Chapter Text
Fiona zipped through the hallways, ducking and weaving past a few sparse students and the janitors. Just a few more seconds! 3, 2, 1-
Fiona skidded into Ms. Moynihan’s classroom and took a seat next to goody-two-shoes Max just as the bell rang. “Oh yeah! I am good.” She took a celebratory bite of her apple. Fiona smirked. Take that mom! She still got to school on time, even with a little extra sleep.
“You’re cutting it close, Fiona.” Ms. Moynihan looked over her glasses disapprovingly. Ouch. “You might have made it in time, but you’ll still have broken three rules by the time our lesson starts. No skates on school grounds and no food in the science lab.”
Fiona rolled her eyes. “That’s only two.” She mumbled around a bite of her apple, but she still tossed her apple towards the trash can. And missed.
Ms. Moynihan watched as the apple rolled away from the trash can and raised an expectant eyebrow at Fiona. “Littering. Three.”
The class burst into chuckles as Fiona stood to pick it up. Traitors. “Sorry, Mrs. Moynihan.”
“Just make sure not to do it with John. We’ll need to call an ambulance when he pops a blood vessel if even one student is late to his class.” Ms. Moynihan joked with a smirk, pulling a smile from Fiona. Mr. Cole would explode if he found a student even a second late for class. “Oh, and your skating has improved. Well done.”
“Thanks, Ms. Moynihan.” Fiona shot a quick smile towards the biology teacher as she threw away the apple before skating back to her seat.
“Alright, settle down.” Ms. Moynihan called out to the last few students chuckling under their breaths. She picked up the projector remote off her desk as she walked to the light switch. “Don’t forget. We’ll be taking a field trip to the tide pools, and I’ll need your release forms if you want to go instead of waiting around in the library.”
She flicked off the light and flicked the projector on. A video with a herd of elephants appeared on screen. “Today we’re going to be talking about some adaptations animals have to survive. Yesterday we were discussing how many animals, rather than living alone, live in groups or colonies to survive better. You could call this 'self-interest'.”
She switched the video to a video of ants protecting their nest during a flood. Some of the ants were being swept away with the water. “But some lifeforms, such as ants, will sacrifice themselves for the good of the colony.” The video switched to one of a wolf protecting their pups from a bear. “And wolves will instinctively place themselves between their newborn and a threat. These traits are vital to the survival of many species. Often times, prioritizing the success of future generations over the individual will benefit a species in the long run. Something from which even we can learn a lesson.”
A customized helicopter flew down to the landing pad with a loud whir. The door to the blood red helicopter slid open and two men stepped out.
“I think you’ll enjoy working at RaptorDyne, Peter.” Veloci told the other man in a friendly tone as they rode down the elevator.
“Thank you, Mr. Veloci. I’m sure I will.” Peter tilted his head to look at the well-dressed businessman gratefully. He had heard great things about RaptorDyne with its innovations in science and he was hungry to gain more recognition. Accepting the employment offer from RaptorDyne was the natural step towards his goal.
The elevator stopped and Peter was stunned speechless as the door opened. “What… is this place?” The lab was nothing like any other he’d ever been in. It was almost like a lab right out of a science fiction movie with pipes crisscrossing over the ground and tubes of something from the floor to the ceiling.
“It’s where my real work is done.” Veloci strolled up to a table with a container filled with some orange liquid. He grabbed the container and held it up to inspect it with a smirk. “These nanomachines you’ve developed will speed up the process of perfecting my experimental DNA. The one I intend to use to genetically reconstruct all life forms and turn them back into what they rightfully still should be. Dinosaurs.”
Veloci put the container down and strolled up to a giant computer to press a button. A hole in the floor hissed open next to Peter who jolted away it. A red container with a lumpy rock inside came out next to the scientist. Veloci pressed the button again and showed a video of a whale turning into a sharp toothed mosasaur and a rhino into a triceratops!
“That’s impossible!” Peter took a step forward, craning his neck up to see the screen better. Dinosaurs in the modern day? There's no way!
