GenoSys Headquarters, Downtown
GenoSys was once one of Orca Point's most innovative and important companies, known for creating several super hardy crops that would give more food using fewer resources and trees that were far more resistant to disease.
But, now the decrepit GenoSys HQ building was crumbling where it stood. All of the windows were broken and boarded up, and graffiti and junk were everywhere. Completely abandoned since the 90s, after a young Alan Creck exposed their unethical animal experimentation and a huge fire nearly burned the building down the following day.
For 30 years the building deteriorated in downtown Orca Point. But at long last it would be demolished.
A crew of construction workers arrived at the site with an array of tools and machines, eager to start the job.
Inside the building, a pair of eyes peered through the remains of a window at the people, who were already knocking things down. The eyes narrowed angrily, glaring at the men and women outside. But it wasn't until they began breaking into the building that the eyes left.
"- And I was like, why don't you echolocate your way to my bedroom-." The worker couldn't finish his sentence as he was sent flying by a powerful blow. The man he was talking to quickly turned to see what happened, only just catching a glimpse of a man-sized lizard glaring at him, before a tail sent him flying just like his co-worker.
He landed across the site, completely unconscious before being carried away by a pair of his coworkers.
With a scream, the anthropomorphic lizard leaped forward, landing beside a huge jointed crane carrying a wrecking ball, scattering the workers already fleeing from its previous attack.
The mutant grabbed hold of the machine, claws sinking deep into its steel casing. The mutant strained as its muscles bulged. Eventually lifting the crane and throwing it halfway across the empty lot, landing with an Earth-shattering thud.
The mutant shrieked loudly, letting all know that if they tried destroying its home, it would destroy them.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
The first rays of morning light filtered in through Allison's bedroom window and landed on her face. She scrunched her nose up in protest against the brightness, but slowly she opened her eyes.
With some reluctance, Allison got out of bed and stretched her sore muscles. She was not used to fighting yet.
With a yawn, she walked over to her wall of aquariums, the night before she had inspected each one and was elated to discover nothing had died over the week she had been gone.
She dropped some fish flakes into one of them and watched as a school of Neon Tetras came to the surface to feed.
She slowly went through half a dozen of her other aquariums, taking her time as she watched the inhabitants eat.
Suddenly her phone rang, startling her somewhat. It was Ben. She wondered why he would be calling her so early in the morning.
She answered and immediately Ben started speaking.
"Allison, Theira just called, there's a crazy dude in the DeinonyCorps lobby. He's asking for Laura, and she's freaking out," he said, worry saturating every word he said. "Zephyr's bookin' it over to your place, Kevin and I are taking his mom's car."
Allison was taken aback by what Ben had told her and she didn't know how to respond. She stayed silent on her end of the phone for a minute, trying to let the information sink in.
"Are you still there?" Ben asked, shaking Allison out of her trance.
"Oh! Uh, yeah. I am, I'll get ready as quickly as I can." She said before hanging up. She rushed to her closest, throwing her pajamas off as she did. She stood in front of her wardrobe for a moment and grabbed whatever was appropriate for the weather. She ended up in a Purple sweater with cartoon sharks on the chest and a white pleated skirt. She grabbed a pair of ankle-height socks and rushed out of her room. She cringed upon catching a glimpse of herself in her mirror before heading out. Her hair was a mess, she hadn't showered and she hadn't had a chance to do her make-up.
Regardless of how she looked, Allison sped down the hall, nearly tripping over her younger sister, Elise, as she did.
"Wagh! Watch where you're standing Ellie!" Allison chastised.
"Watch it yourself, jerk! You don't own the halls!" Elise shot back, only to be ignored as Allison was already halfway down the stairs.
"Good morning Mom, Dad! I can't say 'hi' right now, sorry. There's an emergency!" She called out to her parents, as she slipped her feet into her shoes.
"Allison! What do you think you're doing!? We need to talk with you!" Her mom shouted.
"It can wait!" Allison said as she practically leaped out of the door. She spotted Zephyr rounding the corner and ran to meet him.
Before Zephyr even fully stopped Allison was in his van. While her parents watched her from the doorway with disappointed scowls.
Inside Zephyr's van, Allison caught her breath for a second and kicked her shoes off to put her socks on.
"So what's going on with Laura, did Ben or Theira tell you anything?" Allison asked.
"Not really, just that there's a psycho threatening people and that Laura's terrified." He said, "I'm pretty worried about her."
"Yeah me too," Allison said as she pulled down her sun visor and opened the mirror compartment on it, inspecting her disheveled-looking hair.
"Do you have a comb or something in here?" She asked. Drawing out a chuckle from Zephyr.
"No, sorry, when you have hair as perfect as mine, you don't need combs"
His comment caused Allison to laugh.
"I wish I could have your level of confidence!" She said between laughs.
Zephyr's expression then dropped into one of sadness and embarrassment.
Realizing she hurt his feelings Allison stopped laughing and turned to Zephyr.
"Oh. I didn't mean… like that y'know." she said.
"It's fine… Don't worry about it." Zephyr replied quickly, keeping his eyes on the road.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Zephyr and Allison made it to the secret entrance and met up with Ben and Kevin. They all rushed to the Biodome. Along the way, they met Zet, who kept pace with them.
"Oh, thank the spirits you've gotten here! Poor Laura is petrified!" He squawked "Theira's been staying with her, and that's helped a little, but we were hoping you would be willing to stay with her for a while."
"Of course, we're going to be there for her." Allison said, "We're her friends."
"What's the deal with this guy who's asking for her," Zephyr asked.
