorts. Ben gave Zephyr a slight wave and a smile, an action which Zephyr shyly repeated back to him.
Kevin was seemingly the opposite of Ben, he was short and seemingly skin and bone. He was bright eyed and had an excitable demeanor, his hair was well-maintained and he wore a baggy flannel jacket and a pair of ripped jeans. He seemed the most friendly towards him already, giving him a small smile and far more enthused wave than Ben did.
Laura was even more frail looking, she was only 4'10 and probably didn't even weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet. She was bundled up in a pink beanie cap, fluffy-looking scarf, pink turtleneck, black leggings and a pair of heavy-looking boots. She ignored him more than the others, outright refusing to even make eye contact with him.
Finally, after what seemed like an hour, but was actually 10 minutes, the groups were sent out onto the beach. A clipboard holding their assignment in the hand of each group's leader, which in their case was Ben.
The waves crashing against the algae-coated rocks sent spray flying into their face, while the sea winds held aloft a variety of seabirds calling to one another in their shrill voices. Looking up the cliffs, the forest and fog looked even more imposing than from the top of the slope.
The autumn weather sent a nostalgic chill up Zephyr's spine as he imagined the area before humans had arrived. But he knew now was not the time to get lost in his own thoughts. He stayed with his group as they all crowded around a rocky pool.
Even from a glance the pool was bursting with life. Small crabs scuttled over the rocks, a few sea anemones waved their short tentacles hoping to ensnare a microorganism to eat while pink sea stars slowly crawled across the smoother rocks on their strange tubed feet.
After some closer inspection, the group wrote down what they had seen.
"Sea Stars are kinda cute." Allison said, "Is that weird?"
"Uh, no, I don't think that's too out of the ordinary. They're pretty simple and these ones are pink and stuff." Ben said, awkwardly trying to coax a conservation out of the group.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Allison said, raising an eyebrow towards Ben.
"Nothing?" Ben said, confused as to how he may have offended his group mate.
"Heh. Don't worry, you're fine." Allison said with a smirk, reaching down into the water to scoop up a little sea cucumber, that wriggled angrily in her hands.
"Eugh, nasty little things." Zephyr added, watching the pathetic creature try and escape.
"Aw, that's mean!" Allison scolded jokingly, pushing the sea cucumber into Zephyr's face. "You've hurt his feelings!"
Zephyr scrunched up his nose and leaned away from it, which caused Allison to laugh.
"Hey now, we're trying to do a project here!" Ben interjected, convincing Allison o put the cucumber away.
"Hey. Can't people eat seaweed?" Laura said absentmindedly, poking at a huge smelly pile of red kelp that had washed up on the shore.
"Yeah" Allison said, "but, I wouldn't eat that stuff. It's probably full of bugs and stuff."
"Oh…" Laura said, looking somewhat dejected, "what if you washed it?"
"Are you hungry?" Kevin asked, "I packed a big lunch for today. You can take your pick of what you want."
He then thought for a moment.
"Except for the cupcakes, those're mine."
"Heh, thanks, I… forgot to pack anything today."
Laura looked through Kevin's lunch box, which was stocked with all sorts of crazy stuff. He had two sandwiches, cold-pizza, leftover fast food and a whole pile of snacks and chips. How that kid stayed as thin as he was, eating like that, was beyond Zephyr's understanding.
Laura gingerly picked out a turkey sandwich and packet of potato chips and stuffed them into her bag.
"Thanks, I really appreciate it… uh…" Laura said
"Kevin"
"Thanks Kevin."
As he watched Kevin share, Zephyr could hear some loud splashes coming from the beach, he walked over to see what it was and was pleasantly surprised to see a huge pod of Gray Whales moving through the shallow waters.
"Hey guys! Come check this out, this'll definitely get us a good grade on our project!" He shouted over to the group.
Everyone made there way to see what Zephyr was talking about, and were equally as surprised to see the marine giants so close to shore.
The group all stood atop a rocky overhang that protruded a few feet over the water to get a better look at the pod of whales as they passed through. They were all so preoccupied with snapping photos or taking videos that they didn't notice that the delicate structure was having trouble holding all their weight.
By the time the five had realized their mistake they were already being plunged into the frigid seawater and the glowing orange ooze that was floating on its surface.
As all five teens scrambled to get back to shore they didn't notice the substance attach itself to them and absorb into their skin.
Thankfully, they all made it to shore safely, crawling out onto the loose rocks that made up the majority of the beach.
"Everyone, alright!?" Ben called out. Everyone sounded out and reported no major injuries, just a few scrapes and bruises.
"Just soaked and cold is all…" Zephyr reported, with a sigh of relief.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Later that night, once everyone was home. Strange started happening.
Zephyr was currently engrossed in an online fighting game. His character moved across the screen as he effortlessly pulled off combos onto his opponent.
But just as he was about to win he tightened his grip on his controller, and the device split in two!
Zephyr stared down at the broken controller in disbelief, but then he noticed his hands were now a fearsome set of talons.
"What the heck ith-" he tried to say but was cut off by a long giraffe-like tongue sliding out of his mouth, dripping with gooey saliva.
Zephyr rushed out of his room, leaving his online opponent to mercilessly beat his frozen character into defeat, raced into the bathroom and stopped in front of the bathroom mirror.
He hesitated for a second out of fear of what he might see in the reflection, but shook the nervousness off and stared deeply into… his normal face. He looked down at his hands. They were normal too, as if nothing had happened.
Zephyr felt a little dizzy, he decided he would just head straight to bed that night.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Ben was in his basement, which he had retrofitted into a personal gym. He was currently at a large hanging punching bag. Pounding on it was sort of therapeutic after a rather irritating day.
He began to zone out, rhythmically beating it while he did.
But he snapped out of his contemplative state, when a thunderous boom echoed throughout the room. He thought he hadn't even been punching it that hard.
But there his punching bag lied, on the other side of the room, leaking its sandy innards with the chain that had been supporting it to the stand snapped cleanly in half.
As Ben looked down he could just catch a glimpse of scales and a set of bulging muscles fading into nothing.
He blinked in disbelief for a moment, but shook off the strange feeling and went over to clean up the mess that he made before his mother came home.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Laura was sprawled out in her bed, trying her best to ignore the raucous cries from her family in the living room.
She was doodling on a sketch pad, nothing specific really, just some creatures and characters she had thought up for fun.
But as she finished some of the finer details of her sketch, her arm was yanked out to the side as if pulled by an unseen force. It felt like a cramping muscle, but when she looked to inspect the possible injury, instead of an arm there was a huge leathery wing in its place.
