Dinosaur King Retold Chapter 77: Jungle Bungle: Round 2, a dinosaur king fanfic

Jungle Bungle: Round 2

Disclaimer: Dinosaur King is owned by Sunrise, Shout Factory, 4kidsTV, and any other company I missed. I own nothing

"Talking"

Thinking

"Flashback"

The story starts aboard the Space Pirates' Ship as the Cosmos Stone detector was emerged from its storage place and onto the bridge. When it appeared, there was a signal beaming from a point on spherical device. "So that's where the next one is." Sheer said as she leaned in to get a better look at the signal.

"Looks like its in, uh." Gavro put a hand to his chin as he tried to figure out the location on the map, but was coming up short and started to drone on. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh."

"Keep trying, Bro. We believe in you." Foolscap said jokingly, patting his brother on the back.

That seemed to get through to the bulky guardian as he suddenly blurted out. "Venezuela!"

"Oh, Gavro, Gavro, Gavro." Foolscap put a hand on his face and muttered while Sheer and Spectre just blinked in confusion as they stared at Gavro.

Sheer was the first to break out of her stupor and said. "That's...actually kinda correct." She told him.

"It is!?" The two brothers said in surprise, one certainly more than the other.

"Surprisingly, yes." Spectre confirmed as he moved his hoover chair closer to the detector. "The signal's coming from the Amazon Rainforest, which while it is mostly in Brazil does slightly extend to Venezuela."

"You can't be serious." Foolscap said as he covered his face again, this time more in embarrassment. "My brother has figured out how to read the detector before me."

"I mean, if it makes you feel any better, it was more of an educated guess." Gavro tried to assure his brother.

And failed. "It doesn't." Foolscap replied, as it was nearly impossible for Gavro to make an educated anything.

"Okay, enough." Spectre spoke up, firing a small jolt as the two to keep them quiet. "We can laugh at your stupidity later. Right now we have a Cosmos Stone to grab. So pick your dinos, and start scouring that jungle for it before either the Alpha Gang grab it or it destroys another continent."

"Are you sure about that last part?" Sheer asked. "Because since it hasn't appeared in the news, I think it's safe to assume that we're dealing with the Green Stone here."

"Yeah, and with it not being near any cities or anything, what can be so bad about some extra plants growing in a jungle?" Foolscap asked jokingly.

Cut to the trio flying over their destination and they find the Amazon having grown a lot, almost like another jungle was growing on top of it, and another was starting to grow on top of that one. "Well." Foolscap said as he saw just how hard this mission was going to be. "Fu-"

(Intro Theme)

"-ck." Was all he had to say with how big the Amazon had gotten.

"Guess you jinxed us there, Foolscap." Gavro said.

"Oh, shut up!" Foolscap slapped his brother upside the head. "I don't see you coming up with any ideas!"

"Well." Gavro thought for a moment before he remembered some advice Spectre gave him in the past. "We could follow our guts." He said before he looked down and started to descend.

While not entirely trusting of Gavro's instincts Sheer sighed and gave a shrug. "Well, it's at least a plan." She said before she followed him down the canopy.

"Yeah, just not a very good one." Foolscap mumbled to himself before joining his team.

What none of them noticed was that high above them the Alpha Gang was rowing towards the same location, in the exact same Alpha Craft they used the last time they were there. "Yeeaah! Yeeaah!" Zander and Ed groaned as they used all the strength they had to row the oars powering the machine. "Yeeaah! Why did we take this thing again? Yeeaah!" Zander asked between strokes.

Ursula, who was looking down on the jungle with a pair of binoculars, responded. "Because all our other Alpha Crafts have either been destroyed or dismantled by Seth to use as parts for more of those Alpha Droids of his. It was either this or the rocket, and we all know the less we ride in that thing again the safer we'll be."

"At least if we took that we wouldn't have to slave away again while you just sit there and do nothing!" Zander snapped at her.

Ursula resisted the urge to bonk Zander on the head, mainly because he would then loose focus and they could end up crashing, and just glared at him. "For your information, I am looking for a safe spot to land this thing properly. I can't do that if I'm rowing."

"Fair point." Ed had to admit. "I mean, we got extremely luck the last time we were here. Do you not realize how many dangerous animals live in the Amazon?" He asked his teammates.

"No, but you're going to tell us anyway." Ursula said as Ed started listing off all that he knew.

"There's jaguars, caimans, anacondas, piranhas if they're hungry enough, poison dart frogs, various poisonous insects, giant otters-"

"Wait, otters?" Ursula said in confusion as Ed continued listing animals, now getting into the hard to believe ones.

"Anteaters, arapaimas, given how high we're up I'd say harpy eagles, monkeys, coatis."

"Okay, now you're listing anything that lives in the Amazon." Ursula told him.

"No, really. Otters and anteaters have killed people. This book about a hundred plus animals that can kill me says so." Ed said as he pulled out said book to confirm his point.

"What about natives?" Zander asked. "Would running into any of them be risky?"

"Depends how uncontacted they are and if they see us as a threat." Ed answered.

"Ooooooh." Zander shuttered at the thought of what a tribe might do to him. "I vote we stay up here where it's safe."

"Yeah, well that's not an option." Ursula told him. "We would never find the damn stone in a dense jungle from up here."

"But we can just-" Zander was about to suggest before Ed stopped him.

"You know what happens when we summon dinosaurs from within our crafts." He reminded the tall man. "If we aren't able to get this Cosmos Stone, I'd like to be able to at least return to the Backland in the same day too."

"Which neither will happen unless we can land this thing properly!" Ursula sternly reminded both men, who were slacking in their rowing, thus making the ship start to descend.

"Eeep!" Zander and Ed quickly realized their status and resumed rowing with their quick burst of energy while Ursula took another look down below.

"Perhaps we could try by that stream over there?" She suggested.

But just as she suggested it, a tree suddenly sprouted up and into the back of the craft. This popped the balloon, and made it so rowing the craft would not keep it in the air as it started to fall. "Aaaaaah!" The trio screamed as they fell to the jungle floor. "Why can't we ever land this thing properly!?" Ursula shouted.

"Luckily you can't blame us this time!" Zander said. "Or that it wasn't on my card!"

"Yeah, well, that luck won't hold up when the otters find us!" Ed said just as the craft broke through the trees and crashed through the branches below.

"I don't get it." Gavro said as he looked below at the large hole he dug with his bare hands. "I followed my gut, and nothing."

"Great to know we wasted all that time for nothing." Foolscap said as he lazily laid on a tree branch.

Sheer, standing on the branch next to Foolscap, replied. "Gavro, you do know following your gut means go by your instincts. Not your actual stomach." She informed the muscular pirate.

"Ooooooooooh!" Gavro said in understanding.

"Idiot." Foolscap rolled his eyes and he snapped a twig. "At least he didn't go off of what his hunger was telling him."

Gavro looked offended at his brother's comment. "Now why would I do that? If I ate the Cosmos Stone, I'd light up like a christmas tree. Everyone knows that." He told him.

"I'm not even going to bother dignifying that." Foolscap said as he grabbed another twig and snapped that one before asking the important question. "What now? We have to find a green stone in an ever-growing jungle." To emphasize his point, the tree he and Sheer were on started to rise as another tree grew below it, forcing them to fly off. "You see?" He pointed to the anomaly they just witnessed.

"Well, it's not like we have a guide or something that can navigate the jungle with ease." Sheer pointed out. "And even using a detector wouldn't help us much at all."

Hearing Sheer mention a guide, gave Gavro an idea. "Hold on, I think I have a new idea!"

"Is it following your nose this time?" Foolscap guessed sarcastically as he reclined while flying to view another display of idiocy.

"Better than your plan of nothing." Sheer pointed out.

That got the purple guardian upset. "Hey! I have a plan!" He shouted before sheepishly admitting. "Or...will have one. I just...need to figure it out first. There's a lot of variables to consider." He said while bashfully poking two fingers together.

Sheer just rolled her eyes at the pathetic display before turning to the one of them with a plan. "OK, Gavro, what's your plan this time?" She asked him. While she had low doubts it would succeed, she did have the feeling it could at best give them something to build an idea off of.

"I fortunately have an Amazon expert with me on tap." The muscular guardian said before he place a Dinosaur Card on his summoning pad.

From a blue glow appeared Salty. The Saltasaurus rose his long neck up, and found it immediately bashing with a large branch as thick as a tree trunk. "OOWWW!" He groaned as he lowered his head down to a safer position. But that really didn't mean much when he was probably standing on the sharp branches of another tree and there was no room for him to move his tail, much less stand up straight. "Couldn't you have chosen to battle in someplace a little less cramped? Because I don't know if anyone told you, but standing like this for an overly elongated time is bad for my back."

"No battling yet." Gavro told his sauropod 'partner'. "We just need you to help find us the Cosmos Stone. And who better then the dinosaur that was from the Amazon?" He explained his reasoning.

The two guardians just stared at Gavro before Foolscap covered his face with a hand and shook his head while sighing in disappointment. "Gavro. Gavro. Gavro."

"Gavro." Sheer spoke up, trying very hard to sound nice and picked her words carefully. "You know we love you in a platonic sort of way. But...this plan of yours...it's..."

"Arguably the stupidest thing you've ever come up with." Foolscap interjected.

"I would've just said completely stupid, but I guess that can work." Sheer admitted with a frown at her other teammate.

"What?" Gavro said in disbelief. "How could my plan be that bad? It's a perfect plan. Salty's been in the Amazon before-" The muscular pirate didn't get to finish his explanation before the dinosaur in question interrupted him.

"One time, over a year ago, for a few hours max." He clarified. "Even if we are conveniently near where I was activated."

"Oh, we actually are. What are the odds?" Sheer said as she checked their location and saw it matched with where the D-Team were when they came here.

"Yeah, well that still doesn't help much as I barely knew where I was going then, and that hasn't changed at all now with all of these new trees!" He shouted in irritation, not from Gavro but from the pain his bad posture was giving him and shoulder checked a tree, knocking it down to give him more leg room.

"Okay, well, that just means my first plan didn't work. You can still help us by knocking down all of the trees in our way." Gavro suggested, pointing to the newly fallen tree as an example.