"I'm not sure, he showed up an hour ago, red-faced and shouting, demanding to see her. He says he's her dad." Zet answered. "Our chief of security has been dealing with him for the past 45 minutes after he threatened to beat our receptionist."
"Yikes." Ben said, "He sounds like a real piece of work."
Zet just nodded, as they had finally arrived at one of the bunk rooms, which was attached to the biodome.
"She's in there."
Ben opened the door and what they saw wrenched their stomachs. They saw Laura, in human form, huddled in the corner with a blanket draped around her and sobbing into it. Theira stood beside her, trying to be of comfort, and while she meant well, was clueless about what to do.
Allison noticed Laura flinch when she heard the door open.
She was the first to come up to her. Allison took a seat on the ground, silently excusing Theira with a nod. Who reciprocated and left to join up with Zet.
Tentatively she placed a hand on Laura's shoulder, she felt her tense for a moment but soon loosened.
They didn't say anything to each other as the boys approached to hopefully aid in whatever way they could.
"I'm sorry guys, I really am," Laura whispered her voice shaky and hoarse from all her crying.
"Don't be sorry." Kevin said, "We're here to help you out now, no matter what. Once you mutate into a terrifying ancient reptile with someone you kinda start to grow pretty close."
"You won't be saying that when everyone here gets thrown in jail 'cause of me." She muttered.
"What do you mean by that?" Ben asked.
"That's my dad up there, he knows I'm here. He saw me." Laura said, sniffling "He's a police officer, and he'll make sure everyone here gets put in jail for a long time. Victor, you guys, even the reception lady, you're all in trouble because I can't be brave enough to face him again."
Zephyr laughed, causing Allison, Ben, and Kevin to glare daggers at him, with looks of disbelief.
"You're brave as hell, "You fought a giant goo-spitting sea cucumber and charged in to fight five dinosaurs to protect Lily, Hell, you defy gravity every day." He said, "I'll go up there myself and get him to screw off, and if he tries to mess with me, I've got a real surprise for him."
"Zephyr you-" Laura started but was cut off by him.
"Don't even worry about it, Vic's probably up in his office right now seeing if he can get away with eating that jerk," he said as he left the bunk and walked to the elevators with a determined look spread across his face.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Zephyr took the elevator up to the lobby, and as soon as the doors opened to the lobby he was subjected to the furious screaming of Laura's father.
Peeking out the door, he could see the building's head of security Peter standing behind the counter where Marion the receptionist usually was. He remained stone-faced with his arms crossed as Laura's father leaned over the counter, accusatory finger pointed in his face.
He was a tall and powerful-looking man, with bulging muscles. He had the same chestnut-colored skin as Laura and the same deep-black hair, though his was cut short to his scalp and flowed into a short, stubbly beard. He wore a tattered gray hoodie and blue jeans, with big, black combat boots on his feet.
Zephyr prepared himself and walked out into the lobby, clearing his throat loudly.
"Hey Chode-muncher! Why don't you get outta here, Laura don't wanna see you!" Zephyr yelled. Laura's dad immediately stopped his yelling and turned to face Zephyr.
"What do you think you're doing talking to me like that brat?" the man responded, dropping his voice from screaming to a deep growl.
Zephyr immediately regretted ever coming up, as he instantly recognized that voice. He swallowed nervously as the man turned and sure enough, Laura's dad was the chief of police, and the guy who nearly had him arrested after he accidentally totaled Fiona's car.
"Oh, uh, n-nothing sir I was just…" he said, hoping he could weasel away back down to the basement. But remembering how freaked out Laura was he did his best to stand up to this guy, it couldn't be that hard! He went toe-to-toe with terrifying mutants twice before! The mutant couldn't get him sent to prison for the rest of his life though.
"Uh… uh, Laura doesn't want you here, you should leave," he said, putting on the best hero face he could muster.
"So my daughter is here, is that right." Captain Correia asked, crossing his arms "The wannabe said she wasn't here today."
Zephyr looked over to Peter who gestured for him to stop talking.
"Uhhh, no, of course not." he said unconvincingly, "She's at… the mall? With friends! And uh, she heard you were here, and told you to stop bothering poor Pete at the desk, cuz you don't need to worry about her." He shot a quick thumbs up to Peter before Captain Correia got even closer than before.
"Listen Gravemasker, I know what kind of a guy you are. It was a MIRACLE you were able to get out of time for your little road rage incident. You said my daughter was here, and I think you're dumb enough to be telling the truth, so unless you wanna catch kidnapping charges, bring her to me. Right. Now. Because you won't be slipping away by the skin of your teeth this time." Correia hissed.
Before Mr. Correia could continue his threats, however. A sharp but loud clap echoed out across the lobby. Victor was standing next to the reception desk.
"Mr. Correia. I would appreciate it if you would stop harassing my employees." He said.
A grin crept across Zephyr's face. 'This is great, Veloci's gonna send this jerk running like a baby." he thought.
Mr. Correia gave Zephyr a final glare, before meeting with Veloci.
"Mr. Veloci? What is that, Italian?" he started, changing his demeanor dramatically to a much friendlier one "My daughter's been away from home for an entire week. I want to see her immediately, or I might have to charge you and everyone who works here with kidnapping and false imprisonment, along with several child labor laws." He said, and despite his facade, his voice oozed with a threatening malice.
Victor feigned a look of surprise, "She has? Well, I'm so sorry, that has happened." he lied, "DeinonyCorps. allows its employees to stay 24 hours should they desire, and Laura's been punching in and out, I had no idea she wasn't going back home at all."
"What even is Laura doing at a place like this?" Captain Correia asked, "How'd that lazy kid manage a job at a place as nice as this."