“Is it?” Veloci tilted his head to look back at Peter and a shiver went down his spine as he took a step away from Veloci.
Glowing, yellow eyes stared him down as Veloci turned to pin him with his stare. Veloci shifted his hand and Peter’s eyes snapped down to stare at the rapidly forming claws in horror. Veloci smirked at him, and all Peter could see was the razor-sharp teeth. What was he? Who was this inhuman beast?
“So, Peter, do you want to join me and be part of the dominant species? Or stick with the humans and go extinct?”
Peter stared at the monstrous creature in terror. Just who was Victor Veloci? “I got into business to swim with the sharks, not be eaten by them!” He lamented.
Veloci silently offered his hand to the scientist. A toothy smirk on his face, his black and yellow eyes glaring down at Peter in a silent warning.
“I’m in.” Peter quickly took the offered hand, eager to get away from the devil. The devil he was making a deal with.
Veloci took his hand in a punishing grip and his other hand whipped forward to plunge something into Peter’s arm. Peter jerked back, his hand still in Veloci's grip. He looked down to see a syringe pull away seconds before a foreign feeling of power entered him. It was exhilarating! Like nothing he’d ever felt before! Was this the superiority Mr. Veloci spoke of? The superiority of the dinosaurs that he felt?
Veloci stared at his new scientist with a smirk, watching the telling, shifting yellow eyes of his employee as the serum transformed him. “Now, I suspect a demonstration is in order.”
Veloci beckoned his new scientist to follow him. “I recently found a large chunk of the meteor that first led to the dinosaurs’ end. Ironically, the very thing that once ended that golden age is the same thing that will bring it back.” Veloci’s hand clenched and his teeth flashed briefly before disappearing. He approached the table with the orange liquid. “And these nanomachines have quickened the process exponentially. I no longer have to do extensive experimentation to reconstruct pieces of DNA. Let's test them shall we?”
Veloci pressed a button to open a vat of water leading to the sewer system and into the ocean. He grabbed the container and poured the liquid into the vat, the glowing, amber liquid spreading throughout the water. Another employee turned a wheel and the ooze flowed into the sewers.
Veloci's eyes glowed a bright, radioactive amber as he watched with a smirk. “Now we observe.”
“Alright, let’s break into our usual lab groups. You have two hours to find as many species as you can find.” Ms. Moynihan leaned against her cane as they stood on the shore. “Stay out of the water. And remember if you work as a team, you’ll get a lot more done in a lot less time.”
The students broke off with one of the teams going a little farther than the rest. Fiona, Max, Buzz, Rodger and Caruso went around a cliff to a shore well-known for being the city’s sewage dump. A dog was even sniffing around at some of the garbage in the water.
“Team, Shmeam.” Buzz mumbled to himself, crouching down to look into the water in one of the tide pools. I’m here to check out all the cool creatures, not be a poster boy for cooperation.”
“Okay, let’s do this.” Max smiled down at his clipboard as the others wandered around absentmindedly. Caruso was using a breath spray and Buzz was holding up a starfish curiously. “Fiona, Buzz and Caruso will find them. Rodger, you identify them. And I’ll write ‘em down. Got it?”
Fiona wasn’t even paying attention as she skipped stones across the ocean, flinging them a few skips with a grunt.
“C’mon guys. Is anyone paying attention?” Max asked defeatedly, waving the clipboard around for emphasis.
“Not to you.” The tomboy rolled her eyes, turning away from the goody-two-shoes as she leaned down to grab a new stone to throw.
“Buzz, help me out here.” Max turned towards the level-headed punk desperately.
“Get real, jock.” Buzz rolled his eyes from where he was scrutinizing another starfish. “If I wasn’t stuck in this class, I wouldn’t even talk to a species like you.”
Max’s hands hung at his side defeatedly. They were never gonna complete the assignment. Hopefully, his grade was good enough that it wouldn’t drop too much from this F.