She moved her arm and the wing moved as she commanded, whipping up small gusts of air as it did, sending a few papers fluttering across the room.
She was about to scream as the unwieldy appendage flopped about knocking over everything in its path, it melted back into a human hand.
Disturbed by the whole ordeal, Laura got up and flopped onto her bed.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Allison sat at the desk in her room, staring into a little aquarium that sat there. Her eyes darted back and forth, watching the tiny fish that lived inside. She was feeling oddly entranced by the movement, like it was the only thing that mattered to her in the moment. Suddenly her vision got sharper, Allison could distinguish every tiny scale on the fish's bodies as they swam.
Compulsively she lunged her head towards the little fish. But thankfully before she could smash the acrylic with her skull, she was shaken out of the predatory trance by bumping her nose. She rubbed her sore nose, wondering why the hell she just did that.
But those questions were replaced with shock when, in her reflection of the acrylic she saw her eyes had changed from normal to emerald, cat-like ones. A pair of bony horns had formed above her eyes and sharp knife-like fangs were poking out of her mouth. She looked like some sort of devil.
She leapt backwards, falling out of her chair with a loud thud, and scrambled to her feet. She rushed to her vanity mirror and to her surprise and relief she looked normal, but still she was shaken by the strange occurrence. Nervously, she pulled out her phone and started scrolling through an app in an effort to calm down.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Kevin was simply lying in bed, bored out of his skull. He was fading in and out of sleep, as he zoned out staring at the ceiling. But all of a sudden he started to feel itchy… really itchy! He scratched at his arms and back furiously, he hadn't taken something bad did he? The irritation continued as he scratched harder and faster, it felt like his skin was on fire! He only stopped when he felt a sharp poking sensation on his back, and there he saw a handful of big, black feathers he had pulled out of himself.
Kevin tossed the handful of plumage off his bed, now he was fully aware, checking his arms, legs, torso, for any evidence of the feathers, of which he couldn't find any. He clenched his eyes shut and took a deep breath, he was probably just overly tired.
He got out of bed for a moment, stretched and went to his closet. Pulling out a set of comfy looking pajamas, went back into bed and shut his eyes to try and sleep for the night.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
The next day, Zephyr was doing his best to ignore the bizarre events that had happened the night before, getting ready for school as he did most mornings. Thankfully nothing weird happened as he went about his routine. After that he hopped into his gray cargo van, fiddled with the ignition until the engine decided to start, backed out of the driveway and made his way to school.
Once he found a parking spot and pulled into it, he saw a text message pop up on his phone from an unknown number. He opened the notification to read it,
"Meet me in the computer lab before you head to 1st Period, weird stuff has been happening since we got soaked at the beach."
Reading that sent a chill down Zephyr's spine, it must have been one of his group members from the field trip yesterday.
He was equal parts relieved and terrified that the others were seemingly experiencing something similar to him, at the very least he wasn't crazy.
He made his way to the lab, which was completely empty, his four former group members were waiting outside. Zephyr opened the lab door and took a look around, the lights had been turned off, but he didn't see anyone inside so he entered.
Zephyr fiddled with the switch but to no avail, the lights refused to turn on.
"So which one of you called for this meeting anyways?" Allison asked following Zephyr inside, before her tone became darker "and how did you get my number? I don't remember sharing it with any of you."
"That would be me…" a voice spoke out from the other end of the room. "And finding your numbers wasn't too hard either, just had to match your school IDs to some phone records I had dug up…"
The five turned their heads to see who had spoken.
They saw a slimy looking young man in a swiveling office chair, with thick, shaggy blond hair poking out of a black hood that was pulled over his head, obscuring his face somewhat.
His hoodie was covered in neon abstract graffiti designs that formed what looked like a face with a toothy grin on the front.
He tented his four-fingered hands in front of him, as he leaned back as if imitating some sort of comic-book villain.
With a grin he tapped on his phone, and the lights turned on with a loud hum.
As the teens let their eyes adjust to the sudden brightness, the stranger began to speak.
"It seems you all have experienced some… should I say, odd occurrences since your encounter at the beach." He said.
"What are you talking about dude?" Ben asked, stepping forwards and getting close enough to the guy to knock him out if needed. "And who do you think you are? Looking up people's phone numbers isn't cool."
The guy didn't seem at all intimidated by the large teen, instead he laughed heartily.
"Ah! I suppose you would like to know that." He said. "You can call me Zet…"
"What's your real name!?" Zephyr retorted, flanking alongside Ben but staying a few steps behind the larger boy. "None of this secret agent stuff you're trying to pull off."
"Well that is my real name…" Zet retorted, "but enough with the introductions, I'm here to discuss your mutations."
The mention of mutations shocked everyone, Ben and Zephyr enough for their threatening demeanors to soften for a second.
Zet took advantage of the brief moment and rolled back, spinning around inadvertently as he did so.
"I know what you all are going through." He told them as he pulled up his right sleeve, and lifted his hand up. Instantly it began to change.
His ring finger was absorbed into his hand, while the other digits grew longer and more slender, becoming tipped with curved, black claws. Down the length of his arm rusty-orange feathers with black tips sprouted, looking like a bird's wing once they had finished growing.
The five were immediately stunned seeing the human with a bird's wing for an arm sitting across from them.
Laura gasped loudly, the rest of the group looked at Zet in terror, Ben and Zephyr both took a few steps away from him.
"What? Y'all ain't scared of me now are you?" He taunted, wiggling his clawed fingers at them with a toothy grin plastered across his face. "You shouldn't be… you're going through the same sorts of things. Just take a look at yourselves."
He fished a small device from his front pocket, and tossed it in the middle of where the five teens stood. It sent out a small electronic blast, turning on some of the nearby computers and zapping all of them.
They felt like they were all on fire for a few moments. But thankfully the shocks stopped. Laura, Kevin and Zephyr all dropped to their knees once they were freed. Allison and Ben were also taken down to one knee themselves.
Allison was the first of them to open her clenched eyes. And what she saw was truly bizarre.
Where three people had once been there lay three reptilian humanoids, one with a long-neck and spikes, one with fur and leathery wings and the final one covered in feathers and with a bony crest on its head
"What the-!" She roared, quite literally, before clasping her hands over her mouth. Which led her to find her face had lengthened into a long, boxy snout filled with sharp teeth and topped by a pair of triangular horns, and that her hands were now three-fingered with curved, ebony claws. Her now golden eyes widened in shocking realization.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!" She shrieked, loud enough for the room to shake. Zet winced and covered his ears, "Oof, tone it down would ya! You want the entire building to come see this!" He scolded, gesturing at the half-unconscious group. "I'll explain everything momentarily, just be a little patient will ya?"