"We hired Laura via a job fair at her high school, she is a real genius you know." Victor explained, barely hiding his dislike for the man "We've had her working down in our biology labs. You must be so proud to have a daughter like her, she is a valued part of this company in the short time she's been here."
Captain Correia didn't quite believe Victor, but accepted the excuse anyway, before side-eying Zephyr, who stood in the same spot, leaning against the wall and watching him closely.
"I see, and are you aware that Gravemasker kid is a juvenile delinquent? He's trouble, better get rid of him before he-"
"I am aware of Zephyr's history, Miguel, but he is similarly a valued member of our team. I hope you'll treat him with respect. " Victor cut him off, his face darkening as he took special care to enunciate Miguel's name. "I will bring Laura up to you, but she is scheduled for a shift tomorrow, and I expect to see her on time."
Miguel crossed his arms once again and begrudgingly agreed to bring her to work tomorrow. Victor nodded and made his way across the lobby to meet up with Zephyr, whom he took along with him into the elevator.
"So you're just gonna give her to him!?" Zephyr asked in disbelief. "You can't be serious! That dude is seriously unstable!"
"Unstable as he may be, he still has custody over Laura, and I can't keep her here if he asks to bring her home. If she doesn't come back tomorrow, I can send you and the others to check up on her. Miguel is winning this fight today."
The next few minutes were extremely hard for Zephyr to be present in. Victor explained everything to Laura, whose sobs only grew louder as she listened. After being given a few moments to calm down and showing more bravery than Zephyr thought he ever could, Laura shakily got on her feet and dried her eyes.
She took a deep breath and bid them all farewell, Allison reminded her that it would only be until tomorrow and that they would be there to greet her.
Laura just nodded and left with Victor, Ben offered to come with but she rejected him, not wanting to have anyone else see what would happen.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
The next hour was solemn and somewhat awkward, nobody was quite sure of how to continue after such an emotional series of events. Theira came by once or twice to see if anyone needed to talk about what had happened, but she was politely declined.
Zephyr had morphed into full dino-mode out in the biodome, while in his head he went over his encounter with Captain Correia. In his mind everything the police chief said to him was perfectly countered and by the end of their argument, Zephyr had sent the jerk flying across the room with a single swipe of his tail.
He snorted loudly in frustration, it was his fault Laura got found out, if he didn't try to be a hero, she probably could've stayed holed up in the biodome. He shifted into his anthro form, his fists balled up tightly and punched a tree he was standing beside. The power of the blow split the tree in half, sending it crashing to the forest floor below.
He winced a little at a stinging pain in his hand, not intending to hit the tree that hard.
A sound from behind caught his attention. It was Ben. He had a sympathetic look on his face.
"Hey man, everything is all right. You did everything you could to help out, and ultimately Laura will be back tomorrow. So, y'know, don't beat yourself up about it."
Zephyr didn't say anything but he nodded to let Ben know he heard him.
"Anyways, Zet says some construction workers got chased out of a demolition site they were working on this morning. Whatever it was, it was able to pick up and toss an entire crane and wrecking ball." Ben continued, "They want us to check it out."
"Alright let's get going," Zephyr said, hoping that going on a mission would help him feel a little better.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
The van ride to the site of the abandoned GenoSys building was rather uneventful, though Zephyr flinched whenever he heard a siren, be it from a police car or ambulance.
When they arrived at the site, all four of them were shocked to see a heavy-lifting crane flipped over on its side.
"That's probably not a good sign of what's waiting for us there." Ben said, "Everyone Dino-Up, and be ready for a fight."
Everyone shifted into half-dino mode and made their way inside the derelict building. The walls were covered in graffiti of all kinds, piles of junk and sheets of plywood leaning against the walls made the once spacious hallways feel cramped, the floors and walls were rotting away, and a thick layer of dust and other detritus covered the floor. Needless to say, the place was already pretty dangerous to be in regardless of whatever was inside.
It didn't help that it was nearly pitch-black inside, due to all the windows being all boarded up.
Though, thankfully, with their mutant eyes the darkness wasn't as much of an issue as it would be to human eyes.
"Hello?! Is anyone here!" Kevin said, "We know you must be pretty scared about your mutation, but we're not gonna hurt you!"
"Kevin shush!" Ben whispered, "We don't know if these things are friendly yet!"
"Sorry." Kevin sheepishly replied, "Just thought I'd see if that would work."
As they walked through the junk-strewn hall, they failed to notice a pair of emerald green eyes watching them from the air vents near the ceiling.
After about twenty minutes of combing the building, the team (or at least Zephyr) was beginning to tire out.
"Maybe whatever it was moved on?" Zephyr asked, "We've checked out this whole building and there's nothing here!"
"Zephyr," Allison said, turning to face him, clearly annoyed. "Would you just shut up and be patient, you're doing the same thing as yesterday. It's only been 20 minutes! It's not like the mutant is going to come out of nowhere and try to fight you!"
Then, as if to contradict her, a loud thud erupted from in front of the group, drawing all attention to a seven-foot-tall bearded dragon who stood before them.
"Get out." It snarled at them, getting into a fighting stance.
"Hey, it's okay fella, we're here to help you," Kevin said, taking a tentative step towards the lizard. "You can't stay here though, we have somewhere safe you can stay if-"
Kevin was cut off as the lizard spun and whipped his tail at Kevin's legs sending him falling to the floor with another loud thud.
"Shut up," he said, as he placed a foot on Kevin's chest and pressed downwards, making the floor creak dangerously.
"Get off of him!" Zephyr yelled and charged at the mutant. He unfurled his claws prepared to wield them like daggers, his arms trailing behind him as he ran.