“It’s all good. I got it covered.” Caruso smirked as he held out a slip of paper between his fingers. “Did a little surfing on the net last night. Printed out a list of sea creatures.”
Max opened the folded piece of paper doubtfully and immediately had to resist facepalming. “This is a sushi menu.”
“Dead fish, live fish. What’s the difference?” Caruso smirked, amused by his own joke as he wandered closer to the shore.
Max gritted his teeth as Rodger decided to pipe in. “Speaking of species, our biological fitness is gonna be ‘flunking this’ if we don’t get our act together. We just have to suck it up and work as a team.”
“Speak for yourself. I got my act totally together.” Caruso placed his jacket on a relatively clean patch of grass and smirked, confident as he not-so-gracefully stepped along the rocks. And slipped.
“With an emphasis on the ‘act’.” Fiona rolled her eyes, swinging her arm back to skip another stone across the ocean.
Caruso grumbled, cheeks hot with embarrassment. Today was not his day. He tossed his jacket over his shoulder. At least he still has something dry. Something gleamed in the water. He smirked, eyes shining as he leaned down. He can never deny something shiny. And his jacket slipped off his shoulder and into the water. Great. Today is really not his day. “Ah man.”
The dog that was sniffing the garbage came up to Caruso’s jacket and dragged it away with collar gripped between his teeth. “HEY! Stop slobbering up my new jacket, you ugly mutt!”
The dog playfully leaned down, tail wagging as Caruso loomed over him. Caruso leaped forward to grab his jacket with a grunt. And missed. The dog jumped on top of the boy sprawled on the floor with a triumphant, mischievous smile on his snout before leaping off the boy’s back and running off.
“HEY! Get back here!” He yelled at the dog as it took off towards the ocean. “WHOA!” Caruso swung his arms around as he reached the edge and the dog jumped in. He was not getting wet again if he could help it. “Come back, mutt!”
The mischievous dog suddenly started struggling as the waves came along harder and he lost his hold on the jacket. He ducked underneath the water to grab it and saw a massive predator underneath the waves. Sharper teeth than his own lined the creature’s jaw and scars riddled the predator’s side. He needed to get out of there! He dropped the jacket and paddled back to the shore, barking in a panic as waves pushed against him, trying to drag him under.
“Hey, flea bag, you forgot my jacket!” Caruso shouted, furious at the stupid dog. If it was going to take his jacket, the least it could do was bring it back so he can take it to the dry cleaners!
“Who cares about your stupid jacket?!” Fiona shouted at the self-centered kid. Why was that the first thing he thought about?! “The poor thing’s in trouble. Let’s go rescue it!”
The others hesitated.
“Dogs aren’t a part of our assignment, Fiona.” Buzz held a hand against his hip. It was just another mutt anyways. The thing would probably make it back to shore anyways.
“Uh, I hate it when sand gets in my underwear.” Rodger held his hands up, his eyes shifting away as Fiona whipped around to look at him.
“Forget it. I’ll do it myself.” Fiona rolled her eyes in annoyance as she ran off the shore and dove in.
“C’mon guys. Let’s help.” Max urged them, brushing off the guilt of hesitating by dropping the clipboard and jumping into the water after Fiona.
“You gonna save the mutt, too?” Buzz raised his eyebrow at Caruso, a little annoyed that the two immediately jumped in just because it was a struggling dog that was in the water.
“No.” Caruso rolled his eyes. Why would he care about the stupid mutt that dragged his jacket into the water? “I’m gonna save my jacket. That jacket was 200 dollars.” And he was diving in too.
Now it was just Rodger and Buzz at the shore as the other three swam into the water.
“Oh well.” Rodger crumbled under the pressure. Well, if all the others were going, might as well have the whole team go. “Last one in is a rotten egg. That’s you, eggplant head.” Rodger grinned at the light jab at Buzz’s green hair as he heaved the boy over his shoulder and ran towards the shore.
“Hey- c’mon- cut it out-!” Buzz flailed around which Rodger completely ignored as he jumped in, dragging Buzz along with an unmanly shriek.