"That..." Foolscap had a hard time comprehending what he was about to say next. "Actually isn't a bad idea." He admitted before he flew over and gave his brother a pat on the back. "Good job, Gavro, you didn't strike out."

"But we aren't playing baseball." The larger brother pointed out.

"Yes, but what I meant was- Never mind." Foolscap decided to skip the explanation and move on with the mission. "Anyway, let's get knocking. Knocking down, I mean."

"You won't hear any arguments from me." Salty said before he moved onto the new closest tree and did the same thing he did to the first one.

Unable to contain the kids inside of them, both brothers got onto Salty's back and started chanting. "Crush! Crush! Crush!" Like they were at a football game.

All while Sheer just watched with amusement. "It's a good thing these trees shouldn't even be growing here or we'd have tons of environmentalists up our asses." She said jokingly to herself.

About ten minutes later, and it seemed that Salty was starting to run out of steam, mostly thanks due to the trees getting thicker the deeper they went into the jungle, thus requiring more energy to knock out of the way. And it wasn't just him losing energy. "Crush...Crush...Crush...Crush." The pirate brother droned in repeat, both wavering like they could fall asleep and off the Saltasaur's back at any second.

From atop a tree that wasn't crushed, Sheer just looked down and sighed in disappointment. "And we were going so well, too." She said before she flew down to help the boys. "All right, Gavro, I think Salty's been bulldozing enough for today. Call him back before he loses all of his energy and can't battle."

"Okay." Gavro said before placing a hand on his just and recalling his dinosaur. The same dinosaur that he and his brother were still lying on the back of. And they realized too late their mistake. "Aaaaah!" They both shouted before falling into a mud puddle.

"Great, just what I need. Laundry work." Foolscap groaned as he stood up and wiped the mud best he could off his leather jacket. "This doesn't work in a washing machine, people!" He shouted to whoever before looking down at his chin. "At least the goatee's unharmed."

"Okay, this constant failing of plans is starting to get old." Gavro said as he sat up, his face covered with mud. "And I got no other ones, so somebody else do the planning now, okay?"

"I second that motion." Foolscap said as he walked onto dry ground and looked to Sheer. "So, Sheer, any plans, or are you just going to continue to be a spectator?" He asked with a slight glare at their supposed 'leaders' lack of action besides sass.

Seeing that she'd need to step up, Sheer pondered what their next plan should be. "Hmmmm." She thought back to their previous missions, specifically the one for the Purple Cosmos Stone. While that mission ended in failure, it did still provide them with some useful intel that they were still testing out.

One such bit of information, or rather memory, was how the closer she got to the Cosmos Stone, the larger in both size and number of diamonds were growing out of the ground. "So, if we find where the growing of trees is largest and thickest." She thought before something interrupted her train of thought. "But with how this jungle has grown, finding that out is the challenge."

"Sheer!" Foolscap's shout snapped her out of her thoughts. "Have you come up with a plan yet, or not?" He asked impatiently.

Before Sheer could give a reply, the three guardians heard the sound of bushes rustling, indicating something was moving through the foliage towards them. Immediately the three of them got combat ready: Sheer pulling out her ninja stars, Foolscap with his bladed whip, and Gavro cracked his fists. "Who's there?! Show yourself!" Sheer demanded of whoever or whatever was in the bushes.

Expecting it to be a jaguar or something similar, to their surprise it was actually a group of men that emerged. Judging by the way they were dressed, they appeared to be native to the area. "It's the locals." Gavro whispered to his brothers.

"Thanks for stating the obvious." Foolscap sarcastically whispered back.

At this point, the tables had turned as now it was the natives that were asking the questions. "Who are you?" The leader asked these strange humanoids with wings. "What are you? And what business have you here?"

"Okay, at least we know they speak english." Sheer muttered to herself before answering. "Don't worry, we come here in peace. We have no interest in harming you or the rest of your people, we're only here on an important mission."

"Important mission?" The lead man repeated before he asked hopefully. "Are you the ones they sent?"

"Do you have it?" Another excitedly asked before specifying. "The medicine?"

"Medicine?" The trio said simultaneously before Foolscap asked. "What kind of medicine do you mean?"

The group of men looked at each other, deciding to trust these strangers might be able to help them, before the leader said. "It's best if we show you. " He then gestured for them to follow, to which the guardians did with concerned looks on their faces.

And their concerns were more than justified when they arrived at the village.

All over, there were people deathly sick. They were lying in huts, in beds or on the floor, to the point they were becoming too filled and they had to lie against the walls outside. Even with the few that were walking, even fewer weren't coughing consistently.

It was like a scene from the aftermath of a disaster movie, and disturbed the pirates just as much. "Oh, my.." Sheer gasped, putting a hand to her mouth.

"What happened to them?" Gavro asked before taking a wild guess. "Is it-"

"That's still some years from now." Foolscap whispered, quickly nudging the larger man to shut him up and preventing a panic from happening.

"Oh, yeah." Gavro remembered and zipped his lips to indicate his silence.

Seeing his brother was going to be quiet for now, and Sheer was still in major shock from seeing so much illness, Foolscap decided to take charge. "When did this all start?" He asked the men who brought them there.

"A few days a least." The leader answered. "We don't know what happened. The jungle started growing one day, and then everyone started getting sick with an unknown disease."

"Unknown?" Foolscap repeated.

"Yes." The leader nodded. "Our doctors have looked through all of our records for what it could be, but have come up with nothing. We've messaged other villages and cities for help, but have yet to receive anything of major assistance." He explained.

"Hmmm." Foolscap stroked his goatee as he took in this information. "So this all started when the Amazon started growing trees out of nowhere." He muttered to himself before telling the rest of his team. "I think I might have a theory on what's happened."

"You do?" Both Sheer and Gavro said in surprise before Gavro took a guess. "It's man, isn't it? Been coming here for all the free lumber and destroying the environment."

Surprisingly, Foolscap shook his head. "No, for once it isn't man's fault. It's a little more complicated than that." He said before he pulled out a device that enlarged a digital screen that showed a drawing of the jungle. "You see, thanks to the Green Cosmos Stone growing all of these trees and plants, it's messing with much of the ecosystem." He explained as the screen showed this happening before zooming in on the jungle floor.

"One such consequence of this is the soil being tampered with. All these trees shooting out without any control is unearthing all of the microbes within the soil. Some of which have been dormant for years, maybe ranging in the thousands." He said grimly before shutting off the projection.

"So, you think what's making all of the villagers sick is some virus that the Cosmos Stone dug up?" Gavro asked.

"It's just a theory at this point. But in short, yes I do, Gavro." Foolscap responded before he turned to the villager group. "If you would allow me to take a sample, I might be able to identify the virus, or whatever."

"Hmmmm." The villagers looked at each other with uncertainty, not sure if this man was telling the truth or just being a fool.

Seeing their hesitation, Sheer decided to step in and help. "Look, we've been throughout all of Earth's history. It's part of our job. And one aspect of that job requires having a data base on all viruses that have existed in case one somehow returns at the wrong time. If anyone can diagnosis your village and come up with a plan to save everyone, it's Foolscap."

"Yeah, he was the ace in all our science classes." Gavro backed his brother.

The village men looked at each other again and nodded before the leader gestured for them to follow. "If you're as skilled healers as you say you are, then follow me." He said before leading the trio to the hospital.

Meanwhile with the Alpha Gang, they have found themselves stuck in a tree. Even after all of the trees they fell through, one suddenly sprouted right before they hit the ground and trapped them in its branches. "Well, this is just peachy." Ursula groaned as she struggled to get her cape out of some twigs. "Grrr! Come on you!" She said before she tugged hard enough to both free the cloth and make her fall over. "Aaa-Oooofff!"

"Well, this isn't the worst place to be stuck in the Amazon." Ed said as he laid on a branch, his weight causing it to bend down to his teammates' level like a pole. "We could have landed in quick sand." He pointed out.

"That's...a good point." Ursula had to admit.

"Hey, Ed." Zander said as he slowly climbed down the tree, hugging it like a massive plush, before asking. "Can jaguars climb trees?"

"I mean, they can, but they don't normally hunt from them if that's your worry." Ed informed him.

"That's...good to know." Zander said, unsure how to feel about that information.

The trio sat in silence for a good minute before Ed asked the question on all of their minds. "Now what?"

Back in the village, Foolscap had gotten a cotton swab from one of the sick villagers, put it in a test tube, quickly incubated it, and now was looking at it through his magnifying glasses on a petri dish. "Hmmmm. Yes" He said with a serious look.

A look that the others present did not take as good news. "Well?" Sheer asked, sounding almost afraid to know the answer she already knew.

"It's just as I feared." Foolscap confirmed before taking off his glasses and showing them the dish. "What the villagers are suffering from is a virus that has not been seen since the last Ice Age. A deadly one, at that." He added grimly.

"But there is a cure, right?" Gavro asked his brother. "I mean, there had to be, otherwise there shouldn't be any humans today."

"Yeah, there WAS a cure." Foolscap emphasized the past tense before saying. "Pretty simple one, too. Eating a certain flower seemed to negate the virus' effects entirely."

"And here comes the but." Sheer said before it happened.

"But, that flower has long since become extinct." Foolscap revealed the bad news. "They're completely gone."

The bad news hung in the air for a while before Gavro asked the important question. "Was it man?" OK, it was important to him.

"I don't know exactly when it went extinct, so I'm not going to say yes, but I'm not going to say no." Foolscap answered.

"Isn't there anything else we can do?" Sheer asked. "Surely there has to be another cure?"

"His name isn't Shirley, it's Foolscap." Gavro pointed out.

That just made the shorter brother roll his eyes. "More importantly, even if there was another cure, it's completely unknown!" He practically shouted from the stress. "This virus hasn't been seen in thousands of years. We're lucky to have found at least one cure for it. In the time it could take to discover a new one, well, this village will be much smaller if we're lucky." He finished by crossing his arms and looking out the window in a huff of frustration at the circumstances.

"No..." The main villager said in sadness as it seemed all was lost. Sheer didn't know what to say and just quietly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry." She apologized to him, what little she could do.