As if on cue the door handle shook and an older balding man, the teacher whose room was right next to the lab.
"What the Hell is going on in here!? I'm trying to - " he hollered, waking up the fallen three teens and causing all eyes to land on him. before fully taking in the scene before him.
Before the terrified man could run out the door screaming, Zet tapped a few things into his phone, commanding the tiny device to leap up and send a small shock into the man, knocking him unconscious.
Allison shot her glare back at Zet, who raised his hands up defensively.
"He'll be fine! Don't worry!" He retorted "Dude's gonna wake up in an hour completely fine. But, he may have a bit of a headache!"
While Zet assured a furious Ben and Allison, the other three mutants sat on the floor, in shock of their new reality.
"What happened to us?" Was all Zephyr could say, as he looked down at his trembling reptilian hands. He felt as if his mind were completely shutting down, unable to process the sheer insanity that was happening.
"What-" he repeated to himself. It was the only thought he had. "What-"
His numb repetition was interrupted though, when Laura placed a wing-bearing hand on his shoulder.
She didn't say anything, mostly because she didn't know what to say herself, but it stopped Zephyr's violent shuddering.
Kevin finally stood up on shaky, stilt-like legs. His mind was racing trying to figure out how this had happened rather than what.
"This is impossible! A person can't just radically change like this in a few minutes. It defies every law of biological science." He declared.
His statement somewhat puzzled Allison and Ben, though not enough for them to break their deadly glares from Zet, they had already learned their lesson from the first time. But, they were a little surprised that the kid who offered up a sushi menu to use as the basis for a group project would be arguing about the scientific impossibility of his current situation.
Zet shifted his hand back into a normal human's and laced his fingers together.
"By conventional scientific standards you would be very much correct my feathered friend. But unfortunately for you and your friends, there is nothing conventional about the gunk you five stumbled into." He said, fishing a small vial of the goop the group had fallen into at the beach yesterday.
All five pairs of eyes widened upon seeing the faintly luminous, orange substance.
"We've taken to calling this stuff 'Primordial Ooze', and I've been keeping track of it for the past few months." Zet explained, "I've even isolated its biosignature, and kept a constant surveillance of Orca Point since we first found it."
"But how did you know about us?" Laura inquired.
Zet snapped his fingers, "A good question!" He laughed, "Our scanners kept getting periodic alerts for ooze, in each of your homes, and after cleaning up the spill on the beach, where I found quite a few hand and footprints, it wasn't too hard to figure out what happened. A little detective work later, and here we are."
"So you were spying on us…" Ben growled.
"More or less yeah…" Zet confirmed without any hint of guilt "but it's a good thing I was! Unless you would've liked 'going dino' in the middle of math class?"
"We wouldn't be able to administer the antidote either." He made sure to add, with a sly tone. "I take it you'd be interested?"
All five nodded emphatically, drawing an even wider smile from Zet.
"Alrighty then! I've got a van waiting for us behind the building. But first, let's make sure nobody else has to freak out at ya!" Zet announced, tapping another series of commands into his device, shutting down all the lights in the building with a loud, droning humm.
He leapt out of his chair, gathered the five mutant teens and led them through the halls, through the theater department and out a shutter door into the light of day, where an unmarked white van sat conspicuously.
Zet ran to the vehicle on thin bird-like legs that he definitely did not possess before.
"Come on! There's room for everyone here!" He shouted to them, before hopping inside and starting the ignition.
The van sputtered to life and the half-dinosaurs dashed over to it and poured into the back. It was a little cramped but not unbearable.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
The drive was about 10 minutes, over the course of which, not many words were exchanged. Each person spent their time testing out the odd new biological features they had attained.
Finally Zet pulled into a large parking garage, driving until he was at the very end of the spiral cavernous lot. All that was there was an old payphone and a concrete wall.
Zet got out of the van, did a quick check around to make sure no one was watching and punched a code into the phone, which opened a hidden door behind the wall, big enough for a vehicle ten times the size of Zet's van to fit through.
Once fully through the secret door shut and automatically locked itself. Zet then took a keycard attached to a severely overcrowded lanyard and scanned it across a small infrared sensor and pressed a small button labeled SBF4.
With a loud clunking sound the small room turned into an elevator that brought them deep underground. The door opened again, revealing just another parking lot albeit a lot nicer looking, but this time Zet pulled into a space and shut off the van.
"Alright, come on out! The doctor's just down this hall!" Zet called from in front of a glass doorway.
Hesitantly the five teens made their way out of the back of the van, trying their best to avoid detection by anyone.
"It's alright, this area is top secret; everyone who's allowed down here will be more than understanding of what's happened to you." Zet told them in an attempt to get the group to speed up a little. The reassurance seemed to work though, and the group became a bit less cautious, picking up their pace and meeting Zet at the doorway.
Zet quickly punched in another code into a small number pad beside the doorframe, with a click it unlocked and opened with a hiss of depressurized air. Everyone funneled into the small airlock, before the door closed again.
Once that door was closed, a blast of air rushed through the room before the other door unlocked with a similar hiss as before.
They made their way down a wide and well-lit corridor, decorated like the inside of a comfortable house. Short-carpet floors and wood paneling on the walls. Every couple of steps it seemed like there was a large oil painting featuring a dinosaur or other prehistoric creature or a small display of nautilus and other seashells.
There was the occasional house-plant or plush armchair and small end table scattered about as Zet lead them zigzagging through the convoluted maze of halls, passing by a variety of rooms, most of the doors to which were closed but the few that were left open revealed high-tech looking lab equipment.
Finally Zet stopped in front of a door with a plaque beside it reading 'Dr. Theira Langston', it seemed that they had all reached their destination. Zet opened the door, loudly announcing, "Theira! I'm back and I found the kids who managed to get themselves infected!" as he did.
There was a muffled thump, followed by a crashing sound and some whispered swears from somewhere in the laboratory.
"I'll be with you in a minute!" a feminine voice called out to them. "Make yourselves comfortable while you wait." The room was filled with all sorts of blinking machines and whirring contraptions, and the group couldn't help but explore around.
Zephyr saw a huge cylindrical tank full of the same orange goop that Zet had shown them in the Computer Room, speaking of whom, had inserted the vial into a small port on the tank's base and emptied it into the rest of the goo.