A shark swam below them as they swam out into the ocean, the dog swimming towards them too.
“C’mon, boy, I gotcha.” Fiona heaved the dog under her arm, pulling it with her towards the shore.
Caruso’s jacket seemed to float towards him over the ocean. “Thanks.” Caruso plucked it off to revel a gray fin swimming through the ocean. Wait… gray fin…? “AHH! HELP! SHARK!”
He dropped the jacket and swam away. And right on time too. A shark rose above the surface and bit down on his jacket.
The others got to the shore as they heard Caruso’s shouts. “SHARK!” He reached the shore and Rodger and Max heaved him up as he spat out sand and water. “SHARK! SHARK!”
“You’re ok, Caruso.” Max reassured him as they pulled him closer to the shore.
Fiona was checking on the dog as Caruso calmed down with Max and Rodger’s help.
“Hey, man. It ate your jacket.” Buzz held it up, the bite mark in the middle clear to all of them.
“Gimme that.” Caruso said flatly as he swiped it from Buzz, silently mourning the jacket. And it costed 200 dollars too.
“What happened? I heard screaming.” Ms. Moynihan walked over to them, taking in their waterlogged appearance with a concerned and disappointed furrow to her brow. “I thought I made it clear that no one was to go in the water.”
“It was Fiona’s idea.” Caruso immediately pointed at the tomboy, scrambling back to hide behind Rodger when he got a deadly glare back.
“To save the dog.” Max smiled awkwardly, praying that his excuse would be enough to get Fiona and the rest of them out of trouble.
“Hmm…” Ms. Moynihan hummed thoughtfully, turning to the waterlogged dog and giving it a scratch on the chin with a smile. “Well, I suppose working together to save an endangered animal is an acceptable excuse.”
The boys cheered silently as they pumped their fists in the air. Thank you! As much as they loved Ms. Moynihan, detention with her was not fun.
“Now, get back to work. And make sure to stay out of the water. Trying to explain to parents why their kid was soaked is a headache and a half.” Ms. Moynihan smiled as she walked away from them with a smile.
Fiona sighed in relief. Good. Getting in trouble with Ms. Moynihan twice in a week would be a call with her mother and her mother enjoyed talking with Ms. Moynihan way more than she was comfortable with. She gently placed the dog down and walked away.
What none of them noticed were the glowing prints that trailed the kids and the dog, invisible to their naked eyes.
Max was in football practice. He could proudly say he was the quarterback of their team.
It was just another practice and the ball got passed to him. He backed up and was about to throw the ball when he got a little itch in his fingers and- POP! The ball had two holes in it!
“AHH!” He shook his hand to try to get the football off as the air left the ball with a hiss, but it was firmly stuck. Eventually, he had to yank it off his fingers with a look of shock seconds before he was tackled to the ground.
“Hit the showers, Max.” The coach looked at Max with disappointment. “Caruso! You’re in!”
Max stared at his finger bewildered. How did his fingers manage to rip a hole into a football?
…
Rodger was studying in the library. Robotics was one of the only classes he really liked, and he really didn’t want to fail the next test.
One moment he was just drinking the last bit of his water with a faint itch on his head, and the next, it was stuck to his nose. A crazy roar came out of his mouth, louder than any scream he’d made since his cousin almost crashed them into a tree for a fix.
All the people in the library turn to him and he chuckles embarrassedly, hunching over to avoid their stares.
The old librarian walks up to him and glares down at Rodger. “Young man, in case you haven’t noticed, this is a library.”
Rodger chuckles nervously, ducking his head further. “Sorry.”
…
Caruso was just throwing on a jacket in the locker room. He had just gotten it back from the dry cleaners.
Caruso creaked open his locker to pull out a white jacket and put it on when he started feeling an annoying itch just before he hears a ripping sound. “What…? Oh man!”
He pulls off the jacket to see it perfectly split in half. “First, that stupid mutt ruins my jacket, now, look what the dry cleaners did to my new one.