Zephyr leaped over where Kevin was lying and brought his claws forward, but the lizard reached out and grabbed him by the neck. Zephyr resorted to blindly swiping in front of him, but the creature's scales were too thick and his claws only barely scraped away at them.
The lizard threw Zephyr back at his group, where he collided with Ben sending the both of them tumbling back to the end of the hall, making a crater in the drywall as they came to a stop.
"Hold on! We aren't here to hurt you, honest!" Allison pleaded as the lizard took a few steps forward. His eyes locked with hers.
"I'm not stupid, I know exactly who you are and why you're here!" he said.
"Ah, well who do you think we are? I'm sure this is a misunderstanding!" Allison asked.
"You're the next phase of Project: Scale. Trust me when I tell you that I don't take any pleasure in ending your lives, but I can't let GenoSys get their hands on my family again." he continued, continuing forward and flexing his muscles in preparation to end her.
"I'm not with GenoSys!" Allison said, shifted into her human form, and pointed to the company logo that she had sewn on the inside of her jacket. "I'm a part of DeinonyCorps! See! We've been helping out any mutants that show up in the city for the past couple of weeks."
"If you want to help, then leave. I'll let you take your brothers this time, but if you dare come back here again, you won't be coming out." the lizard said.
Allison thought to correct him on her relationship with the others but decided against it.
"Alright, we'll leave. But those construction workers will keep coming back, along with who knows else." She told him. "If you ever change your mind, DeinonyCorps it the big maroon building on Eschrichtius Street."
The lizard huffed in acknowledgment. "Just get lost."
Allison spent the next few minutes, coaxing her teammates back awake. As she did she could see two bright green anthropomorphic geckoes peeking at her from in the air vents and even a large snake coined up in the clutter behind the lizard, who was currency watching over her, just to make sure.
"So, you live with those other lizards watching us, right?" she asked as she was picking Kevin up out of the miniature crater his body made on the floor.
"What?" the lizard asked, showing her the first semblance of emotion she had seen from him."
"Yeah, two green geckoes up in the vents and a snake or something in those boxes behind you."
The lizard stomped over to the vents and called up to it.
"Phelma! Luna! I told you to stay away from these strangers, they could be dangerous!" he yelled.
"Aw! But they don't seem like they are!" one of the voices echoed out from within the vent, belonging to a female, much younger than the lizard.
The two crawled out and stuck to the walls just out of reach of their older brother. "Hi there," the slightly larger gecko said. "I'm Luna, and this is my sister Phelma." she said, "You can call Big Brother Sal, he won't like it though. He doesn't trust anyone new."
Allison had to stifle a laugh, this little mutant acted almost exactly like Elise. She gave them a small wave. Sal attempted to shoo them off but the geckos weren't intimidated in the least.
"What are you doing, telling her things like that!? We don't know-"
"Oh chill out Sally, these four don't stand a chance against you alone, if we needed to we could dispose of them easily. Or at least the boys, I wouldn't mind another girl joining the family." a third more mature-sounding female voice said, belonging to the snake Allison saw curled up in the boxes.
"That's Vee." Luna said from her perch on the wall, "She's our big sister."
Vee stared down the gecko girl, and flicked her tongue out, causing her and her silent sister to scamper away.
"Now don't think me being polite overturns Salvatore's verdict," Vee said. "Come back here again uninvited, I'll wrap my coils around you until your eyes pop out of that pretty face of yours. You got that?"
"Loud and clear," Allison said, followed by a nervous chuckle, finally, she was able to wake up her teammates and lead them back to the van parked outside, where they promptly passed out again.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
While Allison and the team were dealing with the mutants, Miguel Correia had dropped Laura off at his home, after a long and vicious chewing out. Fortunately for her, Miguel was called back to the police station. The demolition workers told the police about the attack and the station agreed to have its best officers clear out anything living in there. Miguel, as the captain, was supposed to be there as well.
Waking into the police station, Miguel was greeted by Daniel Milliken, his Deputy Officer. Daniel was a stocky Irish man, who was in the early stages of ballooning out in the mid-section, he had ginger hair that was shaved down to his scalp and his skin was usually bright red and glistening with sweat.
"Hey! Look who finally decided to show up to work," he said, "You ready to flush these bums out of the building? Me and McMulligan are having a bet on which of us can arrest more of 'em. A hundred bucks on the line, you want in?"
Miguel's scowl contorted into a crooked smile at his deputy's proposal.
"Ah, Danny! You always know what to say to get me excited for one of these stupid city calls." he said, "Why not!? I'll throw in another fifty, what'll we charge 'em with?"
Daniel laughed heartily, "There's the chief I know! What won't we charge the dirty squatters with? Resisting Arrest, Assault on a LEO, Trespassing, Property Damage. Hell, we could probably make something up entirely and I bet it'd stick."
"Nice." Miguel said, "That'll help take my mind off the headache this entire day's been. Let me get my stuff and you can gather the boys by the squad cars, we'll head out when I come back."
"You got it, Chief. We'll be waiting for you." Daniel said, before patting Miguel on the shoulder and walking off, gathering officers as he walked through the station.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
It had been about half an hour since Allison had gotten everyone back in the van. They had since morphed back into their human form.
"That mutant was talking to us by the way. Are we just going to ignore that?" Ben asked
"Honestly with all of you getting creamed by him, that was the least of my concerns. Besides, we already knew the mutants were pretty smart." Allison explained,
"Still it's pretty wacky that some mutants can come out as, like, basically people." Kevin said, "That's like something right outta a comic book. What do you think Zephyr? You're the comic guy here."
