Though it will be ridiculously difficult to top Stormfront's contribution, I shall nevertheless give it a good try. . . SB043: Destiny! Destiny! No Escaping That For Me! "What the hell ever happened to going to DisneyWorld?" Dino asked suddenly in the midst of lunch, as all the TURDIS adventurers sat around having a hearty meal in relative peace. They all stopped whatever they happened to be doing, whether it was eating, drinking, or making snide remarks, and looked at him. Jenn paused in mid-bite through her quarter pounder w/cheese (extra onions) and gazed vacantly at the Dinosorceror, who took a brief moment to regard her in return. He had been rather surprised at her appearance in the last episode, considering that as far as he knew, she was still in her alternate dimension of origin, putting the universe back together after the Dark Dinosorceror's rampage, with the help of the dark Jerhavon. When she had first arrived, she had mentioned that she was there to see him on a matter of some importance. He knew why she was there, of course, but so far she had not had the chance to speak to him privately. "I suppose," Jerhavon began carefully, as if he were treading shark infested sand dunes, "That we all thought you must have been joking." "Not likely. I think we have earned a vacation after all the shits and giggles we've gone through in the first 42 episodes of this classic, don't you?" Dinosorceror put forth, "So we're damn well going." He stood, grabbing his super size Dr. Pepper, "I'll go tell the computer." "What about Stormfront, Wolfwings and Red?" Matt asked. "They'll be able to find us with no problem." Jenn also stood, causing the others to watch her carefully. Sure she wasn't X, but she was still a raptor, and they had all learned not to be too trusting with that particular species. "May I tag along with you, Dinosorceror?" she asked in a vacuous tone, completely unlike anything they had ever heard from X. "Sure," Dino said with a magnanimous smile. They walked together down to the control room, Jenn following Dino from behind and slightly to the right. After he had haggled with Darwin for awhile about their destination, he turned to Jenn expectantly. She smiled wanly. "I am not sure how to break this to you gently, Dino." "You've laid a clutch of twin eggs and I'm the father," he said for her, and was strangely pleased by how her eyes widened in amazement. "Yes! How did you know?" He shrugged, "I'm the Dinosorceror." Her eyes sparkled in amusement, "So then you must know that I will expect you to do your part as a father." "Sure, take them on weekends, go to concerts and softball games, no problem. I'll even change a few diapers if necessary. I'm a nineties kind of guy. I'll introduce them to Godzilla flicks. . . I have the feeling our son will appreciate them fully." "Ah," Jenn cleared her throat softly, "Not exactly what I was talking about, but alright." He blinked, "What were you talking about?" "Money, Dinosorceror, it takes money to raise kids, especially in our dimension. There's a 9% dimension-wide sales tax, you know, on top of all the local taxes, and frankly I don't know how I'm going to get by on just my training as a long suffering pleasure slave. Now that the Dark Dinosorceror is no longer in power, my services are not much in demand anymore." "Well, I don't have any money," Dino frowned, "All I have is this ship and the so-called quest. Oh, and my glorious destiny. How am I suppose to help you?" "You're the Dinosorceror," she countered with just a touch of sauce, mimicking him almost perfectly. Dino couldn't say he was sorry to see Jenn return to her own dimension. The new responsibilities of parenthood weighing heavily on him, he brooded around the ship for awhile, looking idly at his new magazines, until Darwin informed him that they had reached their destination. "I don't know about this," Matt commented a little nervously as the group stood on Main Street USA, regarding the hullabaloo going on around them. "Are you sure this is going to be alright?" "We are not exactly normal tourists, you know, Dino." Orelious the Lioness reminded the parasaur with a poke. "Livingston is the only one of us who wont stand out like a moose in a snow drift," Benjamin patted his companion. "No guys, this will be great. No one is paying any attention to us, because they all figure that we're just actors in character costumes. We can move around the entire park, doing whatever we want." Dino was thrilled to at last put his destiny behind him and have a little fun. "I do not think anyone is going to mistake us for a cartoon character," Orelious the Goat said testily, referring to hirself. "LITTLE FOOT!" a small group of three little kids ran out of the milling crowd and mobbed Matt the evolved apatasaur, hugging