…
Fiona was just driving home in her personally customize truck.
She hopped into her baby and started driving off when she started getting an itch really low down her back. She was making a turn onto the highway when she saw the massive tail hanging out her window through the rearview mirror.
“Huh?!” She does a double take and the tail had suddenly vanished.
…
Buzz was just playing a video game like he usually does when he gets home. This time it was a dinosaur game.
“Buzz, will you stop wasting your life away with those ridiculous video games!” His mom shouted from outside his room.
“Sure, whatever, mom.” Buzz says absentmindedly as he keeps jumping obstacles as the T-rex.
Suddenly, the pterodactyl appears on screen and he starts flailing his arms wildly to beat the stupid flying lizard (no shame on lizards obviously, just this one). There’s an itch on his arms but he can’t scratch it without losing so he ignores it. Once he wins, he realizes that the screen is a little lower than usual and looks down at his arms. He gets a brief flash of green before he falls back onto the floor with an ‘oomph’.
Buzz throws his control down and flinches back. What freaky game makes you hover over the ground?
Ms. Moynihan looked at them with disappointment as they shuffled back and forth abashedly. Still, the points on that assignment had been higher than they thought, and their grade really can’t tank the hit. “You know why you all failed the tide pool assignment.”
“Because shrimp tempura isn't a species?” Caruso jokes weakly.
“No, because you weren’t a team at all. The workload was specifically designed for five teammates. You were just five…“ Ms. Moynihan’s explanation trickled out as her eyes flickered over her students. Her rapidly transforming students. She caught a glimpse of distinctly inhuman features appear and disappear around their bodies. From a tail to claws to wings.
She stared at them silently for a moment as the students shifted nervously. “You know, you can’t hide it forever it comes up randomly.”
“What hiding? We’re not hiding anything! Right guys?” Max claimed hurriedly, turning to the other four for support which they hurriedly gave.
“I saw your claws, Max. And your tail, Fiona.” She turned to each of them with knowing eyes.
“You have a tail?” Buzz looked at her with amazement and a hint of jealousy as he lifted his arms to show his change. “All I got were these saggy arm thingies!”
“Those are likely pteranodon wings. And yours-“ Ms. Moynihan turned to look at Caruso. “Are likely stegosaurus spinal plates.”
“No way! It’s just a little breakout.” Caruso reached back to scratch his itchy spine nervously. “Isn’t it?”
“I wish it was that simple, but the likely truth is that you’ve all been infected with virulent dinosaur DNA.” Ms. Moynihan shook her head sadly.
“How do you know all this? Who are you?” Fiona crosses her arms defensively. Even if Ms. Moynihan was right about her tail, that still didn’t mean she would trust someone telling her she had a dino virus! Not even Ms. Moynihan!
“I had a feeling that would be your reaction.” Ms. Moynihan sighed, stepping forward to reach for their hands. “Come closer and close your eyes. Some animals use electromagnetic waves to communicate. I’m going to do something vaguely similar that will transmit into your brain as images to stimulate a sort of one way ‘telepathy’.”
“65 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, wiping out all the dinosaurs. Except for two velociraptors. Over time, their genes mutated, and they gained the ability to adapt their form.” The image of the asteroid hitting the Earth played in their heads in gruesome detail, chunks of rock flying everywhere as the two velociraptors who had moments ago been fighting over food were now fleeing into the same cave. The one they saw these images, these memories, from was a green velociraptor. Fear pulsed through them like adrenaline as they ran faster and faster, desperate to live, even for just a little longer-
“You’re a velociraptor!” Caruso exclaimed fearfully, stumbling away from Ms. Moynihan and hiding behind Rodger. “You’re, like, a vicious carnivore!”
“I evolved beyond that long ago. But I’m afraid another raptor… did not.” Ms. Moynihan flicked her glasses up, concealing sad eyes behind closed eyelids. “Today he’s known as Victor Veloci.”