Zephyr didn't respond, he was in the back of the van blankly staring into the roof, completely in his world. It took Allison throwing a pen at him to shake him out of his trance.
"Huh, wha- I'm sorry. I… wasn't paying attention," he said.
"What's wrong, you seem down," Ben asked, turning around in his seat to face Zephyr.
"Oh- It's nothing really," he said, but a glance at Ben and Allison's skeptical expressions told him they wouldn't buy that excuse.
"Well, I don't know… maybe it was a mistake to convince you all to do this. Or at least, it was for me to be here," he said. "We haven't done anything important yet.
"That's not true, the Sea Cucumber would have destroyed the whole street if you didn't jump in. Not to mention Max and his friends would have killed Lily."
"You all have been the ones to solve those problems, all I've done is whine, and then lose the most recent fights we've been in." Zephyr said, "I dunno, I just feel like-"
He was cut off by the sound of police sirens coming near.
"What's going on out there, It looks like every cop in the city came out here!" Kevin asked, looking out the window, and sure enough a dozen squad cars were parked outside the GenoSys building, with a pair of officers in each.
Zephyr watched as Captain Correia pulled a megaphone out of his trunk.
"All right! Anyone in there better come out right now with their hands up, or else we're coming in there and getting you out ourselves!" he shouted, he waited a minute for a response but received none. "Alright we warned you!" he said, with a hint of glee in his voice as he tossed the device back in the car and ordered all his officers to follow him into the building.
"Oh man, this is bad, who knows what Sal will do to those guys," Allison said.
"I'm more worried about the mutants." Ben said, "Those guys probably won't take too well to seeing each other."
"The cops or the mutants?" Kevin asked.
"Both."
"Well let's keep a watch out, listen for anything that might happen. Shouldn't be too hard, if our encounter was anything to go by." Zephyr suggested, already out of the van and hoping for a chance at redemption. "We'll just have to sneak around a bit. But there's plenty of good hiding spots around here."
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Miguel had his men spread out to cover every inch of the rundown building. He prowled the halls keeping his eyes open for any sign of human life, he had performed raids just like this dozens of times.
Though this was different, not even the slightest hint of anyone having lived in the building.
He continued to search until, finally, he saw something in his flashlight beam. He called over the two officers he was with to come look at it.
"It looks like a leather bag of some kind?" a brown-haired officer theorized.
"More like gator-skin." a blonde corrected, as he went to pick it up.
However, upon grabbing it, it became apparent that this wasn't a piece of clothing.
"Oh god. That's skin!?" the brunette said, cringing. "Put it down, that's disgusting!"
Miguel was more intrigued than his colleagues and grabbed it from the blonde.
"Bizarre, it looks like scales." He thought aloud, "Looks like we got a freak on our hands."
Miguel's eyes were then drawn to a trackway carved into the dust that led around the hall and into a blocked-off room.
"Radio everyone down here. I think I know where our freak is hiding."
In only a few minutes over twenty officers were gathered in front of the door, Miguel had put them all in formation, ready to storm in and catch any and everyone inside the room.
He kicked the door open, gun raised, and screamed, "On the floor all of you!"
However, instead of a group of homeless people, Miguel was greeted by four monstrous reptilian creatures, their eyes reflecting in his flashlight beam as they stared at him.
And before he could do anything else the largest of the creatures charged at him with a horrifying roar.
Miguel shot at the beast and ducked out of the way. The bullet simply bounced off the creature's craggy scales as it kept on its path. Plowing through the officers and shrugging off bullets like it was nothing until each officer's handgun was empty.
The creature roared again, sounding like it was telling them to 'leave' and everyone scattered, scrambling over one another to do as the monster demanded.
Miguel followed but before doing so he aimed behind the creature at one of the others that clung to the wall. He pulled the trigger and with a shriek of pain, one pair of eyes fell to the floor. They weren't all as bulletproof as their friend. Miguel followed the rest of the officers out of the building with contentment, as a loud 'NO!' echoed through the halls.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
All the squad cars sped off of the property, allowing Zephyr to run back to the van and tell everyone about what had happened.
"It was a total firefight in there, gun blasting!" he started. "It sounds like something got hit, someone grabbed my first aid kit. I keep it under the driver's seat."
Allison immediately began to fish around beneath the seat until she pulled out a faded and scuffed-up-looking plastic container that at one time had a red cross on it.
"I have some experience with veterinary medicine from when I worked at the aquarium, Ben and Zephyr came with me! Kevin, you stay in the car and contact Zet or Theira. Come on we gotta be fast!" she explained, as she rushed into the building carrying the first aid kit under her arm. Zephyr and Ben followed close behind.
Once inside, Allison immediately began calling out.
"Sal! Vee! Luna! Phelma! Are you guys alright!?" she yelled "We heard what went down. We have medicine and bandages!"
There was no reply for a good minute as the trio ran through the building, shifting into half-morph as they did for extra speed.
Allison was about to call out again when she spotted a bright green blur up on the wall coming towards her.
"Luna got shot bad!" Phelma cried, tears streaming from her eyes. "We don't know what to do, she's bleeding a lot!"
"We can help, I'm sort of a doctor! Please take us to her!" Allison said.
Phelma nodded and led the group back to where the fight had happened.
When the trio burst into the room that was once a state-of-the-art genetics lab, Sal immediately tensed.
"What are you doing here I thought I made it clear-" He started, but Allison was in no mood.
"Shut Up Sal!" she snarled, baring her flesh-tearing Ceratosaurian teeth. "Your little sister is bleeding out on the floor with a bullet in her! I'm going to help her and unless you want her dead you need me here!"