"Agh!" Gavro cried out in equal frustration. "This is stupid!" He said as he started bashing his own head with his gigantic fist. However, this wasn't happening just because he was upset. The red, muscular guardian was trying to jump start his brain. He just knew there was a solution to this. It was right in front of them. "Come on, stupid brain!" He urged himself to remember anything helpful in this situation. "Agh!" He shouted again.

All of this commotion got the attention of both his teammates and the villagers. "Is something wrong with your friend there?" One of them asked.

Foolscap had a hard time believing what he was seeing. Such an accurance was thought to be only a legend. "I think...he's trying to use his brain." He stammered out in disbelief.

"Gavro, stop!" Sheer shouted as she ran over to the large guardian and tried to get him to stop by grabbing his arm. "You're pushing yourself far past your usual limits!"

This obviously had minimal success as all it accomplished was taking Sheer along for the ride. "ERRRRAAAGH!" Gavro shouted as his punches got stronger.

"GAVRO!" Sheer shouted louder to get through to him as she bounced up and down with each punch.

To prevent her from either getting sick or hurt, Foolscap grabbed onto Sheer and pulled her away. "No!" He sternly retorted her attempts to stop his brother. "He needs to do this!"

With his brother's support, for reasons we'll just assume are good intended, Gavro raised his fist extra high and brought it down like a guillotine. "OOOOOOFFFFF!" He grunted with a punch to the brain so hard it temporary disfigured his face. But it seemed to have done the job as the neurons deep inside Gavro's brain started to fire. It wasn't much, but it was just enough to give him an idea. "Blain Brast!" He suddenly shouted as he leapt to his feet, surprising those present, including his teammates who stopped struggling.

"Huh?" Both Sheer and Foolscap said before Foolscap asked his brother. "You mean brain blast?"

"No! I mean yes!" Gavro said as he shook his head to get his thoughts together from all that bashing. "The Cosmos Stone!"

"The Cosmos Stone?" Everyone repeated, the villagers extra confused since they still had no idea what the item in question was. Escaping from Foolscap's grasp, Sheer asked. "What does the Cosmos Stone have to do with saving the village?"

"Besides removing it and returning the jungle to normal." Foolscap added.

"Okay, follow me here." Gavro told them before he started explaining his reasoning.

"That would be either really easy or impossibly hard." Foolscap muttered to himself.

"So, it was the Cosmos Stone that caused this outbreak, right?" Gavro said.

"Indirectly, but yes." Sheer confirmed while Foolscap just nodded.

Seeing his teammates following, Gavro explained his master plan. "So, what if we use the Cosmos Stone to cure the villagers?" He suggested.

His team stayed silent for a few good minutes as they processed this idea. Foolscap, always quick to dismiss Gavro's ideas, facepalmed and shook his head in disappointment. "Just when I started to have hope he was gaining brain cells." He sighed.

"Huh? I don't get it?" Gavro said in confusion. "What's wrong with my plan?"

"Gavro." Sheer spoke up. "The Cosmos Stones are too powerful to be so much as touched by most humans. And even with all the power they have, I don't think healing is in even the green one's abilities."

"But it can grow plants." Gavro reminded them. "So, could it not be impossible to make it grow the flower we need in big numbers?"

"Gavro, that..." Foolscap stopped himself when he thought about it. There didn't seem to be a limit on how much the Cosmos Stone could grow, so the idea that there was no limit on what it could grow. "That's not an impossibility." He admitted.

"But that just leads into our previous problem of not knowing where the Cosmos Stone is." Sheer pointed out.

Thankfully, the villagers seemed to be picking up on what was being said and had an answer. "You say this stone is what caused the massive growth in the jungle?" The leader asked.

"Yeah." Sheer confirmed before asking. "Do you know something?"

"Possibly." The villager admitted before sharing what he knew. "This mass growing seems to have started somewhere to the south of here when a giant tree sprouted out of nowhere. It was the tallest tree any of us have ever seen. Clearing through the canopy." He threw his arms out for emphasis. "From what we have seen, it is still growing. But unlike the other trees that have new trees growing on top of them, this one is growing all by itself. Not long after, the rest of the trees and plants seemed to have followed."

"If that's all true then this tree has to be where the Cosmos Stone is located." Sheer quickly realized.

"Then all we need to do is find the Cosmos Stone, bring it back here, and use it to grow those flowers that the village needs." Gavro explained his plan.

"Fuck it, I'm in." Foolscap quickly jumped aboard with the idea.

Surprising Sheer with his hastiness. "Really?"

"It's either this or hundreds die. What do we have to loose other than the aforementioned lives?" Foolscap pointed out before asking. "What's it gonna be? Are you in or out?"

His answer, instead of a verbal one, was Sheer growing her wings and flying out the door. "I take that as she's in." Gavro said before following suit.

Foolscap grew his wings and was about to take off before turning back to the villagers. "We'll be back with that cure. You can count on it." He said before following his teammates.

"God speed." The lead villager whispered as the pirate trio departed.

On the Backland, things were not great if you were a dinosaur. For the clones, Pyro was still very much pissed about his defeat in India, and was determined to find the supposed turncoat. And since Yeager was currently away on the mission, there wasn't anyone willing to deal with the Acrocanthosaurus while he was like this. So, they all did what any sane dinosaur would do and hid themselves in the basement.

Of course this was a better idea in theory then it was in execution as all of them, save for whoever was on the mission or allowed in Seth's lab, found themselves in the garbage shoot of all rooms. Putting so many dinosaurs in one room was already tight on space, but when you add all the tons of garbage there, it was a disaster waiting to happen as now all the clones inside were in a large pile of both garbage and themselves. "Whose bright idea was this?" Bailey complained, having to plug her nose with her large claws due to the awful smell of the trash.

"Well, I'd say we have three candidates for that." Slasher said as he, Screamer, and the Scouts glared at the Baryonyx Clone, plus Fang and Thud.

Something the Carcharodontosaurus Clone took offense to. "Hey, don't look at me!" He said in his defense. "I was told by Thud that this was the best place to hide in with the rest of you."

Everyone shifted their glares to the Ankylosaurus Clone, but he had a defense of his own. "I just followed Bailey into here and thought it was comfy." Of everyone present, he seemed to be the only one enjoying himself as he snuggled himself between the black bags.

Seeing all the glares now shifted back to her, Bailey shifted her eyes from side-to-side nervously. "Errr." If she could sweat at this point she would. But then she glared back at her accusers. "Now, before any of you start..."

As for the rogues, they were dealing with the aftereffects of their argument. Gigas and Maximus utterly refused to speak with, much less look at, each other. They kept complete maximum distance between themselves, going so far as moving to different sides and levels of the ship. Stuck in the middle, Armatus was now their errand dinosaur, having to run all over the ship if he wanted to see either of them, and having to help them keep themselves separated. Something that clearly took its toll on the Stegosaurus as he often was seen now panting while he ran to his next destination. All while trying to remain neutral on the matter that divided them.

Despite having not been present when the argument happened, Brontikens was quickly able to notice something was going on between Gigas and Maximus. At first, it seemed like something that he shouldn't get involved in. However, that started to change when he noticed both of them refusing to train with him in the training room, sleep in their bedroom, hell, they wouldn't even go near the TV at the same time. And since Armatus was often stuck being the one having to deliver the messages, he was often absent as well.

This started to concern the Apatosaurus greatly, and made him realize he'd need to do something if he was to fix this. But as he stood in the halls, he thought about what he was doing. "Why am I wasting my time with this? I should be focusing my energy on strengthening myself to take the throne!" He firmly stated his goal again before he considered the possible reasons. "Is it simply keep control among my army?" He shook his head at that idea. "No. I don't need an army. I and I alone am strong enough to take on all who challenge me." But hearing himself think that reminded him of what Shi told himself about his alternate self. How he nearly purged all species of dinosaurs sans the Apatosaurs, leading to the death of himself and the extinction of his own species in retaliation. He was beginning to sound a lot like that version of himself.

Again he shook his head to clear his thoughts. "No. I am not the same pompous fool as him. I at least have honor. I at least will spare the other species of this world. Nothing that weaker version of me did will be repeated. That was clear before my vision was shown to me." That just brought Brontikens back to his first question. Why was he doing this?

That answer would have to wait as he heard the sound of heavy footsteps and panting approaching. "Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!" Armatus was so tired in delivering his constant messages between his two friends that he didn't notice Brontikens' presence until he bumped into the sauropod. "Ooof!" Looking up to see what he bumped into, Armatus quickly apologized. "Oh! Sorry, Brontikens. I didn't see you there."

"Armatus, what is going on?" Brontikens asked, getting straight to the point.

This got the Stegosaurus afraid. "Uh, what are ya talkin' about, mate?" He stammered out. The last thing he needed was Brontikens knowing this break up was because of him and his questionable intentions. "I'm just doing some jogging." He gave the first excuse he thought of before trying to sneak away. "Well, it was nice talking to ya. But I gotta go-AAAAAHHH!" He yelped when Brontikens stepped right on his tail, stopping him from going anywhere.

Brontikens was not in the mood for any shenanigans. "I want an answer, Armatus. And I want it know." He lowered his head and looked the Stegosaurus directly in the eyes.

Seeing the Apatosaurus was serious in whatever threat he was making, Armatus dare not think what it was, he sang like a canary and said everything at once. "Gigas and Maximus had a fight because she thinks you educated us so you could use us as your servants to become King! She also might've insulted his sexuality a bit, and now they hate each others' guts! Please don't hurt meehehehehehehe!" He cried in fear.

Hearing that surprised Brontikens so much he actually showed it briefly before he lifted his foot off of Armatus' tail and began to leave. "Go and rest yourself." He told the Stegosaur.

"What're ya going to do?" Armatus asked as he moved his tail to make sure the bones weren't broken.

"Making sure the truth is clear." Was Brontikens' reply, confusing and worrying Armatus as he saw him go to Maximus' side of the ship.

Now having a clear site to search for, the Space Pirates were able to find the supposed tree with the Cosmos Stone with relative ease. "Well, I'd say we found it." Sheer said as she, Foolscap, and Gavro looked up at the tree with awe.

"Kinda hard to believe we didn't immediately see it." Foolscap pointed out as the tree had gotten so tall with its constant growing that the top was in the clouds now.