Allison walked past a row of microscopes focused on little petri-dishes with small amounts of the goo with slightly different hues inside.
Ben saw a dog-sized, strange-looking reptilian creature suspended in a blue-tinted fluid.
Kevin spotted a few small reptiles and amphibians, preserved in hard resin. He couldn't identify any of the creatures that were inside, though he supposed they were exotic creatures he'd never heard of before.
Laura inspected a variety of potted plants. They were all pretty weird but oddly beautiful. She lifted one up, careful not to knock anything over with her unwieldy winged fingers. She lifted the strange plant closer to her face to get a better look, but the leaves snapped shut as she did trying to clamp down on her beak. She quickly placed the pot back down where she found it.
"Hello there! Sorry for the wait" the feminine voice from before called to them, turning all their attention to a small bird-like dinosaur clad in orange-feathers with black tips, very similar to the feathers that Zet had grown on his arms back at the school.
"Wait a minute you're the Doctor!?" Kevin gasped, drawing a deadpan look from the dinosaur.
"What? You think a woman can't be a doctor!?" She said, sounding quite annoyed with him.
The feather-coated teen backpedaled and raised his hands in defense of himself.
"No! I mean… that's not what I meant… I was just… !" He said in a panic.
The Dinosaur laughed at him, "Oh, lighten up, I was just joking!" She chuckled "Yes, I am a Saurornitholestes, if that's what you were gonna ask. The names Theira."
The group greeted her and introduced themselves as well.
"So were you and Zet also exposed to that stuff?" Laura asked "Why haven't you changed back?"
Theira hesitated in her response, the look on her face gave away that she was thinking hard about her answer.
"Well, you could say that…" she admitted sheepishly "as for changing back I already have. I am a true hatched and raised dinosaur. Though, I could change for a while if that would make you more comfortable."
As she said, her reptilian features were being absorbed back into her body, feathers and scales turned to skin, which was soon after covered by cloth, long, blonde hair grew from her head and her facial structure reshaped into that of a human's.
In less than a minute where once stood a small rusty-colored dinosaur a tall, beautiful woman was in her place.
"I suppose human hands would help a little more in this endeavor as well." She commented. But looking over at the five mutant teens she could see their jaws agape with shock.
"Oh, don't be so surprised, you did the same thing earlier today. And if we're lucky you'll change again soon." Theira told them plainly.
The five couldn't argue with that logic and composed themselves.
"Come let's get you all fitted up for some lab work!" She announced, walking back into the cluttered maze behind her. After another minute of waiting,she came out with five white, maroon and black elastic jumpsuits.
"Put these on." She told them "I don't need any wardrobe malfunctions complicating things."
Everyone took the outfits with a hint of hesitation, they didn't look like they'd be too comfortable and might leave a little too much visible to the world. But a little awkwardness and discomfort was well worth it to become human again.
They suited up in the lab, facing away from each other for some amount of privacy, with their new saurian anatomies there wasn't anything they really needed to hide.
Once they were all dressed in the tri-colored spandex, the group turned to meet and inspected each other.
"Woah… we look like some sort of budget superhero team right now." Kevin observed.
Looking at each other the rest had to agree.
"Yeah, I suppose you've gotta point there." Zephyr said, examining how the tight material hugged his muscles with a grin plastered across his face.
But before Zephyr could continue admiring his new physique, he and the four others were herded out by Theira.
They were rushed down another set of labyrinthine halls, and into another, much cleaner, shiny white laboratory. Filled with advanced looking technology and medical instruments.
"Alright! All of you stand in the main chamber, right there." Theira commanded, pointing at a round portion in the center of the lab, surrounded by clear protective glass.
The mutants all made their way inside, the place was easily big enough to hold them all, with enough room for 50 other people to stand comfortably.
They made themselves comfortable in the chamber, waiting for Theira to do whatever she needed.
After a few minutes Theira's voice blared at them, from the speaker system inside the chamber.
"Alright, you five, I'm gonna need you all to remain calm, in order to get you back to normal, we're gonna have to blast you with sub-zero temperatures, before exposing you to the reversal, which will be administered in a gas form. Said gas is gonna fill the chamber completely. Are you ready?"
"YES!" They all shouted in unison.
"Alright! You don't need to shout by the way, the connection's two-ways!" Theira told them as she pressed a button on her control panel.
There was a sharp click, followed by loud mechanical whirring, within seconds a sickening stench wafted through the air.
It smelled like fresh-cut grass combined with spoiled fish, but Zephyr was managing to put up with it, though Laura heaving and gagging somewhere behind him made it a little harder.
A thick blue slime was oozing from the floor and filling the container, it had the consistency of yogurt and was warm to the touch, which certainly did not accompany the smell very well.
The stuff kept on rising until he was up to their necks in the stuff.
That was until he started feeling a sharp stabbing sensation all over his body, it was a similar feeling to the one he experienced earlier when he was mutated by Zet. Albeit, a bit more intense than before. Zephyr embraced the stinging though, ready to finally be done with this nightmare of a day.
That was before he started growing…
— — — DS:TNM — — —
In what seemed like an instant, Ben seemed to grow another 10 feet in height, with his weight accompanying exponentially. He fell forward and caught himself with his arms. Only now they weren't arms, he balanced himself atop two clubs of flesh.
He yelped, or at least tried too, as instead he let out a loud 'moo'. He then heard a shattering sound behind him, he looked behind him and saw a huge hole had been smashed through the walls of the chamber. The hole had seemingly been created by his tail, which had grown much longer and far more beefier than before.
The gas was pouring out of the chamber quickly, and instantly the lights in the lab dimmed and a red flashing alarm and a loud siren began blaring.
Theira and Zet covered their faces with their lab coats and did their best to fix Ben's mess. The two tapped furiously on the touchscreen control panels in front of them.
After a minute or so of inputs a loud whirring joined the sirens and as giant fans turned on amd the gas was funneled up into the ventilation system.
Once the gas had cleared Zet and Theira uncovered their faces and gasped for breath.
"Is everyone okay down there?!" Zet called down to the group as the gas was still clearing.
Then from the gas cloud a long, snakeing tail erupted skywards before flexing and revealing rows of sharp, porcupine-like spines. The tail lashed about wildly as the owner of the appendage started to panic.
Down below he and Theira could see that, in place of the five mutant teens, stood five large and very unhappy looking dinosaurs.
The cure had worked, technically. While it had removed the ooze from their bodies and reworked their genes to undo the gunk's influence. It seems that the abrupt termination of the process confused the process.