Sal was taken aback by her outburst and stepped back to allow her access to Luna.
"Vee, I need you to put pressure on her. Zephyr cleans the area around the wound, Ben lifts her onto the table!" Allison ordered.
Everyone did as they were told, without a word. Ben set the gecko down gently on a table that he cleared of junk as Zephyr used a tattered old curtain to wipe all the blood away from the bullet wound while Vee wrapped her tail around Luna's chest, just tight enough to restrict blood flow to the rest of her body.
"Good! Zephyr see if you can find anything useful in the lab, forceps, staplers, blades anything! Vee keep your hold on her, can you tell me anything about her pulse." She said as she opened the kit and pulled out some rubbing alcohol and dabbed it around the wound. She could see Luna flinch at the stinging pain but ignored it.
"It's fast, but that's normal for her," Vee said.
"Alright keep me updated," Allison replied as Zephyr returned with a pair of tweezers and a stapler.
"I couldn't find any knives or scalpels or anything," he informed her.
"Try just using your claws." Ben suggested, "Both of you have pretty sharp ones."
"Good idea," she admitted. "Zephyr, I'll need you to cut about an inch-long incision down from the bullet hole."
Zephyr nodded, hesitating for half a second when he got to the wound, but he strengthened his resolve and followed Allison's instructions.
Luna squeaked in pain as the incision was made but otherwise kept calm.
Allison shifted back to human with the tweezers in hand. She wiped them down with an alcohol wipe and carefully, she inserted them into the wound, feeling around for the bullet.
The next minute felt like an hour, as everyone stood silently in the room with held breaths. Finally, Allison's face brightened, and slowly she pulled the bullet out of Luna's stomach, letting the offending object fall harmlessly to the floor.
"Alright Zephyr, get me the stapler and the bandages." She said,
Zephyr handed them to her and instantly she took the skin around the incision and stapled it together to close the wound. Then she began to wrap Luna's torso with the bandages until they were nice and tight.
"There, it should be all better. Vee you can take yourself off of her." Allison said as she stepped back.
Vee carefully uncoiled her tail, and similarly slithered back to give her little sister some space.
Sal stepped forward to see her.
"How do you feel? Any better?" He asked
Luna groaned as she sat upright. "I'm fine, better now. Sore, but at least I'm alive." She said,
"That's good," Sal said, as a smile grew across his face, despite him desperately trying to keep up a stoic visage.
"Thank you. I don't know what we would have done if something happened to her." Sal said, "And, uh, sorry. For beating you up."
"It's no problem." Ben said, "We're just happy to be able to help. We'd like to think of ourselves as heroes. Y'know, doing something important." he looked over to Zephyr as he said the last part. Forcing him to smile, and look away in embarrassment.
Just then, Ben's phone started to ring. It was Victor. Ben picked up.
"Hey Vic, wassup?" He answered. The two talked for a moment, with Ben mostly just giving yes or no answers.
"Alright, I'll put you on a video call," he said after a while, taking the phone away from his ear and pressing a few buttons.
On the phone screen sat Victor, in full raptor morph.
"Hello everyone, Kevin briefed me on today's mission. It seems everything is all right now," he said, once Ben had turned his phone to face the two groups.
"Woah, is that some kind of mini TV?" Luna remarked. "That's wicked!"
Ben laughed, "Kind of. This is Victor Veloci, he's our boss, and he can see and hear everything you do."
"Wow! That's so cool! Do you think I could get one of those?!" She said,
"Maybe, we'll have to see." Ben told her, before turning his attention back to the phone, "Anyways, Victor, yeah, we're all good here. Luna there just got shot by the police when they raided this place. Allison took charge and got the bullet out."
"That is very good to hear! However, I am still concerned that this incident will only be the first of many. The company that bought this property will send more people to try and get our reptilian friends out. Some of them may bring more than guns."
"Yeah? And what are we supposed to do about it? This is our home!" Sal said, "We don't exactly have a lot of options to stay!"
Victor nodded, "I am well aware of that, but you cannot continue to live in that building."
A growl rumbled from deep within Sal's throat, "What are you gonna do? Drag me out!? I'd love to see you try!" he said
Victor glared at Sal, getting him to shut up for a moment.
"That's why I'll be giving you a new place to live." Victor continued. I had a smaller office building built downtown. I originally planned for it to be a place where I could have the financial department move, but I think this is a bit more important."
"Wait… really?" Sal said, "You'd do that for us?"
"I would." Victor said, "Under three conditions! One! You keep the building clean. Two! You'll allow a few of our scientists to use the building and you will not interfere with what they are working on. And Three! If we find another anthropomorphic mutant in need of a home, you'll accommodate and welcome them."
"Of course! Yeah!" Sal said, "Thank you, sir. Thank you so much!"
"You're very welcome. The building will be ready for you to move in by tomorrow. There I can meet you in person and perhaps discuss decorations for your new home." Victor said before hanging up. Leaving Sal, Vee, Phelma, and Luna all speechless.
"What did we say, we're here to help you out," Zephyr said.
Sal didn't say anything but he pulled him and Allison into a tight hug.
"Consider yourselves part of the family! If you ever need help from us, don't hesitate to call on us!" Sal said.
"Th-thanks!" Zephyr said through choked gasps. "Glad you happy"
"But we can't breathe…" Allison added.
Realizing he was squeezing too tight, Sal loosened his hug on the two, letting them fall to the floor.
"Sorry," he said sheepishly.
"And I thought Vee was the Boa constrictor around here." Ben laughed as he went to help his friends up off the floor.