"Oh, I really hope we don't have to climb to the top of that." Gavro said. "My arms are still sore from the digging." He rubbed one of his hands to show this.

"Hmmmm." Sheer thought about their next move as she walked up to the base of the tree. "Considering how it formed, I'd say it's more likely the stone is closer to the roots. Inside the trunk." She hypothesized while seemingly searching for something.

"Well that'll be so much easier than climbing to the top." Foolscap replied sarcastically as he flew over to the tree and knocked on the wood to demonstrate his point, listening to the sound it made. "Hear that? That's the sound of a tree that's not gonna let us in. No matter how much we knock."

"That's why I'm looking for a way in." Sheer annoying told him as she continued searching. "There has to be a hole or something we can work with."

"Okay, you waste your time doing that. Me and Gavro are going to work on actually getting inside the blasted thing." Foolscap responded before flying back to his brother.

"Yeah, we're gonna knock. Knock it down." Gavro said as he placed Salty's card on his chest piece again, alongside a second sauropod.

From the blue glow, Salty reappeared, now having go some rest in his card, alongside Genie. When the glow disappeared, Salty was revealed to have his eyes closed as he was pleading in his head. "Please don't be more trees. Please don't be more trees. Seikatsu, please don't have it be more trees!" Opening his eyes, the Saltasaur looked on his horror at the task standing before him. "Why?" He whimpered out.

"This is not what I expected when signing up for this mission." Genie commented as he looked up at the seemingly never ending tree.

"Calm down, ya long necks. We're not going to have you push the tree down, even if that would be fun. Too much effort and damage control to fix afterwards." Foolscap reassured them as he pulled out his own pair of cards. "We just need to cut our way in." He said before placing them on his bandana.

"STYRACOSAURUS AND LEXOVISAURUS, SLICE IT WIDE OPEN!"

From a yellow and purple glow, the two dinosaurs landed and saw their target of aggression. "He does know that's a tree, right?" Lex whispered to Thorn.

"Yeah." Thorn nodded. "But considering we're here to find a Cosmos Stone that enhances plant life, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess it's inside the tree."

"Exactly." Foolscap confirmed while hovering over them. "And not to sound like your owner, but there's an entire village that needs the stone to recover from a deadly virus. So less talking, more carving!" He shouted.

Hearing that shocked the dinosaurs, Thorn and Genie the most. And those two immediately went to work. "Charge!" Thorn shouted before running up to the tree and began stabbing it with his horn. Every time the horn went in, the ceratopsian raised his head to scrap some wood out of the way, almost like he was using it as a scratching post for his horn. As he did that, the Sauropods followed close behind and used their thumb spikes, or at least Genie did as Salty lacked one, to pick at the hole Thorn was making. Lex even squeezed his way through, NOT because he was small I assure him once he looked up in alert, and helped with the digging by either pawing at the wood or slashing it with his tail, the latter clearly more effective but not able to be used as much.

While it seemed the four herbivores were making progress, Sheer could tell otherwise and sighed. "Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." She said before summoning some claws to help.

"CERATOSAURUS AND AFROVENATOR, HELP THEM IN!"

From a white glow appeared the two theropods. Already seeing everyone else picking and the tree, they didn't need to be instructed further and went to help them break inside the trunk. Phantom mainly used his longer arms to chip away at the bark, while Lucky primarily focused on employing his feet and toe claws for the job.

With the theropods joining in, the work was speeding up. As the hole started to get larger, Genie and Salty ditched using their feet and used their strong teeth to bite their way through like giant termites. Lex was also given more space to use his thagomizers over his feet. As the dinosaurs dug deeper into the tree, pirates remained close behind. Gavro tried to help with getting in, but wasn't able to get through the wall of flesh and flying splinters.

Eventually, the digging came to a sudden stop when a wall of wood fell and revealed the large center of the tree. "Whoa." Many of them gasped as they each stepped inside. Once all the dinos were out of the way, the pirates were able to step inside. "Please tell me this giant room-like space means we're close." Foolscap prayed/begged. "That had to be like a whole hour of digging through wood to get in."

"Felt more like a few seconds." Lucky said before adding. "But I think we're more than close."

To confirm what the Ceratosaurus was saying, the other dinosaurs moved out of the way and revealed the Cosmos Stone in all of its green glory, attacked to a system of roots and branches like a generator for the tree. "Yes!" Foolscap pumped his fist in celebration. "We did it!"

"Easily, too." Gavro added.

"Almost too easily." Sheer said as she looked at the stone more closely. "With how its connected to the tree, we should be careful in removing it so we don't.."

Not hearing what she had to say, Salty lowered his neck, grabbed the stone in his mouth, and pulled it out easily when he craned back up. When he did that, the tree immediately withered away into nothing, along with all of the other trees that wildly grew as a result of the stone's power.

Thankfully for our heroes, the tree 'decaying' did not harm them, and instead just left them standing in a clearing with nothing but their eyes blinking in confusion to what just happened. "Or something like only worse could've happened." Sheer finished what she was going to say.

"Eh, that would've just slowed us down." Lex brushed off the now useless concerns. "Let's just get this thing back and head home."

The others seemed to be in agreement, but before they could leave. "Hold on." Sheer held up her hand to stop them. "This still feels too easy."

"Sheer, come on." Foolscap groaned. "We have to Cosmos Stone after a surprisingly easy trial. It's not like we need anymore difficulties to face."

Right after he said that, the sound of people falling was heard. And it was getting louder. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" After a minute of screaming and falling, something crashed in front of the Space Pirates, creating a small cloud of dust that blocked their vision.

"Ufff! Ufff!" The three of them coughed as the dust cleared. "What the heck was that?" Gavro asked before they got their answer.

Lying on the ground before them, sprawled in a pile, was the Alpha Gang. "Uuuuuuuuuuhhhhh." They all groaned in pain from the fall, a vine dropping on top of them that they no doubt were using to swing from tree to tree.

"You just had to open your mouths." Thorn glared at Sheer and Foolscap, believing to have jinxed the mission.

"Oh, they would've shown up regardless." Sheer retorted to the accusation, crossing her arms and looking away with a huff. "Hmph!"

"Did anyone get the number of that tree that dropped us?" Ursula asked in a dazed groan.

"I think it was a pine." Zander replied, muffled by his face in the ground before the three of them started to get onto their feet.

"I don't get what happened. All the trees just suddenly vanished." Ed said in confusion as he dusted himself off.

"Well, knowing they came from the Cosmos Stone. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say one of them took it." Ursula said, pointing towards the dinosaurs and guardians.

"Who?" Zander and Ed asked in confusion before the followed Ursula's finger and saw their adversaries. "Oh, shoot." They said once they noticed some familiar faces of the not friendly verity.

Despite both sides now making direct contact, there was one question that had to be answered. "How did you survive a fall like that?" Phantom asked as he looked up from where the trio fell. "That had to be over five stories high."

"Got me." Ed said. "By all accounts it doesn't make sense."

"Whatever. Onto business." Ursula waved off the trivial matters and moved onto why they were there in the first place. "I'll give you three guesses on what we want. The first two don't count."

"A breakfast sandwich?" Gavro guessed.

Despite knowing how dumb the large pirate was, Ursula was still surprised with the answer. "Wh-no." She answered.

"A group hug?" Gavro guessed again.

"Why would I-" Ursula was about to ask in return before Gavro gave his third guess.

"The Cosmos Stone?"

This correct answer only confused the greenette woman more. "What the-yes!" She shouted exasperatedly at him before she had to ask, despite knowing she'd regret it. "Why would you even guess the other two things?"

Gavro shrugged. "You said I had three guesses. I wanted to use them."

"You did say the first two didn't count." Zander whispered.

"Yeah. Guess I set myself up for that one." Ursula had to admit before addressing the Space Pirates with her ultimatum. "You get the idea. Give us the Cosmos Stone, and no one gets hurt. Refuse, and not only will we still get the stone, but maybe some new Dinosaur Cards to give to Dr.Z."

"Heh!" Foolscap laughed at the threat. "Like we'd just hand it over to you." To further illustrate this point, Lucky flipped the trio off.

Despite the rude gesture, Ursula just laughed at the defiance she was given. "Ha, ha, ha! I just love when you make things difficult." She said as she pulled out her Scanner and two cards.

"Two cards?" Phantom noticed. "You really think you can defeat the six of us with just two dinosaurs? Hmph! Seems everyone was right about you having tiny brains."

"Don't get cocky." Thorn warned the Afrovenator. "They've beaten numbered odds against them before." He recalled the battle in Hawaii where he was captured.

Remembering that information made Salty swallow a large gulp in fear, worried the same could happen to him.

"I'd listen to the Styracosaurus." Ursula told the tan theropod. "Especially when the two cards we have are as powerful as these." She said before swiping them.

"NOW, ALPHA SLASH! CRUSH THEM, MEGALOSAURUS! SHOW YOUR STRENGTH, PENTACERATOPS!"

Yeager and Sharphorn landed and stared down the opposing dinosaurs without any fear. "Ohohohohohoho! A group of them!" Yeager said ecstatically. "So much more fun then just dealing with one." Sharphorn replied with a snort and pawing of his right foreleg.

"Uh, is he able to talk?" Gavro asked, pointing a finger at Sharphorn.

"Supposedly. Though the only one who has heard him speak is The Professor, for whatever reason." Ed answered.

"Whatever!" Ursula brushed all that off before giving her commands. "Yeager, Sharphorn, leave no dino out of its card and no pirate alive!" She ordered the two dinosaurs.

"Just how I like it!" Yeager enthusiastically replied before she and Sharphorn charged at their victims.

Seeing the battle about to start, the three pirates grew their wings and flew out of harms way before Foolscap gave his own commands. "Knock 'em back and don't let them touch that stone!" He ordered the squadron.

Those below heard him, nodded their heads, and went to go meet their attackers. Well, five out of six attacked.

Sharphorn had to stop himself mid-charge when Genie's foot stomped directly in his path. "Revenge isn't a concept I believe in." He told the Pentaceratops Clone, who he remembering seeing with Seth many times while captured. "However, I am one who isn't afraid to try out new ideals." He said before swinging his neck at Sharphorn, forcing him to jump back to dodge.