Instead of discarding the reptilian features and leaving the human ones alone, it did the opposite, prioritizing the dinosaur genes, leaving little trace of humanity left.
Thankfully, the teen's minds were intact, but that also put Zet and Theira into quite the difficult situation.
The five were livid to say the least. They had been promised that they would leave normal people, but now there was literally nothing human about them.
In the center of the lab, standing in a shattering containment chamber, were four dinosaurs and a pterosaur.
Among them a massive bull Edmontosaurus. His beautiful red and violet facial markings contrasted with the glare that he shot at the scientists above. That was Ben.
A Ceratosaurus doe, covered head to toe in cryptic black and brown patterns, with faint pink markings scattered about. Her piercing emerald eyes revealed her identity as Allison.
The owner of the spiny tail that snaked out of the fog was a Plateosaurus buck, covered head to toe in black, tan and cream-colored stripes. A row of fleshy spines running down the length of his back. That was Zephyr.
The Gigantoraptor drake with his out of control black feathers, was obviously Kevin. Though he now sported an iridescent sheen to his plumage, lime-green markings on his crest and nape, and a taller stature than all of his peers.
That left Laura as the identity of the timid-looking Ornithocheirus hen, with the sleek black and white pattern. She almost looked like a Puffin, with her coloration, a comparison aided by her bright orange beak, though it was full of needle-sharp teeth.
"Uhh… it seems there's been a little bit of a system error fellas." Zet said, peeking above the safety railing and looking downwards at the quintet. He was trying to choose his words carefully, as he didn't need any more damage to come to the lab, especially from a rampaging teenage dinosaur. "We'll get to fixing our machines ASAP, probably won't take more than a day or two."
That probably wasn't the best thing to tell them at the moment.
The group erupted into pure indignant rage. Bellowing and roaring and squawking angrily at the pair of scientists.
Allison took a chance, and leapt up towards the railing, snapping her jaws at them.
But, while they were quite upset at the events that had happened, the primary contributors to this outlash were the instincts from their new dinosaur brains overpowering their human sensibilities.
As Allison writhed about with her jaws stuck in the metal railing, Zephyr, Ben, Kevin and Laura were starting to panic. Their prey instincts were telling them that they needed to get away from the fearsome predator as quickly as possible.
Thankfully, DeinonyCorps was prepared for the presence of large, irate animals in the lab. Theira pressed a button on the control panel and one of the walls behind the currently broken treatment chamber opened with a metallic groan.
"Go through the door!" Zet shouted, pointing to the gate behind him.
All the teens barring the attacking Allison made their way through, and distanced themselves from the others, but still discreetly tried to keep an eye on the drama in the control room.
Allison, however, continued thrashing about in an instinctual frenzy, until she had gotten stuck in the gaps of the railing. Giving her human mind the opportunity to take control again. Despite her rage at the current state of her body she was more so completely mortified that she had slipped into such a feral state.
"Oh god! What is happening!" She cried, tears welling up in her eyes "I thought you said you were gonna cure us!"
The scientists were feeling extremely guilty about deceiving the kids into thinking they would go completely back to normal.
But watching an apex predator dangling from safety railings, bawling her eyes out made it harder to stay silent.
"I'm so sorry we didn't tell you earlier, but there is no way to reverse the mutation, only modify it to give you back your original forms. But it seemed there was a side effect that gave you a complete dinosaur form."
Zet chimed in next.
"We had never gone through with this procedure with humans before, but we were certain it would work, the math all checked out."
"Just calm down, we'll help you control your mutant abilities." Theira elaborated "We'll also let you stay here and help you adjust to these new bodies of yours as you wait."
"What about my parents, they'll be worried if I'm gone for too long." She added.
Zet, stepping towards Allison to help get her head unstuck, was quick to answer.
"We will notify all your guardians that you would be away for a few days, for an 'academic scholarship' we had offered you." He explained "we can always extend the duration until you're able to stay in human form. And we'll let you make as many phone calls you want whenever you need."
Theira strained as she pushed on Allison's snout as the Ceratosaur pulled. With a faint pop she was free.
She quickly made her way through the door and found herself in the middle of a huge, beautiful forest.
There were trees of many varieties from ginkgos and Magnolias to beeches, poplars and ash while the ground was covered in ferns, berry bushes, cycads, horsetails, palms and mosses. A stream ran through the forest, flowing from a massive, gorgeous waterfall that spilled down a cliffside that ran parallel to the stream.
Allison was quickly followed into the biodome by Zet and Theira, who were quick to clamber down from their control desks and provide another explanation.
"Welcome to the sub-basement 16 Biodome." Zet said, "This is where we were planning to keep any non-human mutants we captured. This will be a safe place for you to stay until we can get you back to your old selves."
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Back on the coast, where the group had fallen into the ooze the day before. Something was stirring. The ocean was beginning to froth as something huge lurked beneath the waves.
A horde of seabirds flew away squawking alarm calls, sea lions rocketed off their rocky sunbathing spots and even whales were spooked calling for their calves to stay close as they swam as fast as they could.
Finally the thing burst from the water sending a column of waves into the air and spray flying in all directions. It was obscured by the seaside fog, but it laboriously made its way onto land and began to crawl up the cliff…
— — — DS:TNM — — —
It had been a few hours since Zephyr and his classmates had been let loose in the dome.
He had spent most of his time exploring and learning how to use his dinosaur body. He didn't find it too difficult all things considered, it was different for sure, it was like he had a long metal rod strapped down the length of his back, forcing him to lean forward and balance.
It wasn't uncomfortable by any means, but with every step he took he felt like he was going to fall forward on his face.
The rest of his classmates were also getting a hang of moving around, Laura even learned how to fly, albeit she was still quite wobbly and preferred to stay on the ground.
Zephyr was content to explore the artificial woodland, which had been appropriately stocked with all sorts of insects and other invertebrates. He kept track of the different species he saw in his head while he listened to a local radio station on a special headset that Theira had given all five of the DinoSquad so they could contact her or Zet whenever needed.
None of them could actually talk as dinosaurs though, they could still communicate, but whenever they tried to actually say something verbally they would just produce a variety of growls and squawks. Instead they were seemingly telepathically linked when in close proximity with each other, allowing them to communicate just by thinking.
He was finally relaxed, as he zoned out watching a colony of ants nesting in a tree hollow, when suddenly his music stopped and a loud blaring alarm screamed into his ears.
Zet's voice then came on.
"All of you get to the doors and step onto the elevator platform, you're coming up to the surface!" He shouted, panic evident in his voice. "There's a mutant up here that's terrorizing the city, it's burrowing deep underground and it's making the entire building and our sub basements lose stability, there is a very good chance we will collapse in on ourselves!"