“How’s that possible?!” Max’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “The guy’s a civic leader!”
“Yeah, he owns that big biogenetics company in Boston, RaptorDyne.” Rodger had to stop himself from fanboying over their innovations.
“Because they dominated the Earth for hundreds of millions of years, far longer than man’s short history, Veloci believes the dinosaurs are superior.” ‘And perhaps there’s a bit more to it.’ Ms. Moynihan thought to herself sadly as she leaned against her desk.
“What do you believe?” Fiona asked her challengingly. Would Ms. Moynihan really side against all humans? Did she really think she was better than all of them? Were all their talks and meetings lies because Ms. Moynihan thought she was not just a superior race but a superior species? Was she even telling the truth?
“That human gained dominance because brute force lost out to reason and love. The connections and intelligence as well as the sheer stubborn determination to live allowed humans to win that war of dominance. That’s why I parted ways with Veloci long ago.” Ms. Moynihan turned her head towards the window for a moment, eyes filled with nostalgic melancholy. “But now, global warming and modern technology have allowed Veloci to mutate any organism’s DNA into dinosaur DNA with a sort of... primordial ooze.”
“Oh hell yeah! We’re dinosaurs? How cool is that?!” Buzz turned towards the other four, practically vibrating in excitement. It was like a video game come to life!
“But I don’t want to be a dinosaur! I want to be a quarterback! I can’t be a quarterback if I keep randomly popping the ball.” Max’s eyebrows furrowed with his frustration. What was the point of doing all that work if he couldn’t even get the chance to have what he did all that work for?
“And all my clothes keep getting ripped I’ve gone through a hundred dollars in shirts! This is my most flexible shirt and I swear I still heard a rip somewhere!” Caruso groaned dramatically, shoving his face in his hands. “You have to fix us, Ms. Moynihan!”
“I have to agree. It's far too dangerous to be going about with the ability to transform into a dinosaur. Especially with Veloci arround.” Ms. Moynihan’s eyebrows furrowed. These were kids not even one millionth of her age. Kids who've been affected by Veloci's experimenting. Veloci had always had too voracious of an appetite for knowledge and she doubted he'd stop just because they were children. Let alone what the government might do if they found out dinosaur mutated children were right under their nose. There’s always been some people who have been too hungry for power to consider their own empathy.
“Can you cure us, Ms. M?” Max pleaded, a desperate tone to his voice. Living the rest of his life randomly transforming into a dino? This is worse than puberty! At least he expected the outbreaks. How was he supposed to expect randomly only having two fingers? And for the rest of his life? No way!
“Yes.” A wave of relief washed over Max when she nodded firmly. Oh, thank you.
However, others were not as relieved as him to be cured.
“What? No way! Being a dino is so cool!” Buzz shook his head. He’s gonna be a cool reptile! Like his snakes! “And what about Veloci? If that guy’s turning humans into dino’s, don’t we have to stop him or something?”
“No, Buzz is right! We gotta work together and stop Victor Veloci!” Rodger agreed, fists clenching with passion. “If the whole world is overrun by transforming dinosaur mutants, then society is gonna go up in smoke! How are any of us supposed to do anything? I’ll never get that engineering job!”
“Wait, work together?” Buzz said with a look of mild annoyance, the corner of his mouth twisting down a bit. “Oh, man, I forgot about that part. Maybe not then.”
“And how are you going to stop him?” Ms. Moynihan crossed her arms as she raised an eyebrow at Rodger. “Veloci’s a very powerful and very slippery reptile. He has to be, or I would have put a stop to his experiments long ago. How are you going to accomplish what I couldn’t in 65 million years? You kids can’t even manage to do a lab project together.”
“I say we give our dinos a test run!” Fiona grinned with excitement. This was amazing! Buzz was actually kinda right about that for once. How many kids can actually say they’re dinosaurs? Man, Terri’s gonna be so jealous!
“Well, I want the cure!” Max argued, glaring at Fiona. Why would he stay some crazy dino mutant any longer than he has to.