"I'm a python." Vee corrected as she pushed Zephyr to his feet using her tail.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Laura sat in her empty bedroom. Her father had come home an hour ago. Extremely irate.
She knew about what had happened at the GenoSys building due to Allison recounting what had happened over text.
Then, a notification popped up on her phone 'Distressing Video: Orca Point police chief Miguel Correia attempts to arrest DA Yan Clerin resulting in violent altercation.'
She held her breath as she heard her father's boots stomping down the hall towards her. She knew he didn't take failure well, and even the smallest thing would set him off. So two very dramatic incidents in one day could've very well sent him over the deep end.
She felt her heart stop as she saw her door handle jiggle. She had locked it earlier in the day and hadn't come out of her room since. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, as Miguel kicked the door off its hinges, splintering it and sending small fragments of wood across the room.
She felt her heart stop as he approached her, she knew what was coming and knew there was no way she would escape. So helplessly she sat there on the floor as he put his hands on her.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Fingers shaking, Laura scrolled to the bottom of her contacts. She focused on the velociraptor skeleton she had assigned to the contact, debating whether or not it would be a good idea to call him.
A sudden jolt of pain from her ribs and stomach ultimately convinced her and she called him
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Victor was sitting at a table in a high-scale restaurant. Across from him was a representative from a big tech company he hoped he could make a deal with, both commercially and for his 'side-project'.
He had ordered a large tomahawk steak, rare, and as much as he would have liked to tear into it with his teeth, he gracefully cut off small pieces to pop into his mouth whenever there was a break in conversation. He wouldn't even bother with the potatoes and green beans.
The representative talked on and on about the other companies who had tried to partner with her company and about how prestigious and successful it was. Honestly, he was getting bored of her, but he wanted to get his talons on the company's tech.
When his phone started to ring, he was all too happy to get a short break from the representative's constant talking.
"Ah, apologies, Ms. Clein, this is my personal cell. It must be important." He said, fishing the phone from his pocket.
"Hey Laura, what's going on?" he greeted "I'm having a bit of a meeting right now. Can whatever it is wait?"
"Victor, you gotta send over the team or someone, things are getting bad over here. I think my dad's lost it. I don't know what to do. I would've called the police but they all work for him and I just-" Laura spoke frantically, and in between sobs and sniffles before breaking down entirely. "I just wanna go back to the dome and get my wings back."
In the background, Victor could make out shouting and the sound of something shattering, before Laura hung up.
Victor slowly took the phone down from his, his index finger started twitching as a hundred things ran through his mind.
"Mr. Veloci, are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost." Ms. Clein asked, shaking Victor out of his trance. "I'm… incredibly sorry. But I have to go. There's an emergency."
He dropped a hundred dollars and a business card on his side of the table.
"That should cover my meal, part of the tip, and an apology from myself for cutting this short," he said, grabbing the bone of his tomahawk and taking a huge bite out of it as he left.
— — — DS:TNM — — —
Victor drove from the restaurant straight to the home Laura had put as her address when she decided to join the DinoSquad.
He parked in the driveway behind the crooked squad car and walked up to the door. He started to pound on it repeatedly and forcefully. Almost subconsciously he began to de-morph his hands and face, growing his fearsome fangs and talons in the process, but kept his instincts under control and morphed them back to human.
"Correia! Get out here NOW!" he shouted as he continued to pound on the door. After another minute of furious pounding and shouting, Miguel finally answered the door.
"What the Hell do you want!" he shouted. Victor pushed his way past Miguel and into the house.
"I want to see your daughter!" Victor snarled.
"What the hell do you care!? You're just her employer, I'll send her over to you tomorrow." Miguel said defensively, trying his best to put his body in between Victor and the hallway to Laura's room.
"I care when a kid calls me, crying, because she's so terrified of her father," Victor said, pushing Miguel out of the way, causing him to stumble and trip.
As Victor walked down the hall he heard Miguel stumble to his feet and swear, before mumbling under his breath "I can give her something to be afraid of."
Victor ignored him as he walked down the hall, where he found Laura's door cracked open. He opened it fully and was completely horrified to see Laura lying on the floor, horribly bruised and bleeding in a few places, but thankfully breathing.
He knelt to try and wake her up, he nudged her shoulder, praying for a response. Her eyes fluttered open and she gave Victor a weak smile.
"You came?" she asked. "Where are the others?"
"It's just me today, come on I'll take you back to the - ARGH!" Victor said although he was cut off when Miguel hit him over the back of the head with a baseball bat, sending him falling to the floor beside Laura.
"So you called him?!" He demanded, "Girl, you don't know how much trouble you're in!"
Laura didn't answer but from beside her she heard Victor groan and saw him beginning to change.
"You have this treasure of a girl and you do this, just what the hell do you get off on treating your hatchling like that!?" Victor growled as he grew and his bones changed shape and shifted position inside his body. "You don't know how lucky you are to have her. What some of us would give to have their children with them, to love and hold them. Truly you are everything I can't stand about your species Miguel."
Soon Victor was full raptor, and staring down Miguel.
"What the Hell are you!? Some sort of weird bird?!" Miguel asked as he dropped the bat.
"I'm your worst nightmare. And if you ever so much as touch her with those hands of yours again, I'll bring down a form of wrath you couldn't even imagine. A little reminder of why and how. my kind ruled the planet so much longer than you." Victor said, making sure he didn't break eye contact, as he bared his sixty razor teeth and tapped his killing claws on the floor.
"I-I'll have you arrested for breaking and entering,and Kidnapping! I'm still the chief of police!" Miguel protested.