Taking a moment to recover from the sudden shock, Zephyr made his way across the biodome and into another room that was just a supersized elevator, it remained open until everyone was able to make it onboard and lifted them to another garage where a huge armored trailer sat waiting for them. From inside the garage he could hear the commotion out on the streets with ease. Loud thuds, screaming people and the cracking of rock and earth. Begrudgingly he got into the trailer, followed soon after by the others.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
The truck pulled out of the garage, and through the metal gates Zephyr could now see the carnage taking place.
Buildings were getting trashed, a colossal pit in the middle of the street where the road had collapsed, a waterline was ruptured spraying water everywhere and people were panickedly scrambling for safety.
But as they passed by, another hole in the ground opened up and from it shot a sticky stream of mucous and innards, latching on to the trailer
The truck tried to keep driving but the secretion was too strong and heavy to escape from. Peering out of the hole Zephyr could see whatever shot the mucous at them, surface. It was a colossal Sea Cucumber, just like the one Allison had fished up from the tide pools yesterday, only this one seemed a lot meaner. Zephyr also noticed that he wasn't moving away from the creature and that the trailer was being slowly but steadily pulled towards the sea cucumber's pulsating, whorl-toothed mouth.
Not willing to be eaten today, Zephyr broke down the door of his trailer and leapt out onto the street, avoiding the rubble scattered around as best he could.
Taking a second to realize what was going on, the Mutant Sea Cucumber detached from the trailer, sending it crashing straight into a pile of rubble, and took aim at Zephyr, firing another stream of sticky innards at him. Zephyr dodged the stream and it connected to a building behind him.
The truck was completely totaled from the crash, the driver got out and tried to run away but a stray steam of gooey innards latched on to him, before sucking him into the cavernous mouth of the mutant, leaving Allison, Laura, Ben and Kevin stranded.
"Zephyr! What are you doing!?" Zet demanded from his earpiece.
"I'm getting away from the Gigantic Gherkin over there!" Zephyr shot back, "That thing nearly had me for lunch, thanks to your escape plan! I think that thing wants us more than anything and you brought us straight to it!"
As Zephyr made his escape, the Sea Cucumber pulled on the foundation hard enough to destabilize the building, sending it toppling.
A shrill scream from behind him caught Zephyr's attention, as he saw three people who were falling from the air amongst the rubble, among them a little girl who was the source of the scream.
Zephyr rushed towards them as fast as he could, he reached out and caught the man and woman in his talons, while he caught the girl just by the back of the shirt in his jaws.
He held them close as rubble pelted his back. He flinched as the bricks and metal pummeled him but still kept a firm but gentle grip on the young family.
When the barrage finally stopped he let go of them, pushing them forward to flee the scene.
The two adults looked up at their savior in terror. The father scooped up his daughter in his arms and fled. Sprinting down the street with his wife not far behind.
As Zephyr grumbled to himself, a little annoyed that they thought he was going to hurt them even after saving them a voice from afar called out to him
"Thank you Mr. Dinosaur!" The little girl yelled from her fathers arms. He smiled the best that his reptilian face would allow.
Once the small family had made it past the danger line, the street had been completely evacuated. It was just Zephyr, the sea cucumber and
Zephyr glared at the Echinoderm, knowing that something needed to be done with the thing, and that it wouldn't stop its assault until it had gorged itself on as much ooze it could find.
"Guys I could use a little bit of help out here!" Zephyr said to the others, as he dodged a stream of tangled guts being swung like a mace.
"I… suppose, the extra muscle might be necessary to neutralize this thing." Ben begrudgingly admitted. "This cucumber is really tearing up the whole street."
"Are you sure!?" Laura asked, "that thing is hurling its guts around like a weapon, and I can barely walk around in this body!"
"Not to mention none of us know how to fight, especially without hands!" Kevin added on.
"Guys!" Zephyr said, "This thing is hurting people and we have the unique characteristics that just might take it down! We have to at least try, I was always told that the able have the responsibility to protect the inable!"
Zephyr paused for a moment and sighed "I've spent enough time reading comic books to know that stuff like this happens for a reason!" He pleaded, only to be met with silence.
Finally someone responded, "So this is just an excuse for you to play superhero, huh?" Allison asked. Zephyr's heart sank.
"No I didn't mean it like-"
"I'm totally in!" She finished, catching him by surprise a little. "I'm headed over now!"
"Aw yeah baby! Lets teach that slimy jerk how we do things in Orca Point!" Ben added, "I can't imagine fighting like this will be too different from playing on the football field!"
"Eh, those two quacks probably won't be able to figure out a cure anyways." Kevin quipped sarcastically, earning an indignant exclamation from both Zet and Theira from the other side of their radios, "It'd be better to go out in a blaze of glory, than to some faulty experiment."
Zephyr grinned as best as his reptilian muzzle could, as the three others rushed to his side on foot, the ooze flowing through their veins drawing the Mutant Sea Cucumber's attention.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Laura, being the only one who didn't take Zephyr's offer weighed her options, she was useless if she couldn't fly, her pterodactyl physique made her a creature of the air, not the ground. But on the other hand, it didn't feel right to abandon the others to fight alone.
The fear of making the wrong choice hung heavy in her mind, but if Zephyr believed in her after having only met her yesterday, she owed it to him to at least try.
She stood at the trailer door, the vehicle was still, shattered asphalt lay in a heap below her, a sign that she stood no chance if she failed to take flight properly.
Laura took a deep breath, she focused her mind, took into account the little she had learned from her practice gliding in the biodome.
And leapt.
Using her powerful arms to catapult forward, the rest of her body followed, and she opened her wings. For a moment her eyes were clenched shut, and when she didn't come to a skidding halt, she opened them.
There she was, held aloft by her massive wingspan and air currents.
She flapped her wings and felt herself rise into the air column, her subconscious mind adjusting her wingtips in tiny increments to adjust for changes in the air pressure.
The feeling was exhilarating, but she knew she couldn't dwell on it now. She picked up speed and made her way towards the fight.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Allison leapt onto the Sea Cucumber's back, she tore at its flesh with her talons and bit down on it, attempting to rip a chunk out, but the beast was too heavily armored, and also tasted absolutely awful. As she tried disabling it upon its back, Ben and Zephyr were working on its sides, slashing at it with cleaver-like claws and tackling it. Kevin worked the rear, delivering a series of devastating kicks that, despite their power, seemed to have little to no effect as with the rest of their assault.