Within the next minute the whole group was talking over each other, arguing about what they should do, Max and Caruso vehemently wanted to find a cure while Fiona, Rodger and Buzz argued. Soon Caruso and Fiona were shouting at each other as Buzz and Rodger tried to calm them down with Max supporting Caruso. Random comments were thrown around and pushed to the wayside as insults flew.
“ENOUGH!” Ms. Moynihan shouted, stunning the students into silence. “Come with me. We’re going up to the lighthouse to cure you. I will not let children walk themselves into danger.”
“We’re taking my jeep.” Fiona piped in immediately. “No offense, Ms. M. But your car is no ATV, and I don’t even wanna know what their cars look like.”
“Yes, well I suppose that would be better.” Ms. Moynihan tapped a finger against her cane thoughtfully. “Usually, I just park at the bottom and walk the rest of the way.” She looked over her glasses at the kids with a mischievous smile. “Unless you kids can’t hike up a hill yourselves.”
“NOPE.” Caruso immediately protested, shaking his head enough to get dizzy. “Are you kidding me? All the way up to the lighthouse?! No way!”
“Well, then let’s go.” Fiona sighed. Well, it’s a little disappointing that she can’t say she’s a dinosaur, but having a tail longer than her leg pop out of nowhere could be a problem.
Elsewhere, in the ocean by their city. The shark that had terrorized them just yesterday was swimming through the ooze filled water. Nanomachines filled its lungs and spread. They spread through blood cells and organs and bones until they reached its brain. The shark spasmed, confused and pained as it grew and grew and grew, nearly doubling in size until it couldn’t grow anymore. Pain shot through its body as it grew into too-tight skin and its dorsal fin ripped as its body grew too much.
Its eyes glowed with an amber light as it struck out, pain overriding natural fear as it ripped through a metal boat, sinking the fishing boat with a metallic screech as it roared in pain.
“Wow.” Rodger and Max stared at the lighthouse in awe. Most people didn’t even go close to the lighthouse because of how infamously hard it was to get up some of the steeper parts and how it was made off limits.
“Alright, we’re going down.” Ms. Moynihan climbed up the stairs of the lighthouse.
“This is so cool.“ Buzz looked around the room from the staircase.
“How does no one know about this?” Fiona looked at Ms. Moynihan in shock. How was anyone supposed to hide all this stuff?
“Every old dino has their secrets.” Ms. Moynihan winked at her as she walked around the room. “Now, I can’t afford the advanced technology Veloci has, but 65 million years is quite enough to do some tinkering. It helps me manage to monitor and impede Veloci whenever I can.”
“That’s all great, Ms. M. But can we get started?” Max hurried her along, foot tapping against the floor quickly. He really didn’t want to be stuck as a weird half dino anymore.
“Of course. This is the DNA Chiller.” Ms. Moynihan picked up a blue machine that looked vaguely looked like a laser gun. Then she pointed it at them.
The kids gasped, raising their hands in alarm.
“I volunteer Fiona as sacrifice!” Caruso immediately shouted, scooting to hide behind Rodger. He was way too young and handsome to die here because his teacher fell to her beastly instincts.
“Hey!” Fiona glared at the boy who immediately cowered away. When they get done with this, which they will because Ms. Moynihan wouldn’t kill them (right?), he’s gonna find out exactly why she has the high score on every shooting game in the arcade.
“Relax. It won’t hurt.” Ms. Moynihan rolled her eyes, a mischievous smile crossing her face for a second before she shot an ice-cold burst of air at the kids, leaving them shivering for warmth. “The nitrogen will force the mutant DNA to the surface as it seeks warmth.” Despite the cold air, the kids all broke out into sweat seconds after she blew the air at the. She picked up the other machine, something that looked like an orange laser gun. “This is the Devolver. It will vacuum up the DNA for safe storage. Don’t want to go infecting some other poor creature.”
“That’s it?” Caruso asked, a little disappointed. No bright lights, no sparkles, no nothing? That was so anticlimactic.