This left him open to being jumped on by Lucky, who landed on his back and started biting his frill. Annoyed by the Ceratosaur on his back, Sharphorn began to buck like a bronco, trying to throw the Jurassic theropod off. One would assume this would leave him vulnerable to an attack from Genie, but the Pentaceratops saw the Isisaur charging towards him and met him in a headlock, the knockback from the impact causing Lucky to lose his grip and fall off.

With Yeager, she found herself surrounded by Thorn, Phantom, and Lex. "Oh, no." Yeager said with feigned dramatic worry. "I'm completely surrounded by three weaklings. What could I possibly do?"

"You could stay right there for starters." Phantom told her.

The Megalosaurus Clone, turned around and looked at the Afrovenator behind her. "But that plan is no fun. So I think I'll try my plan instead." She said before roaring as she went for Phantom first. However, this was expected by the others and Thorn was able to cut her off by jabbing her in the side with his massive horn. As the Styracosaurus kept Yeager's attention on him, Lex snuck up from behind and swiped her legs with his spikey tail, causing the Megalosaur to fall over before he and Thorn backed away.

"Perfect." Phantom said as Sheer activated his Move Card. With Yeager down on the ground, this gave him the perfect opportunity to literally run circles around her as he activated Tornado Toss.

The tornado formed in the place of the running theropod and lifted Yeager up into the sky. Eventually, she was high enough to where she started falling back to the ground. But just before she was going to hit, "Surprise!" She shouted before her entire body started glowing as she used Zero G Throw on herself, slowing herself down to the point she could land much softly and on her feet.

"Wh-what!?" Phantom gasped through his pants just before Yeager grabbed his throat in her jaws and dragged him to the ground.

"Phantom!" Thorn shouted as he ran to help.

Seeing the trouble Phantom was currently in, and Thorn was about to get himself in, Foolscap pulled out a Move Card to help the Styracosaurus out. "Lightning Spear!"

Thorn roared as his body surged with electricity. He then continued his charge towards Yeager before he tackled her from the side and lifted her into the sky, impaling her with a spear of lightning and allowing Phantom to scamper away. When both dinosaurs landed, Thorn looked to see the Megalosaurus Clone twitching, but not carded. "Damn." He swore as he thought that attack should've done more damage.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Ursula laughed. "Your attempts to defeat Yeager are admirable, but futile." She mocked.

From above, the Space Pirates watched everything. "Hate to say it, but she's got a point." Sheer admitted. "We're wasting our time fighting them."

"In that case, we can use the battle as a diversion to get that Cosmos Stone back to the village." Foolscap suggested before he asked. "So which of you has it?"

"I don't." Sheer replied, showing her empty hands.

"Me neither." Gavro said.

"Wait, what!?" Foolscap shouted in disbelief. "Then who has it?!"

"Last I saw, Salty grabbed it in his mouth." Sheer remembered.

"That's right." Foolscap also remembered before flying over to the Saltasaurus, the only one not currently partaking in the battle. "Salty, please tell me you still have the Cosmos Stone?" He practically pleaded.

"I do." Salty gave the good news.

"Oh, phew!" Foolscap sighed in relief before he was given the bad news.

"But I might have swallowed it on accident."

"...YOU WHAT!?" Foolscap shouted as he grabbed onto the sauropod's face. "How could you!? Do you know how long it will take for that stone to come back out if it doesn't become a gizzard!?" He asked before adding. "Seriously, do you know? Because that information is very important, and I do not have an answer!"

"Foolscap, calm down." Sheer assured him. "This happened before, remember?"

"It has?" Foolscap questioned what she meant before he remembered their mission back in Atlantis. Where Marling swallowed the Cosmos Stone. "But that was different!" He pointed out, also remembering how the Baryonyx was still able to spit the stone back out.

"The same could probably happen with Salty." Gavro pointed out. "Besides, aren't the stones next to indestructible?"

"That is correct." Sheer confirmed. "Besides, if we return him to his card, I'd imagine the stone would just fall out."

"You really think so?" Gavro asked before he was about to do said task until Foolscap stopped him by grabbing his arm before it could reach his chest plate.

"Not here!" He scolded his brother before turning back to Salty. "Salty, we need you to hurry back to the village with the Cosmos Stone. It's their only hope."

"But I don't know where that is!" He responded.

Thankfully, Foolscap and Sheer had the answer for that as they whistled and got the attention of two of their dinosaurs. "Phantom, help Salty find his way to the village north of here." Sheer told the Afrovenator.

"And Lex, use your strength to make sure they get there." Foolscap told the Lexovisaurus.

"Got it." Both dinosaurs nodded before Phantom started heading northwards with Salty and Lex close behind.

However, their departure did not go unnoticed by the Alpha Gang. "And just where are they running away to?" Ursula asked.

"Maybe they got scared and decided to hide?" Ed suggested.

"AAH!" Zander gasped in realization of what was going on. "Or they're trying to get away with the Cosmos Stone!" He exclaimed.

"WHAT!?" Ursula gasped before she turned to Yeager, who had since gotten back up and was currently battling Genie. "Yeager, forget the Isisaurus! Go after those runaways and bring that stone back!"

"With pleasure!" Yeager licked her lips and she abandoned her fight with Genie and ran in the direction of the trail the three dinosaurs made.

Before she could further pursue after them, Lucky and Thorn got in her way. "Not so fast!" Lucky told her.

"You'll have to get past us first!" Thorn added.

Yeager didn't reply verbally. Instead, she just swung her tail and knocked both of them out of her way before she continued her hunt and disappeared into the jungle. "That could've gone better." Thorn said as he and Lucky got back onto their feet.

"Well, I doubt it's going to get better any time soon." Lucky warned his friend as Sharphorn charged towards them.

On the Backland, Maximus laid down in her new room, waiting for Armatus to come back with his message. It wasn't as comfortable as her old sleeping space, but it was away from Gigas so that kept her happy, in theory at least.

As the Triceratops continued to lay on the floor doing nothing, she heard the door to the room slide open. "It's about time." She said impatiently, believing it to be Armatus. However, what she heard next proved her wrong.

"They say patience is a virtue." Brontikens said, making Maximus' eyes widen when she heard his voice. "I would've thought after all our training you would've picked up on that lesson."

The Triceratops quickly got onto the feet and turned around to face the Apatosaurus directly. "What are you doing here?" She demanded to know. "Where's Armatus?"

"I'd assume he's currently resting after you and Gigas have been using him as your mail service instead of getting off your stomach and talking to him directly." Brontikens replied.

"Hmph!" Maximus huffed as she already knew why the Apatosaur was here. "I've got nothing to say to you." She said as she turned around again and waited for Brontikens to leave her alone.

But it seems she forgot just who she was talking to and Brontikens just approached the Triceratops slowly and craned his neck over her body so he was looking at her face again. "I could care less what you think about me." He told her firmly. "But you would be wise to not start a rift between you and Gigas. Especially at this point in the war."

"And why should I apologize to him?" Maximus asked as she stopped her foot and swung her horns at Brontikens' head. "All he's doing is kissing your ass because he-" She was about to say before Brontikens stopped her mid-sentence.

"Because he's an outsider otherwise, with no herd to go to." The sauropod shook his head before continuing. "The same applies to you. Gigas is basically your brother. Abandoning him means your abandoning your herd. And I know you remember what happens to the dinosaurs that abandon their herds." He moved his head in closer as he spoke, forcing Maximus to back up until she was up against his legs.

"Yeah, well..." Maximus paused as she tried to think of a counter before she got one. "I still have Armatus! He's so infatuated with me that he'll never betray me! If anything, Gigas is the one who abandoned the herd! So, there!" She said smugly thinking she's won the argument.

However, Brontikens just shook his head in disappointment again. "He's stuck in the middle of all of this, trying to be the one thing that keeps the two of you connected. If I'm being honest, I commend him on his loyalty. Something I had hoped you would've gained from all of my lessons back in the day."

Hearing that made Maximus angry and she now was the one pushing Brontikens back, his head at least. "Oh, really!? You mean the lessons to make us your own army to overthrown Dr. Ancient and anyone else who opposes you?!" She retorted furiously.

Despite the aggression being thrown at him, Brontikens kept his cool and surprised Maximus by actually chuckling. "Heh, heh, heh, heh!"

This only infuriated the ceratopsian even more. "What's so funny!?" She demanded to know, pointing a horn right at the sauropod's throat as a warning.

"The fact that you have known me your entire life, and yet still seem to have never learned anything about me, even with all that has recently happened." He said as he raised his head out of horn range and turned around to leave. "If you have been thinking so much lately, think about this? Why would I need servants when I have strictly been focusing taking on the D-Team by myself and myself alone?" He left that question as the door closed behind him.

Initially Maximus just shook her head clear and went to go back lie down, but then she started thinking about what Brontikens just asked her. "That is technically true. He never seemed to want to spend much time with the three of us beyond what was necessary, even before everything crashed." She thought. "He only started to care more once Pyro came around and we started reaching out to him, bringing him into our group. But then, if he wasn't using us as the minions, why is it that's all we've become at this point?" She pondered before the answer came to her in the form of a flashback.

It taking place during one of the first lessons with Brontikens as the teacher. The lesson had started out normally, but then they had a surprise visitor walk in; Dr.Z. "Hello, Brontikens!" He greeted the Apatosaurus with a friendly smile and wave, being surprisingly more enthusiastic then she remembers him being in the past. "How are you doing on this fine day?"

"Doctor." Brontikens simply replied back with nothing more than a nod of acknowledgement. "To what do we owe the visit?" He asked, holding back his annoyance of being disturbed.

"Oh, I just wanted to see how you and your students are coming along." Dr.Z answered before taking a look at the three altered dinosaurs for himself. "Whoa! Look at how you three have become!" He said as he looked over each of them like an excited child, even climbing them like they were statues.

"Uh, Brontikens, sir?" Gigas asked as the doctor climbed around his head. "Who is this?

Before Brontikens could give a reply of his own, Dr.Z answered the question for him. "Who, me? Oh, right. I supposed a proper introduction is in order." He said as he stood on the theropod's snout proudly and addressed the trio. "I am Dr.Z! The most brilliant scientist in the world, and the one true Dinosaur King!"