"It's no good!" Kevin cried, "This thing is invincible!"
The Cucumber responded by spitting up more organs, using it to reach around itself and tangling around the four, tripping them up and giving the Cucumber an advantage.
It loomed over the struggling dinosaurs, its spiral-toothed mouth drooling in anticipation of the mutant ooze that flowed through their veins.
But, before it could enjoy its meal, Laura delivered several sharp pecks to its head. The sea cucumber reared back to catch the offending flier, showing off its belly to the team below, revealing it to be entirely unarmored.
Breaking free of the disgusting binding, the rest of the team scrambled to safety as several tons of invertebrate armor and muscle came down onto where they had been struggling.
"Laura! Keep annoying it!" Allison called out "Ben! Once that thing rears up again I want you to charge into its belly, knock it over!"
Laura and Ben nodded in confirmation. Laura circled overhead before diving down and delivering another sharp peck to the top of the head.
Once again enraged the Sea Cucumber rose up to spray another round sticky fluid from its mouth, exposing the soft underbelly.
On cue, Ben charged at the mutant, tackling it like he would when he was playing football. The sea cucumber toppled over onto its back with a loud thud, its wriggled wildly trying to right itself, but it was too heavy.
"Zephyr, Kevin come with me!" Allison said as she leapt up onto the soft white belly. Kevin and Zephyr hopped up as well, wobbling slightly due the the unstable flesh beneath them.
"Kevin go to the back, Zephyr you take the head! On the count of three, we all dig our talons, teeth or spines into this thing's stomach!" Allison ordered as she stood in the center of the belly.
"One…" the trio readied their weaponry.
"Two…" they took aim at the stomach, organs sloshing about under the skin.
"Three!" They plunged deep into flesh, ripping through it like hot butter. A spray of greenish blood, and luminous ooze erupted from the wounds.
The mutant sea cucumber shrieked in pain as its mouth and butt both spewed stringy innards in an attempt to break away from the attack. But the trio of dinosaurs atop its belly only dug their talons even deeper into it.
The thrashing was so violent that it threatened to throw the trio off the stomach.
"Ben! Try and hold it still!" Allison called down.
Ben acknowledged her and used his huge body to try and weigh down the mutant, but with it being so much larger than him, he wasn't especially successful. He was, at least, able to keep the body from flopping about as violently as before.
After a while the struggling stopped, and with a wheeze the body went limp.
Kevin, Zephyr and Allison were all breathing hard. They removed their natural weaponry from the wounds, flinching somewhat at the horrid stench.
"Oi! All of you!" Zet shouted from his comm, "Get out of there! Helicopters are coming, and they're gonna have cameras! Head to the garage and someone will let you back down to sub-level 16!"
The group agreed that it was probably best to stay unseen for the time being. They ran back to DeinonyCorps as fast as their legs or wings could carry them.
Only a hundred or so feet from the garage entrance, they could hear the sound of helicopter blades spinning above them.
They dashed for the cover of the garage, and once inside the group carefully made their way to the elevator they had just come up earlier. Waiting for them there was a tall, Native American-looking man with long black hair that had a red streak running through it. He wore an expensive looking crimson suit that contrasted with his black jeans. He beckoned the group into the elevator, with only a tiny bit of urgency.
Once they were all inside, he closed the doors and the elevator rumbled to life and began its descent underground.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
"I saw what you all did." The man said, "that was incredibly impressive, all of you. The way you worked together to beat that mutant."
"Oh? Thanks… I suppose." Zephyr said to the man. "We were just doing what we had to."
Zephyr's lips curved into a grin, he was enjoying this heroic moment a lot.
"Of course, I have some criticism…" the mystery man continued "I would have preferred you brought back the creature alive. And with the corpse out in the open the media will likely to soon be panicking about it."
His statement earned him some weird looks from the group, to which he seemed to realize he had forgotten something important.
"Ah! Forgive me, I've forgotten to introduce myself." He said, "Victor Veloci, I built and own this company."
"Are you another one of those- uh, whatever-o-saurs?" Kevin asked, drawing a short chuckle from the man.
"Saurornitholestes? No, I'm afraid not." Victor replied.
"Well it's nice to know there's another human here." Allison said.
Victor raised an eyebrow at the comment
"I never said I was human either." He laughed, as a grin grew on his face. He blinked and his eyes turned a fiery orange, with slit pupils. And in the next moment, the handsome Native American man was replaced with a crimson, feathered dinosaur with black tiger stripes similar in appearance to Zet and Theira's true forms. He was noticeably larger than them though, and he had vicious, curved talons on his feet, giving away his species.
"You're a raptor." Zephyr gasped, tensing up at the thought of being near such a fearsome predator.
"It seems my kind's reputation precedes me." Victor laughed, "Yes I am a 'Raptor', Ruk'tu to be specific, but your era's scientists called us Dakotaraptor."
"Wait? You're a raptor and your name is Victor Veloci?" Ben asked, stifling a chuckle. That earned him an intimidating glare from the Dromaeosaur.
"Sorry…" Ben apologized, "I don't mean to be insensitive."
With that comment the elevator chimed, and opened into the biodome.
"Zet will have the treatment chamber fixed in a few hours, maybe a day given the structural damage that Holothuroid has caused us." Victor said, "We will have you back to humanoid form at least, and then I can give you a more fulfilling explanation. But for now, keep yourselves busy here, groom each other or something else that primates do to bond.
With that the team made their way out of the elevator, whose doors quickly closed behind them. Leaving the team alone in the dome once again. They stood in silence together for a moment.
"Sooooo…. How's everyone's day been going?" Kevin asked, eliciting a groan from the others.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Victor sighed once the doors closed. When he arrived at ground level, he shifted to human form again and moved to a normal sized elevator.
He tapped a button and rode the machine up several floors until he reached his destination.
DeinonyCorps level 22, his office. It was an ornate room, filled with a variety of knickknacks and curiosities, ranging from fossils to glass sculptures.
He turned on his wall-mounted flatscreen TV and flipped channels until he came to the local news, currently buzzing about the mutant brawl that had just occurred. He tented his hands and buried his face inside of them as he glared at the device.
They were filming the aftermath of the battle from the helicopters outside. One of the choppers even passed by his office with a roar, before he appeared on the screen in front of him.
Victor took a deep breath and clenched his eyes as a picture of him attending a party appeared on screen.
"DeinonyCorps CEO, Victor Veloci, is well known for his environmental campaigns and charitable contributions to organizations such as the Greene Foundation. But have these endeavors reached a terrible conclusion?" A female anchor announced. "Alan Creck shares his views on this shocking attack, in just a moment."