“That’s it.” Ms. Moynihan confirmed with a smile. Placing down the Devolver.
“Thanks, Ms. M!” Max exclaimed with a smile despite clutching his jacket close to ward off the chill from the DNA Chiller.
“Alright, Fiona, let’s go hit the arcade.” Buzz walked to the stairs, shaking his hands to get rid of the chill.
“Ugh, I need a bath.” Caruso whined as Rodger mumbled something about needing to do research.
"Caruso, get back here!" Fiona shouted, a fiery vengeance in her eyes. Caruso shrieked and ran down the stairs with Fiona hot on his tail.
“I’ll see you kids tomorrow.” Ms. Moynihan waved them off. “Now, how did they even get contaminated in the first place…?”
“Man, you better watch out! I might just catch up to your high score this time!” Buzz smirked at Fiona who grinned right back. “You couldn’t even catch a cold, beanpole.”
“You’re on, Dracula!” Buzz leaned forward, trying to swerve in front of Fiona.
“Shut up! At least my hair’s not green.” Fiona scoffed, easily blocking Buzz from passing her. Buzz was literally one of the only ones that stared at her hair and said she looked like a vampire. Literally nothing else was even close!
Suddenly, she felt a familiar itch at her back, and she whipped her head around to stare at the tail that shouldn’t be there.
“Yes! I won!” Buzz threw up his arms in victory, but he was stopped by a vaguely familiar feeling of stretched skin between his arm and sides. “Huh, again? I thought she got rid of my wing thingies?”
“You too?” Fiona glanced at him, pulling her tail out of the walkway. “I think we need to go back to the lighthouse.”
…
Rodger leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. Nothing he’d found showed anything off about Veloci or RaptorDyne. In fact, most of it could be considered heroic. He did environmental experiments to promote plant growth, he relocated invasive species and he even funded research on global warming. Nothing seemed unusual except for the complete lack of anything unusual about him. Nothing he could find pointed to any controversy on the scale Ms. Moynihan told them.
“I need a break.” Rodger declared, pushing his seat back to walk over to his most recent little project. A compact water filter for his water bottle. He just needed a few more pieces and it would be finished.
He flipped the filter over when he felt an itch. He scratched the itch on the side of his head and felt the recently familiar feeling of bone in the shape of a spine. What.
Rodger jumped up and ran to the mirror, catching a glimpse of the pointy spikes before they disappeared back into his skin. Weren’t they supposed to be gone? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? On one hand, he hadn’t really wanted to get rid of his dino traits. On the other, the other guys were right that the dino traits weren’t really convenient for daily life. Hmm.
Wait. Why is he thinking about this right now? He needs to go see Ms. M!
…
Caruso sang as he scrubbed down his arms. “Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and hurt you- !“
He felt an itch on his back and reached to scratch it. Spines. Caruso whipped towards the shower door and stumbled out, twirling to look around at his back and, sure enough, there were spines.
“Not again!” Caruso whined as he watched the spines sink into his back, smoothing out as if nothing had ever happened. “Did Ms. Moynihan not actually cure me?!”
Caruso stumbled out of the bathroom, yanking on his old shirt as he ran. He needs to find that biology teacher as soon as he can! He can’t risk another jacket! “I swear if that old lady is playing a prank- !”
…
“This is not what Mr. Cole was talking about.” Max stared at his homework in horror. Where did Chain Rule come from? What does that have to do with derivative?
Max tapped his foot against the floor of his room, annoyed at Mr. Cole. How were any of the students supposed to pass his class if he never explained anything? He swears that half that class will fail in the end of the year test if they even make it to the end of the year in his class.
He felt an itch on his foot as he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to push back a rising migraine. Moments later he heard the sound of something breaking underneath his foot and looked down. The floor had a hole in it and his foot was not human. Max stepped on his foot, watching as the transformation receded. What was that?! Did he not get cured? Was he infected again?
Max stood and hurried to get out of his house. He needed to get to the lighthouse.