"You're a king?" Maximus skeptically asked. "If you are one, then where's your crown?"

Hearing that deflated much of Dr.Z's ego as he sheepishly replied. "Eh, yes, well, that part is still a work in progress. I have to gain the favor of the rest of the dinosaurs on this ship before I can properly implement my changes for the future."

"Changes? What changes?" Armatus asked, his voice sounding different as he hadn't quite gotten his current accent yet.

Dr.Z jumped off of Gigas and landed next to the Stegosaurus, grabbing his neck and pulling him in closer. "Oh, many, my plated friend. Just ask Brontikens. Why, it's thanks to me that he's become as strong as he is now, and we've become the closest of friends because of it!"

"Really?" All three said is surprise before turning to Brontikens before confirmation.

Brontikens sighed before telling the truth. "We have a history together."

"A history that connects all of us together." Dr.Z added onto the Apatosaur's comment while pointing at him before addressing the three other dinosaurs present. "And since the both of us are close, that means that the rest of us are all buddies in the making."

"Yeah, I guess we are." Gigas admitted.

"The Doctor might be an idiot who can barely make functioning machines to save his life, but he isn't completely incompetent." Maximus thought as she realized it was Dr.Z who made them into the servants they currently were, using their loyalty to Brontikens against them to build an army, starting with them. "It was always him behind it all!" She stomped her foot as she roared in anger, both at Dr.Z and herself for being so stupid.

A roar that could be heard throughout the Backland. "Hmph!" Brontikens chuckled proudly to himself for a job well done.

When she finally calmed down, Maximus knew one thing. "I've got a lot to say to Gigas."

Back in the Amazon: Salty, Phantom, and Lex kept on running towards the village. "Are you sure it's this way?" Salty asked Phantom as they ran.

Phantom briefly sniffed the air again before confirming. "Yes, the smell of humans and fire is getting stronger to more we head in this direction."

"That's good." Salty said as he struggled to keep up. As a sauropod, an armored titanosaur no less, he wasn't built for sprinting long distances fast, so he had to give all of his energy in order to keep himself from collapsing and dropping the stone if he was carded.

Lex tailed behind the both of them, and this allowed him to be the first to hear that they were being followed by someone big. "Uh, guys? I think we have company." He told those ahead of him.

The three dinosaurs came to a stop and listened to what Lex heard. Sure enough, they could all hear the sounds of something crashing against the vegetation. Phantom in particular, being a hunter and tracker in the past, was able to identify the footsteps as those of a theropod. "It's Yeager." He said grimly.

"Oh, no." Salty said in fear, starting to prance in place anxiously before frantically asking. "What'd we do?"

"I'll keep her back." Lex said as he proudly stepped forward. "You guys keep going."

"By yourself?" Salty said in surprise to the Lexovisaur's courage.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lex asked as he turned his head back in annoyance.

Realizing Salty touched a nerve, Phantom stepped up besides Lex. "It means I'll stay here and help you fight. That way she doesn't have a high chance of capturing either of us."

"Excuse me?" Both herbivores said together before Salty said. "But, Phantom-"

"Just keep going the direction we were heading and you should find the village." The Afrovenator quickly assured the worried sauropod. "Now go!" He urged him.

"The lives of hundreds depend on you!" Lex added before quickly adding afterwards. "No pressure!"

Surprisingly, that added pressure was what it took to shock Salty back to realty as he nodded in confirmation of his mission. "Look for me when you're done." He said before he disappeared into the jungle.

Not long after he left, Yeager emerged with a roar to scare her opponents. However, neither Lex or Phantom showed any signs of backing down as they roared back. "So, the big guy's still making a run for it and left you two short stacks to fight in his place. How gutless." She said jokingly.

Hearing the size comment, Lex immediately got pissed and roared again at the Megalosaurus. "Think you're funny, huh!?" He shouted at her before chuckling as he glowed purple. "Heh, heh! Well, let's see who's the short one now?" He said as he activated Sand Trap.

Quick sand formed around Yeager and began sucking her in. However, despite her predicament, The white theropod appeared more bored than anything else. "Really?" She said with a cocked head. "Let me guess, your plan is to hold me down with Sand Trap while your friend there tries Tornado Toss again to see if it can defeat me this time." She correctly guessed their strategy if the increased tensed looks she was given were anything to go by. "Heh, heh!" She laughed back. "Seems you boys need a lesson on how to properly outsmart your opponent." She said as she started to glow with rainbow colors, indicating she was using a Super Move."

"Try us!" Lex said as he got into a defensive position, still ticked off by the earlier size comment to realize he had walked into a trap.

"Hook, line, and sinker." Yeager said to herself as she summoned several large rocks to her side. "How about you try Gigantic Fall!" She said as she threw all of her rocks at one target, Lex.

The Lexovisaurus was able to jump out of the way of the first two, but after that he was hit constantly by the flying boulders until one struck him with enough force to send him flying and crashing to the ground, where he was carded on impact.

"Lex!" Phantom shouted as the quick sand trapping Yeager disappeared with its summoner gone, allowing the Megalosaur to move again.

"You know, as much as I'd love to stick around and see how step the hill of improvement between the two of you is." She said as she knocked the Afrovenator away with her head. "I've got bigger game to catch! Toddles!" She cheerfully bid him farewell before going in the direction Salty ran.

"No!" Phantom shouted as he was about to go after her, but stopped when he noticed Lex's card was being blown away by the breeze. "Lex!" He called out to the card in no avail of it stopping before he looked back at where now both Yeager and Salty had vanished. "Salty, don't hold back." He wished the Saltasaur luck before chasing after his friend's card before it was lost.

Back with Salty, he just kept on running. The Saltasaur wasn't sure where he was going at this point, he was pretty sure he went off the course Phantom had briefly laid out for him, but it didn't matter when all he currently cared about was keeping the Cosmos Stone out of Yeager's jaws.

He was so preoccupied with the mission that he didn't realize that he had strayed into a clearing until it was almost too late and he nearly went off the edge of a cliff. "Whoa!" The Saltasaurus exclaimed as he skid to a halt just in time to avoid falling to his death. "That was close." He told himself as he looked around at where he was and noticed it looked familiar. "This place." He thought aloud. "Could it really be? No, it's just a coincidence." He shook his head before he remembered Sheer saying where exactly they were. "Oh, my gosh. It is where I fought Chomp."

"Well, isn't that a fun coincidence?" Salty stepped back in fear, his hindlegs nearly going over the side, as Yeager emerged from the jungle foliage. "The place where you were captured by one pack is where you will fall prey to another." She said ecstatically as she slowly approached her new toy.

Getting over his initial shock, Salty heard what she said about the D-Team and stomped the ground as a warning to the Megalosaurus. "The D-Team didn't capture me, they rescued me!" He roared back. "They got be away from where the Alpha Gang could capture and harm me, and have been my friends ever since. Even before the kids became kings!"

Hearing that defiance only made Yeager chuckle crazily. "Hehehehe!"

Doubting he was going to get another kind of response, Salty stepped forward. "Now listen closely, you psychopath. I'm on an important mission to deliver the Cosmos Stone to a sick village that need it to survive. So, I'm only going to ask you this once to move." He ordered the opposing theropod.

"Hehehe!" Yeager calmed herself down as best as she could before she gave her reply. "Really? You honestly think that I care about a village of sick humans?"

Despite having the feeling she was going to refuse, since she was made by Seth after all, Salty still was shocked by her answer. "You'd really let all of those innocent people die when there's a chance to save them?" He asked her.

"The strong live, the weak die. Unless it's someone from my pack, and even then that's a stretch for most of them, I don't see the point in stretching my neck out to keep others alive when I can just kill them." She said nonchalantly before she jokingly added. "Guess that's something a sauropod like yourself wouldn't understand."

Ignoring the joke, Salty clearly saw Yeager wasn't the type to see reason. So, he just pawed the ground before giving one last warning. "I'm either going around you or over you."

Yeager responded by getting into a pouncing position. "I'm not going anywhere without that stone." She said in reply before suggesting. "So, why don't you be a good boy and spit it up?"

Salty responded with. "Over my dead body." Before both of them charged at the other. Yeager suddenly leapt forward and snapped her jaws once she landed in front of the charging sauropod. But Salty was able to stop himself in time and rear up to avoid getting bitten. Using this as an advantage, he then slammed his forelegs down where the Megalosaur now stood, his torso pushing her away.

Yeager leapt back and snarled at the Saltasaur, who just glared at her in return. The Megalosaur then decided to attack from above and leapt into the air with the plans to land on Salty's back. But all this ended up with her getting shoulder checked by her target and knocked onto the ground. "Ooooh, you're good." Yeager said shakingly as she stood back up.

"Good enough to make it impossible for you to get that Cosmos Stone out of me." Salty proudly told her, thinking he had a massive advantage over the clone.

But Yeager didn't seem the least bit deterred by that statement if her psychotic laughing was anything to go by. "Heh, heh, heh! Who said anything about that? It just means I get to go from the easy way and carding you to the more fun ways." She said before she roared and started to glow.

Before Salty could even ask what she meant, he felt himself getting lifted off of the ground. "H-hey! Whoa!" He gasped as he struggled to break free. But it was all in vain as he just went higher and higher until Yeager dropped him. The Saltasaurus fell to the ground and crashed like a giant boulder, but was still able to battle thanks to his armor taking most of the impact. "Heh, I told you I can handle whatever you through at me. Even your Super Moves."

"Oh, I'm not trying to defeat you here." Yeager said as she started glowing again and picked up Salty once more. "I just need to get that stone out of you. And this was the method I chose." She said before dropping him again, but Salty still held on. "Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh! You're dropping that stone one way or another!" She laughed before picking Salty up again.

Realizing what she was trying to do, Salty swallowed a massive gulp before he fell from the sky again. It wasn't out of fear, but rather to keep the stone from finding its way up his throat as his stomach dropped. And it seemed to have worked as Salty felt the stone travel up his long neck, but only half way. So when Yeager picked him up to drop him again, he swallowed once more so the stone was deeper down when he impacted the ground again. What neither of them realized was all of the slamming down was taking its toll on the ledge.

