SB018: Raptorobics As the ky00t little baby Red approached the Dinosorceror, he just sighed heavily. "C'mon, lizard boy! Give!" he squeak-chirped, stomping on the top of Dino's foot. "Oh, it's...nothing," he whimpered, as Red continued to stomp and Orelious and Benjamin closed in on him. Orelious' tail hissed, "Oh, come now, Dino. What can you possssibly be ssso disssappointed about?" Dino shook his head vigorously. "Ah, it's nothing. I...I just get the feeling I'm not living up to everyone's expectations of me. Benjamin reached down and petted Livingstone. "And just what do you think we expect of you?" Dino grimaced for a moment, then replied, "Oh, I don't know. I just feel like I'm not living up to my full potential." A few moments later, just as Orelious's other heads were about to speak, X and Jerhevon strode into the rec room. Red finally stopped gnawing on Dino's ankle, and flittered up to land on X's shoulder. "I've got great news!" she beamed. They gathered, in a semi-circle, around X and Jerhevon. "I've figured out the Turdis' controls! I even managed to discover a database that contains the locations of all twenty-six segments of the Device! Our job has just become much simpler." There was a round of light cheering and murmuring from everyone, then Jerhevon said, "And I'm going to team up with X here, and we're going to start a physical and mental training program for everyone. This 'Raptorobics' course will heighten all our abilities, and make us a more efficient fighting team against Cera's forces." The round of cheering from that announcement was a little _less_ than the amount from the previous, as everyone realized they'd have to actually expend some energy. "So what will be our first destination?" the lion head of Orelious asked. "It's an Earth-like planet that orbits the star known as Pollux," X replied. "The database says that's the closest segment to us. Unfortunately, the database doesn't say what each segment does, or what it looks like. But each entry does have a title, and the one for this segment is 'DARK.'" Jerhevon added, "I guess that's supposed to be some kind of clue or something." They all nodded, and Dino asked, "How long will it take us to get there?" "About two days," X replied. "Plenty of time for a couple of Raptorobics lessons. The first will be in two hours." X turned and walked out of the rec room, Jerhevon smiling briefly, then following after her. A few seconds after the door closed, Dino turned to Orelious, and asked, "Did you ever feel like you were excess baggage?" All three of Orelious' heads responded simultanelously, "Yes!" then all gave each other dirty looks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cera brooded in her throne, eyeing the dozens of display screens manned by new female crew. "There has to be a way to monitor their progress...find out where they're going..." she murmured. One of her staff swiveled in her chair to face her. "I've discovered a way, my mistress," she hissed. Cera's eyes narrowed. "It had better be good," she sneered, flexing the talons of her cybernetic claw. "The pan-dimensional travel device that the Dinosorceror uses has been damaged somehow, and is leaving a trail of neutrinos behind." Cera raised an eyeridge. "Why? How?" The crew member shrugged. "I'm not sure. There is a small opening from the inside of the Turdis to spacetime, as if a shard of it had broken off. [Editor: see chapter 14.] A discrete and distinct trail of neutrinos leaks from the craft's internal force field, and can be easily monitored with our sensor equipment." Cera leaned back, grinning, yet holding back the big "HEEEEE" she was feeling, instead replying, "Excellent. So, can we anticipate their point of arrival, or...?" The female turned back to her assigned display momentarily, then back to face Cera. "No, unfortunately not. We would only know when and where they arrived. And minimum travel time to any location in spacetime is twenty point three hours, as you know, my mistress. But, we could attept to intercept them during transit...the breach in the integrity of the Turdis would allow us to teleport directly inside it." Cera thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No. If we did, it would only serve to reveal to them that they did have a breach, if they aren't aware of it already. No...we shall allow the Dinosorceror and his pathetic band of associates to lead us to each and every segment of the Device, and then steal each one from them, in turn. Let them do the dirty work for us, eh...eh...ah, what is your name, servant?" The reptilian woman stood up from her chair and approached Cera, bowing. "I am Ruth," she replied, and Cera could see as she stepped into the light that she was a Struthiomimus. Cera grinned, and drummed her talons on the arms of her throne. "Well, Ruth, I do believe you're going to have quite a future in our cause," she grinned, then because she could hold it back no longer, she let out a loud, "Heeeeeeee!" --- The entire bridge crew starts laughing and cheering in unison, Cera's Evil Theme(tm) blares for a few seconds, then the scene fades to a commercial. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [snip] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When we rejoin the show, Dino is seen laying stomach-down on his bed, reading a book. He hears a beep-bell sound from his door, and replies, "'Tea...Earl Grey...hot.' Deh--I mean, 'come.'" --- The door slid open, and Red walked in, furling his wings to accomodate the narrow portal. He looked visibly older to Dino, who sat up on the edge of his bed, tossing the book to the side. "Whatchu readin'?" the adolescent Red asked. "Oh, nothing," Dino grinned, and as he tried to shove the book under his sheets, Red saw the title: "Emelda Macros: The Woman With The Collection Of The Largest Shoes In The World." Red rolled his eyes for the first time in his newly-borne body, then approached Dino. "I sense you're doing that typical human feeling-sorry-for-yourself thing, Dino. Now snap out of it!" he chittered. Dino lay back on the bed, sighing, "Oh, you don't understand, Red. Everyone is contributing something to this effort but me. All I do is sit around, make goofy jokes, and try to get stomped on. And one of these days, it's going to get us all in big trouble." Red unfurled his wings, and flapped them enough to get airborne momentarily and land on Dino's chest, who responded with an *oof!* "Now you get one thing clear, Dino...you're a vital part of this operation." "Yeah, sure," he replied. "I'm serious!" Red shouted. "Do you know that without you, this whole operation would just fall apart?" Dino gave him a look. "If you were to leave, Cera would take over the omniverse." Dino sat up, and shifted Red to his knee, listening intently. "No Dinosorceror, and no future. Everything depends on you. You were chosen out of everyone on your planet to fight this battle." Dino took a deep breath, and smiled. "Yeah, yeah! You're right! I'm important! I can make a difference! I'm going to get out there and kick Cera's flabby kiester to oblivion!" He stood, not minding the adolescent dragon he just tossed to the bed, and stamped out the door, brimming with pride. A few moments after it slid shut, Red sat up and rubbed his head. "Yep. Every cause needs a figurehead that we can blame when things go wrong," he snickered, then rolled around in Dino's sheets. As Dino marched majestically down the hall, the overhead lights that illuminated most areas of the Turdis suddenly faded out. His pace slowed to a stop, then he thought aloud, "Hey...what gives?" He felt around on the walls, searching for some sort of switch, grumbling to himself, when he heard something in the distance. A tinging, sizzling sound. Either his eyes were adjusting, or he could see a faint light coming from around the bend of the corridor. Still holding his clawhands before him, he slowly walked forward. The sizzling sound and light suddenly got brighter and brighter, and Dino eventually saw a dozen or more spheres of glowing energy of various colors bouncing down the hall, sizzling as they hit the surfaces of the corridor. "What the--" was all Dino could say as a red baseball-sized ball hit him in the leg, exploding like a firecracker on his scales, burning a halo on his white toga. "Shit! That hur--" was all Dino could say next as a yellow one brushed by his hand. Survival instincts kicked in, and Dino started dodging the spheres as they slowly bounced down the corridor, huffing and panting at several more close calls, slowly working his way up the corridor. A dozen meters distant, he saw the origin of the spheres, a small turret at the end of the corridor, spewing the balls at an ever increasing rate as he got closer to it. He could get to within three or so meters of the turret, but the balls were coming too fast for him to get any closer. When one seared his ankle as he decided what to do, his decision was made for him. He screamed and rushed the turret, as it began to shoot plasma balls right at his chest and head. Dino bent his head down, feeling the explosions race across his crest, and swung a clawhand blindly before him. It smashed the turret, and the overhead lights instantly turned on, flooding the hallway with light as Dino finished his scream and slumped to the wall, his head and chest blackened by the plasma spheres, breathing deeply and heavily. A doorway to his left slid open, and he saw X and Jerhevon emerge. While X walked over to Dino, Jerhevon walked back down the hallway, to see where a red laser beam intersected the wall. "Three point three meters, X," he remarked. "That's not bad for his first time." X bent down and helped Dino to his feet. Dino's eyes swizzled for a moment before settling on X's gaze. "Auntie Em, is that you?" he asked, his head gyrating widely on his shoulders. X smiled. "Welcome to your first Raptorobics lesson," she purred. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Why do I get the feeling I just joined the X-Men?" Dino shouted, as he washed off the black residue from the energy spheres. The entire group was assembled in Pyrite's Gym as Dino used the shower facility in the alcove. "Oh, don't be so wimpy," Red teased. "Besides, you did better than I did," Orelious chuckled. "Imagine trying to do that with three heads! I may have three sets of eyes to dodge the spheres, but that's also three appendages I have to coordinate to do the dodging!" Dino shook off the excess water, and sat back down with the group, as X stood before everyone. "Well, it's not going to be easy, for any of us. Cera doesn't seem to play fair, and we have to be ready for any contingency. Jerhevon and I have designed all sort of little impromptu tests that will pop up from time to time, to get us ready for the real thing." Red crawled up to Dinosorceror, humming "You're In The Army Now." Dino just slumped back, groaning.