"I'd like to see you try!" Victor shrieked "I'm the richest, most powerful raptor in this city, you honestly think you could touch me!? All I'd have to do is show any jury those bruises you gave her and they'll send you off to jail before you can say one word!" Victor shot back, lunging at Miguel and sending him falling to the floor again.
"Come on Laura, let's get you back to the dome." Victor said as he turned back into his human form and helped the girl up. Holding her as they made their way to his car.
"Are you hungry at all? I didn't get to finish my dinner tonight. I can have Zet run out and get us something." He asked her.
"I could maybe go for a burger." Laura admitted as she put her seatbelt on and Victor pulled out of the driveway.
"Awesome. Alexi, call Zet." Victor said as his hands-free phone dialed up the Saurornitholestes, and they drove back to the DeinonyCorps. building.
— — — DS: TNM — — —
Miguel sat at his favorite bar, he rubbed at a huge bruise on his side while he nursed on his drink. He gave up trying to rationalize what had happened earlier. He had called the police station and explained what happened, but the dispatcher just told him that she wasn't supposed to talk to him and that he should stop drinking for the night. He supposed it would be easier to just drink and try to forget.
Looking up at one of the TVs that hung in the corner he saw the news playing instead of his preferred football. The current story was about his assault on the District Attorney, and he could see his body cam footage being played for everyone to see, something he had always done his best to avoid happening his entire career.
"Hey, somebody change the channel! The games on!" he called out but everyone's eyes were glued to the screen.
The anchor, Alan Creck then appeared on the screen. Which Miguel took as a good sign, as the man was a staunch police supporter, and would blindly support anything his department did. And while he wasn't wrong, the next words out of Creck's mouth shattered his entire world.
"And Unfortunately, it seems that this simple mistake has cost Captain Correia his job. As we can see here in a post made by the Orca Point police." Alan said, as a social media message appeared beside him reading, 'In light of the recent unwarranted arrest of District Attorney Yan Clerin and the excessive force used against him Miguel Correia has stepped down as chief of police.'
That was certainly news to Miguel, as he stared dumbfounded at the TV.
He was shaken out of his shocked state by a man next to him, sipping out of a frothy stein.
"Man what an asshole, glad he's out of the justice system." he mumbled to himself.
That made Miguel snap. With a shout, he leaped from his seat and punched the man off of his stool, sending beer flying and drawing the attention of the rest of the bar.
Miguel continued to wail at the man though, kicking him before pouncing on his chest and starting to send a flurry of punches into his face. The four other patrons in the bar plus the bartender, all rushed in to restrain Miguel and get him up.
The five men were successfully able to hold Miguel back, and while one stayed to help out the victim of his assault the rest dragged him to the door where he was promptly thrown out.
Miguel shouted obscenities at the closed door but drunkenly walked off.
He punched the wall of a nearby building, splitting open his knuckles. As he watched the blood seep out of his hand he heard a car pull to a stop behind him.
Turning around he saw a black limousine and a blond woman with red highlights, dressed in a black suit, black pencil skirt, black pumps, and black sunglasses, standing in front of an open passenger side door, gesturing for him to get in.
"What do you want!?" he asked, hobbling away from the woman.
"We overheard your phone call to the police station a while ago. Victor Veloci revealed his true form to you." the woman said, causing Miguel to stop in his tracks.
"You know about that freak!?" he asked.
"Indeed we do, it seems that we have a common enemy: you and I. We'd like to offer you a chance to get revenge on him for taking your daughter, dignity, and career Mr. Correia."
The idea of revenge tickled Miguel's brain, and in his drunken state, it was easy to blame Victor for everything that had happened to him.
"That's all you needed to tell me, babe. Where are we going?" he asked as he sauntered up beside her to get in the limousine.
"Oh, you'll see…" she said, as her head shifted to one of a Troodon and she bit him in the shoulder. Instantly causing Miguel to pass out on the seat. The woman closed the door, got into the driver's seat, and sped off."
— — — DS: TNM — — —
When Miguel came around, he found himself sober, and in front of a desk, which itself was in front of a window that overlooked the entire city and even parts of the ocean.
There was also an expensive, but very comfortable chair behind the desk. It swiveled towards the window, but when Miguel shifted his weight to stand up. The chair swiveled around and revealed a small-looking man, with dark black hair, that had red highlights, similar to those of the woman in the limousine. He has a five-o-clock shadow and tired-looking eyes that hide a fiery intensity behind them. He wore a black suit, with a golden lining, that reflected light even in the darkness of the room.
"Miguel Correia, a pleasure to finally meet you." the man said, extending a hand out to Miguel who tentatively shook it. "Antonio Umbra. Welcome to Venator Cybernetics."
"I'm gonna get right to the chase Mr. Correia. You know Victor, I know Victor. We both want to get back at him for what he's done to us, correct?" Antonio started.
Miguel nodded. "He ruined my life in a single day. There's nothing I would love more than to see him pay for what he's done."
Antonio smiled, it was sort of unnerving, like he had to consciously do so, and it wasn't comfortable for him.
"That's the kind of attitude we like to see here." he said, "We'll give you the means to wipe Victor and his little company off the face of the Earth, all we ask is that after you do that, we can continue to work for one another. You will be handsomely rewarded for your time and efforts of course."
Miguel took a moment to think about the proposition, but ultimately he was still riding the adrenaline of the bar fight, and if there was anything better than getting back at someone it was being paid to do it.
"Mr. Umbra, I'd be happy to help you out." Miguel said, extending his hand to Antonio, who took it eagerly and the pair shook.
"Welcome to the family." Antonio said, giving Miguel another of his strained smiles.