This went on for about seven more times until Yeager started to get bored. "Bored now." She said as she began to approached the downed Saltasaur with heavy stomps for dramatic effect. "Looks like I'm going to have to try carving it out of you." She said gleefully before roaring and preparing to take a bite out of Salty's exposed stomach.

But before she could chomp down her jaws, a tail hit her in the face. Panting heavily, Salty still refused to give up. "Don't!" He said before hitting her in the face with his tail again. "Even!" Then came another hit. "Think about it!" He finished with a kick that forced Yeager to back off and allowed him to get back onto his feet.

Now Yeager was starting to get annoyed. "Okay. You're really ruining my fun here." She said darkly. "And you don't like me when I don't get what I want." She said before she quickly charged forward and grabbed onto Salty's neck. "If I can't go in from the stomach, I'll go in from the neck!" She said as she started to bite down and apply more pressure in the hopes of decapitating the Saltasaurus.

Salty roared in pain from the bite and tried to shake the Megalosaurus off by swinging his neck to make her let go. But all this did was swing them around and swap their positions so Yeager was now the one with her back to the edge.

Or so Salty originally thought and he heard the sound of something crumbling, and it thankfully wasn't his neck bones. Instead, it seemed to have come from the Earth. And looking down, he saw that it was the ledge they were battling on. "Wait a minute." He began to recall what happened back in the past when he was here the first time.

Soon Spiny's grip was starting to weaken. With one last swing of his neck, the Saltasaurus slammed Spiny into the ground. This caused the piece of ground Max was holding onto to separate from the earth. "Aaaah! Someone help!" Max cried as he fell.

"No!" Everyone cried as it seemed their friend was about to meet his end.

"And everything destroyed by our battles was repaired after the Battle of Sanjo City." Salty remembered as he formulated a plan that should work. "So if I just add a little more weight." He thought before he stomped his front left foot down.

And that seemed to do the trick as the ledge started to give way where he stomped. Yeager was so distracted with killing her opponent that she didn't realize she ground she was standing on was basically gone until she started falling. In an attempt to save herself, she tried to pull herself up with Salty's neck. But Salty wasn't having this and held his neck firmly in place so Yeager wouldn't be able to get any footing. He got a little extra help when the ledge that broke off push the Megalosaur's stomach and made her let go and fall down the path of the waterfall bellow. Falling so fast and suddenly, Yeager didn't have any time to activate Zero G Throw to slow down her fall before she crashed into the water below. The large rock landed directly on top of her, and that was all it took to defeat her once and for all.

From atop the waterfall, Salty was able to see the bright glow indicating she was carded and was able to sigh in relief. "Huff! Oh, thank goodness. Huff!" He said between pants.

"Salty!" Turning his head around, Salty saw Phantom approach him with Lex's card in his claws. "Do you still have the stone?"

"Got it!" He confirmed, opening his mouth and showing Phantom the green slow inside.

"Perfect! Let's hurry up and get to the village." The Afrovenator said as he lead his Saltasaurus away. "We don't have much time."

Back with the rest of the team, they were still doing battle with Sharphorn and the Alpha Gang. Despite it being a three-on-one battle, it was the lone Pentaceratops that was having the upper hand. Currently, he and Thorn were clashing their horns together like swords, trying to knock the other one over. With the orange ceratopsian focused on his friend, Lucky tried to sneak attack from the side. But Sharphorn heard him coming and changed his position so when the Ceratosaurus went in to attack he was able to throw the theropod over himself while also smacking Thorn down with his tail so he didn't try the same thing.

From the sidelines, Ursula watched the battle with excitement. "Ehehehehehehe!" She couldn't help but giggle like a schoolgirl, confusing the two of her teammates.

"What's so funny, Ursula?" Ed asked.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing." The greenette gleefully replied before she pulled out a set of Lightning Move Cards. "It's just that now I'm the one with all of the Move Cards!" She sang braggingly before she looked at the deck. "Now, which one should I use first? Plasma Anchor? Gatling Spark? Electric Charge?" She asked herself as she shuffled through the cards before picking one. "Oooh! I know just the one." She said before the picked it and prepared to swipe it. "Go Lightning Strike!"

Sharphorn roared as he glowed yellow before the tips of his horns started to gather electricity. Rearing up with another roar, he fired the Lightning Strike at Genie, the attack hitting him directly and causing the Isisaurus to fall to the ground. "No, Genie!" Foolscap exclaimed at the site of the titanosaur collapsing.

"And for the rest of you, how about a Thunder Bazooka!" Ursula said as she swiped another Move Card quickly after.

Now Sharphorn charged towards both Lucky and Thorn as they got themselves up before he leapt into the air and began spinning with electricity like a torpedo. "MOVE!" Both Lucky and Thorn shouted at each other before they quickly got out of the way in time. With nothing to hit, Sharphorn stopped spinning and landed on his feet, sliding to a stop.

This miss soured Ursula's happy mood. "Grrr! Think you're so fast, huh? Well let's see if you can do that again!" She declared before swiping the Move Card again.

Once more Sharphorn charged at his targets before leaping at his two targets. However, this time as he spun towards them, he was knocked away by Genie ramming his head against the Pentaceratops' side. "Whaaaaaa!?" Ursula gasped at the Isisaur's return.

"Yeah! Take that, you horned freak!" Foolscap cheered with a pumped fist before getting an annoyed snort from Thorn, who was standing right next to him, and sheepishly apologized. "Uh, no offense."

Despite being knocked away, Sharphorn still was able to land on his feet and slide to a stop, roaring angrily at Genie when he did so, so kindly returned the gesture.

"Come on, Sharphorn! Get back in their and crush them like bugs!" Ursula yelled into the Scanner.

"Ursula, calm down." Zander assured her before pointing to the battle. "Look, Sharphorn still has plenty of energy left while the three of them are starting to tire."

Ursula looked and saw that the opposing three dinosaurs were starting to pant with exhaustion. On the other side, Sharphorn seemed perfectly fine, even going so far as to crack his neck in a show of boasting. "Yeah, you're right." She said before she laughed boastfully at their enemies. "Ha, ha, ha! Looks like you can't take much more of this!" She bragged. "Best you give up now before you end up losing three dinosaurs."

"Or you can lose three dinosaurs and give us them along with the Cosmos Stone." Ed suggested.

"I happen to think that is a better deal for us." Zander commented.

"Ha! Like we'd just roll over and give up with what's at stake." Foolscap shot back.

"What's at stake is your health if you don't give us that stone now." Ursula threatened as she pulled out a powerful Move Card. "I'll give you five seconds to surrender or else you'll see just how powerful Final Thunder is on the receiving end." She delivered her ultimatum before counting down. "Three."

"Wait, you said you were gonna give them five-" Zander started to point out, but Ursula ignored him and continued to count down.

"Two."

"Why're you even threatening us? We don't have the stone." Gavro pointed out.

That got Ursula to stop herself from swiping the card as she realized the idiot of a guardian had a point. "Wait a minute, he's right! Those other dinosaurs that ran off still have it!" She exclaimed as she looked at her Scanner and saw that Yeager's signal had disappeared, meaning she was defeated.

"Gah!" Zander and Ed both exclaimed as they looked at the Scanner screen and saw what Ursula meant. "What are we doing here fighting these clowns when we should be going after those other dinosaurs with the stone!?" Zander shouted.

"If we hurry we can still catch them!" Ed suggested.

"Please." Sheer scoffed. "No doubt Salty and the others are already at the village with the stone by now." She told them smugly.

That last sentence confused the trio. "Huh? Village?" They all said together before Ursula asked. "Why are you taking the Cosmos Stone to a random village when you should be making a break for it back to your ship?"

"Because we need the Cosmos Stone to heal all of the villagers sick with a dormant virus that can only be cured with an extinct flower." Foolscap told them. "That's what we have at stake."

"Yeah, what'd you have to lose?" Gavro daringly asked them.

Hearing what Foolscap told them surprised the trio even more. "A whole village sick?" Zander whispered to his teammates.

"With a virus that can only be cured with an extinct flower that is only accessible by using the Cosmos Stone to grow it?" Ed added.

Ursula heard what her teammates said and frowned. "This sounds like a trick." She said as she got ready to swipe the Move Card again.

"But what if it isn't?" Ed pointed out. "Who knows how many will die?"

"They are only pirates in name, not actual lying thieves." Zander added before asking. "What should we do?"

"Mmmmmmm." Ursula hummed to herself as she looked at their options. She looked at Sharphorn and saw that the Pentaceratops had actually started to charge towards the other dinosaurs while they were talking. "That's all I need to know." She said before she pressed a button on the Scanner.

As the D-Team dinos got ready to fend off another attack by Sharphorn, the Pentaceratops suddenly glowed yellow as he was called back to a card in Ursula's hands. "Huh?" They all said in confusion.

"All right, you win. You can keep the stone." She said before giving one last warning. "But you had better be telling the truth about this, or there will be hell to pay later." With that she turned around to leave. "Let's go." She told her teammates.

Zander and Ed were just as shocked at the others by Ursula's sudden decision, but quickly snapped themselves out of their stupor by shaking their heads. "Brrrrrrrrbbb! Coming, Ursula!" They both said as they followed their leader back to wherever their craft crashed.

Once they were gone, and seemingly far enough away to not pull a sneak attack, the three pirates recalled their present dinosaurs. "That was weird." Foolscap said as he tucked Thorn's card away in his jacket.

"Yeah, they just suddenly gave up like they wanted us to." Gavro said before he wondered. "Is it opposite day?"

"If it was, we would've lost." Foolscap pointed out.

"Oh, yeah." Gavro realized.

"Whatever the reason, we have an opening. Let's not waste it!" Sheer told her team as she grew her wings and took off towards the village.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Foolscap said as he followed.

"You probably might have to for me." Gavro said as he joined them both.

Once they made it back to the village, Salty spat out the Cosmos Stone into Foolscap's hands. "Eeessshh!" He grimaced at it being covered with dino spit, but focused on the task at hand as he walked over to the rest of his team and explained his plan. "Okay, here's what I'm thinking. If we each take hold of the stone and concentrate on the flowers, we should be able to make some sprout." He pulled out his digital screen and showed them the flower; a tortilla brown hibiscus with hickory colored markings on each petal. "This is the flower we need to grow. Take a good long look at it, Gavro." He leered at his brother.