The picture changed to footage of the mutant's corpse, now being swarmed by reporters, scientists and police. In addition to that the mention of Alan Creck caused Victor's headache to grow in severity just a little bit more.
The new anchor appeared on screen, a thin, balding man, desperately trying to hide his baldness with a wispy combover. He wore a stony expression accentuated by harsh features. He resumed from his female co-host.
"DeinonyCorps is no secret to the field of genetic engineering, as are their contributors, the Greene Foundation." He started "The two companies genetic projects range from the release of dozens of once extinct species back to the wild to insects that devour our garbage." The anchor continued, his tone shifting as he got angrier. "DeinonyCorps also provides weapons and robotics to the US Military, what's to say this wasn't a field test and what's stopping them from creating a whole army of these monstrosities! And why stop there!? What's to prevent them from creating modified human super soldiers, deadly super-diseases, man-eating crops!?"
More photos appeared on screen, they were blurry and out of focus but even so showed 5 creatures fleeing from the scene.
"We have here what appear to be five dinosaurs, fleeing from the scene and taking refuge in Mr. Veloci's parking garage!" Creck continued, "If what I theorize these to be is correct, this is a blatant violation of the Lazarogene Wildlife Conservation Act! Which directly states that the usage of genetic technologies to resurrect any species that had gone extinct over 1 million years ago is out of the question in terms of legality!"
Victor turned the TV's volume down angrily, he swiveled his chair so he could look out the window and changed back into his true form. He snarled to himself, Creck had been after him and his company for years.
Victor did his best to ignore the ranting at his expense, expecting this to go on for a while, but was drawn back when a small family appeared on screen.
"Though it seems not all the creatures present at this attack were as dangerous as they seemed, we turn to Summer Sloan, and the Bolton family." The female anchor from before said.
The camera cut to an on location view where a young, pretty, brown-skinned woman stood beside a shaken up looking trio of people, (The very same that Zephyr had rescued earlier.)
"Thank you, Amanda" Summer began, "I'm just outside of the scene of the attack with the Bolton's who were trapped inside one of the buildings here while the attack was happening. But they were allegedly saved by an unlikely hero."
Summer turned her microphone to the family and each of them began to tell the tale of how Zephyr prevented them from splattering all over the pavement of Eschrichtius Street.
As they told their stories, an idea dawned on Victor. A grin crawled across his face, a damn good one if he said so himself.
He got up and headed for the elevator, preparing a short speech to give to the teens downstairs.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
In the biodome the group was chatting and laughing, they had been using the time they were left alone to get to know each other a little. They were thankful that they could all get along rather well and hold a conversation. Currently they were listening to Kevin describe the plot of a tv show he had been watching.
" -At some point Zoro realizes killing people is wrong, so he dumps his boyfriend Ezra for Tethys who he has intercourse with for at least 3 times a day every day. He then starts his own gang, with blackjack and hookers. Speaking of hookers, now there's Ophelia-"
The synopsis was cut off by the light chime of the nearby elevator. The doors slid open and Victor stepped out.
"Hello again children…" he announced, the cold way in which he did got the group prepared for the worst. "I've been watching the aftermath of the incident that happened in front of my building for the past few minutes now."
Before Victor could finish, Zephyr had already stepped forwards.
"It was all my idea Mr. Veloci sir, I made them do it. Just punish me." He announced, head held high and preemptively wincing.
Veloci raised a brow. "Oh, did you now? So no one else here is a hero, just you?" He asked, letting his features soften somewhat.
"Wait, wha-" Zephyr said, taken aback by the seeming 180 degree turn.
"Don't get me wrong, the amount of property damage you caused is atrocious. But you saved a lot of people, so I suppose it was worth it." Victor added.
"So I've decided, if any of you are interested that is, that rather than completely neutralizing your mutations we could suppress them in a way to allow you to change between human and saurian forms at will. That way if another mutation or other such threat should rear its ugly head, you could neutralize it." He explained.
"Of course in addition to your help I will provide you with a salary, training and a free place to stay at DeinonyCorps and funding for any schools you may wish to attend." He said, knowing that an incentive would be needed if he were to get his way.
The offer was tempting to the teens, free tuition and a part-time job as secret heroes. But some of them still held skepticism towards the dino-billionaire.
"And what if we refuse and want to go back to living like normal?" Allison questioned.
"Well, then you'd return to your homes and continue living ordinary lives. I could offer you a position at DeinonyCorps if you showed any of the skills we may need in our other departments." Victor shot back, sending Allison into a reflective state.
"Well I don't need any convincing, you know I'm already signed up for this! I'd be crazy to pass up an opportunity to become a superhero." Zephyr said, bursting with confidence.
Victor hid a smile, he was glad to see at least one of these kids had some form of vision.
Zephyr's overflowing confidence when it came to accepting Victor's offer influenced the others. Something Victor did not fail to notice.
"Well I suppose, realistically speaking, it couldn't hurt to have some support like that." Kevin reasoned out loud, "I'm in too."
Laura, shuffled in place for a moment, before getting the nerve to ask a question.
"So we can stay here however long we want?" She asked. Victor was a little confused as to why she would ask such a question, but he answered in the same cool manner he always did.
"Yes, you can stay at DeinonyCorps whenever or however long you'd like. No questions asked." He said.
"Well then, yeah, I'd like to join the team. Plus flying is pretty cool, I guess." Laura said.
That was already 3 out of 5 teens joining Victor's task force, now he just had to wait for the other two.
As Ben and Allison mulled over their choices, Victor could see the indecision all over them. He could even smell it, causing him to laugh a bit to himself.
Finally it seemed they relented.
"We'll join your little 'DinoSquad' for now." Allison said, "but if things get too crazy I'm snagging the full cure and ditching this."
Victor's mouth curled into a toothy grin, "Of course, nothing's in writing just yet."
Suddenly Kevin's eyes brightened, and some of his head plumage raised, an idea had just come to him."
"Oh that's what we should call ourselves. DinoSquad, it's gotta have a good ring to it dontcha think!?" He said.
The rest of the group shrugged nonchalantly, they wouldn't argue that it sounded pretty alright.
"I suppose that's a good enough title. I was thinking something more along the lines of DeinonyCorps Mutant Task Force." Victor added.
"DinoSquad is definitely better." Zephyr said almost immediately.
"Ah yeah!" Kevin said, with a short hop of excitement. "We're the DinoSquad and we're gonna kick mutant butt!"