"It looks like chocolate." Gavro commented.

"That's enough assurance for me." Sheer said as she grabbed onto the stone along with Gavro.

"Yes, well let's get this started then." Foolscap said before all three of them closed their eyes and began to concentrate on the flower they were shown.

At first nothing seemed to happened. However, that soon began to change as the stone started to brighten up and the trio began to glow green with the energy of the stone flowing through each of them. "Ergh!" They all hissed from the pain before Foolscap told them. "Don't lose focus! Keep thinking of the flowers!"

"Those yummy, chocolate flowers." Gavro drooled as the image solidified itself in his mind. Foolscap just rolled his eyes before closing them again and continued to focus on the mission.

Eventually, the ground around the trio began to glow green like them as flowers were starting to grow all around them. "They're doing it!" The village exclaimed.

"Sssssh!" Salty hushed him by covering his mouth with his tail. "Don't break their concentration. We need lots more of these if we want to make sure there's enough for everyone."

The three pirates kept on concentrating as more and more flowers began glowing around them until there might have been over a thousand of them. "Okay, I think that's enough!" Phantom told them, worried about a possible overgrowth happening.

That seemed to be just enough to break the trio's concentration as the glow around them disappeared and they all let go of the stone, staggering to stay standing after using so much energy. "Whoa! That was a doozy." Sheer said as she leaned her arm against a building.

"I don't think I want to eat the flowers anymore." Gavro cried as he held his stomach and laid on the ground.

"They're not for you anyway, you big dummy." Foolscap scolded him before he plucked one of the flowers and ran over to the nearest sick villager. "Here, eat this." He said as he crouched down and placed the flower in their mouth.

With a little help from Foolscap to get them chewing, they were able to swallow the flower. A few seconds later, and they slowly began to open their eyes. "Wh-what?" They asked themselves as it felt like they had just emerged from a long slumber.

"Yes!" Foolscap quietly cheered to not startle the poor man.

Seeing Foolscap's first patient was starting to improve, Sheer and Gavro recovered from, or rather walked off, their dizziness and began plucking flowers to give to the other sick villagers. Those who weren't sick also began to pitch in. "Here." Sheer said as she fed a woman a flower.

"Eat this." Gavro said as he did the same with some children.

"Just hang on now." Phantom said as he joined in.

As everyone in the village was slowing being feed flowers and cured, the Alpha Gang watch the entire scene from their Alpha Craft. "Looks like they were telling the truth." Ursula said as she observed everything below through a pair of binoculars.

"Yeaaah! Well, Ursula." Ed said between strokes. "Looks like you-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I cost us the stone." Ursula guessed what he was going to say. "So I have a heart and don't fancy seeing innocent people die. You can nag me all you want, I won't take back what I did."

"Yeeaaah! I was going to say you did the right thing." Ed surprised her with his response.

"You were?" The greenette blinked in confusion.

"Yeah." Zander agreed. "Yeeaaah! We may be the villains, but we're not like Dr.Z or Seth who'd just let the villagers all die. Yeeaaah!" He pointed out.

"And there's no way the pirates would've trusted us to do the same thing with the stone, so you giving it up was the only choice. Yeeaaah!" Ed added.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ursula admitted as she looked back over the side, a lot going through her mind right now.

Back in the village, it was just about sunset when they had healed everyone and the villagers were starting to recover. "We cannot thank you enough for all you have done for us." The lead villager thanked the Space Pirates and their dinosaurs.

"We may call ourselves pirates, but we're really more guardians than anything." Foolscap replied as he and the villager shook hands.

"Literally, that's what their species is called." Phantom added.

"I'm just happy we were able to use the Cosmos Stone to cure everyone." Thorn said as he looked at the green orb in Sheer's hands. "Who knows what could've happened if it didn't work?"

"Well, there is always that thing that their ship does that seems to heal all damages and wounds." Salty pointed out.

Everyone just stared at the Saltasaurus in silence for a few good minutes before Sheer shouted. "Oh my god! We could've just done that this whole time!" She slapped her head for forgetting such a thing.

Foolscap angrily turned to his brother. "You couldn't have brain blasted that idea instead?!"

Gavro surprisingly, just shook his head. "Nah, I thought of it, until I remembered what day it was."

"What does today's day have to do with-" Foolscap started to ask before he remembered and he and Sheer both realized what it was. "Ooooooooh. It's Friday." They both groaned.

"Oh yeah."

"I forgot about that."

"Would've made it hard to bring the ship in." Thorn, Salty, and Lucky muttered to themselves.

This still confused those that hadn't been around for as long. "I don't get it. What does it being Friday have to do with the ship being unavailable." Genie asked.

"Oh, Genie." Sheer said softly as she flew up to his head and wrapped an arm around it. "Sweet, sweet, innocent little Genie. Friday nights are karaoke nights." She told him.

"And good luck getting in touch with Spectre during that time." Foolscap added.

Speaking of which, said leader of the Space Pirates was currently at a karaoke bar singing in front of a crowd. "I'm going through a tunnel. Stuck in a canyon. In an elevator. Who would even listen? No! No, no, no! Whoa! Whoa!" He sang into the mic as he finished up the song. "Hello, hello, hello? Can you hear me now? Hello!" He finished as the audience clapped, making him blush and feel all giddily inside. "Thank you! Thank you! You all are too kind!" He bowed like a child receiving their first blue ribbon before asking. "

"See, karaoke nights are the one time Spectre can sing and no one can say he's doing it terribly. So it's something he takes very seriously, and wouldn't answer the phone for any reason." Sheer explained. "Especially to those who have rightfully criticized his lackluster vocal performance before."

"Can't be that bad." Lex rolled his eyes.

Foolscap responded to this by handing the Lexovisaurus a mini player containing several of Spectre's improvised songs over the years. "Play this when alone and tell me afterwards its not so bad."

Lex grabbed the player in his mouth. Cut to later in the D-Lab after he had played only one song and already he had fainted from the pain, lying on the floor like a corpse.

Later that night aboard the Backland, Gigas was lying down in his new room when he heard the door open. Just like Maximus did before, he assumed it was Armatus and asked. "Well, what did she have to say?" Believing it to be another reply to his message.

Unlike the last time, however, Armatus was there. And he wasn't alone. "I think it's best if she tells your herself." He said as he stepped aside.

"Wait what?" Gigas asked as he got up and turned around to see Maximus right there. "What're you doing here?" He angrily asked with a snarl before he noticed how the Triceratops looked

Maximus appeared very ashamed with herself, head held low and pawing the floor. "I'm sorry." She immediately apologized. "Everything I said to you was wrong, and I have no excuse for what I did."

Her apology surprised Gigas. "Where is this coming from?"

"Mate, does it matter where it came from? She's apologizing to you." Armatus pointed out. "The least you could do it return the apology."

"No, Armatus. He doesn't have to." Maximus told him. "I said things with the full intent to hurt him."

"And they did." Gigas confirmed. "They did a lot. So you're going to have to understand that I can't just forgive something like that so easily." He said before sighing. "But I can try." Hearing that made Maximus lift her head with a hopeful look in her eyes.

"That's all I needed to hear." Armatus said before telling both of them. "We're all alone in this world. The three of us need to stick together."

"Not completely alone." Maximus shook her head. "There's someone out there looking out for us."

Hearing that really surprised Gigas. "OK, I got to know what happened to make you change your mind like that." He requested.

Speaking of him, Brontikens was listening in on the trio and looked pleased with himself for a job well done.

Deeper in the ship, and Sharphorn was with Seth and The Professor in his lab, giving a report of what happened. "Thank you, Sharphorn. That will be all" Seth thanked the Pentaceratops and dismissed him.

The ceratopsian nodded and left the lab to sleep, leaving Seth and The Professor alone. "It would appear that the trio's good nature is starting to effect their better judgement." The Megaraptor told his boss.

"Yes, but that is to be expected." Seth calmly replied as he walked over to his desk that had a picture of the seven Cosmos Stone on it and crossed out the green one. "So long as Operation Sixty-Five goes according to plan, it doesn't matter how many of the other stones Spectre and his gang gather."

"And how can you be so sure?" The Professor asked.

Seth looked back at the dromaeosaur with a smirk. "Because I have planted a traitor in their midst."

"A traitor?" The Professor repeated back in surprise before shaking his head in denial. "Impossible. None of the dinosaurs they have would ever go against the crown."

"I never said a dinosaur, I said a traitor." Seth corrected him. "One that's much more easier to persuade onto our side."

Within the Space Pirates' Ship, the Gel Jarks were hard at work. One of which was standing guard. However, for the briefest of moments, its eye flickered red before going back to normal.

Next Time on Dinosaur King:

Zoe: All right, let's take this from the top

(A Rajasaurus roars angrily)

Paris: That poor Rajasaurus!

Chomp: The Alpha Gang are making her rampage!

Gigas: Guys, I think this might be it for us

(He, Maximus, and Armatus find themselves completely surrounded by a large fire)

Ursula: Brontikens, what are you doing?!

Pyro: There are far worse punishments than death

A/N: A new year, a new chapter! Not a bad way to start of 2025.

So this chapter's plot came from a few different sources. Mainly from that You Vs Wild interactive on Netflix that had a similar plot with delivering medicine a sick village. I also got some inspiration from an episode of the Tarzan series with were the virus came from, though it might parallel some real world events. Lastly, having Foolscap be a chemist came from the Dinosaur Queen story, which was actually a reference to the DS game. It felt like time to give him a moment to show his strengths.

For the battles, originally it was just going to be Salty, Thorn, and Lucky that were used, as they are the only season one dinos to have not yet been on a mission. However, once you realize the stakes even without the sick village, adding three more dinosaurs felt right. Packer was almost included, but just didn't have the space for him. Better luck next time, buddy.

As for everything regarding the Alpha Gang characters, well, we're starting to see how deep the cracks that have been forming lately go. This applies to both the humans and the dinosaurs. But what does it mean?

Well, all I can say is that 2025 is going to be a big year for them. A year of massive changes. So be ready.