him fiercely around the knees, while their parents looked on. The mother busily snapped pictures of her little darlings. "Ah, what?" Matt stammered. "And SPIKE!" the little girl nabbed Jerhavon's legs as well and beamed up at him with adoring eyes. "Spike! You're my favorite! Next to Ducky anyway, and Cera, and Petrie, oh and I like Chomper too!" she rambled, "Where's Ducky? Is she here?! Is she?!" "I don't remember you in the movie," one of the children frowned accusingly at Dino. "I was an extra," Dino grinned. The father of the precious children was looking at the dinosaurs with dubious puzzlement. As Jerhavon attempted to disengage the little girl from his leg, the father turned to his wife and said, "Honey, Disney didn't do 'Land Before Time.'" "Disney owns everything dear," she replied absently, as she continued taking pictures. The father noticed Orelious, and tugged at his wife's sleeve. "Honey, that is not a Disney character." She looked briefly at Orelious and then tittered, "Of course it is, dear. That was in 'Night on Bald Mountain.'" Enjoying the scene in spite of himself, Dino gradually became aware of a strange sensation, the same feeling he had felt in the Patriarch's throne room with all those thousands of eyes on him. He was being watched. He looked around but saw only the teeming crowds of upper middle class tourists. For a quick moment he thought he might have caught the flash of a scaled creature moving through the crowd, but it was gone so quickly that he could not be sure he actually saw it. Still, he would remain cautious and on his toes. The Dinosorceror was learning. Assume nothing. Breathlessly, the smallish crocodilian slammed into the prep room, startling all of his companions with his sudden appearance, but not so much that they failed to react to his joyously panted words. "I saw him! The Dinosorceror! He is here!" While the others were enjoying "Its a Small World," Dino ordered a drink from the nearest insanely overpriced vendor and leaned back to survey the teeming crowds around him. It was good to be able to relax, even if only slightly, and have a chance to gather his thoughts concerning this so called "destiny" of his, and his rather untimely parenthood. That's what I get for being attracted to species with nice feet, he thought idly to himself. As he waited, Dino slowly became aware of that being watched sensation once again. He stayed still, but surveyed the crowds with his eyes, trying to pinpoint who was keeping him under such close scrutiny. He saw only the usual hordes of tourists, screaming children (Dino briefly wondered if his own offspring were going to be that annoying), and a few aspiring actors in character costumes. His attention was naturally drawn to an oversized dragon costume, which he vaguely recognized as being Elliot from "Pete's Dragon." The fake bright green dragon was amusing some children nearby with realistic smoke that rolled from his nostrils. As he watched this, Dino suddenly noticed a small group of crocs from "Dance of the Hours" making their way through the crowds, stopping to dance and frolic with tourists as they came. Dino was impressed with their movements which appeared very fluid and graceful. The pions in the suits obviously knew their stuff. "Excuse me," came a small voice and a tug on his tunic from behind him. Dino jumped in start and whirled to find a diminutive purple dragon looking up at him. Dino grinned and relaxed a bit, recognizing Figment, the dragon from Epcot Center. Must be a small person in that suit, though, Dino thought absently, gazing at the dragon which stood only a few feet high. "Ah, er..." Dino began. "Will you come with us, please?" Figment asked with a polite growl. Dino felt suddenly uneasy, and tried to make a good excuse, stepping back away from the harmless looking dragon. He oofed! as he bumped into something large and scaled. Dino looked up to find Elliot towering over him, smoke trailing from his right nostril. "Hey guy, nice costume there. Look, I have to meet my friends. . ." "Will you come with us please, Dinosorceror?" Figment repeated, this time in a tight tone. Dino saw that the group of crocs had now gathered around and he was surrounded. Time to use the Lens, he considered, shrink down small enough that they wont be able to see me. . . wait a minute. . . "You know who I am?" he asked Figment. The little purple dragon nodded soberly, "Yes, you are the great Dinosorceror, and you have come to free us." "Gee, I'll bet not many tourists get to see this," Dinosorceror commented dryly as he was led by the group of Disney reptiles through living quarters which looked more like dungeons then accommodations. Crammed into the damp open cells and bunks was every reptilian creature he could ever recall seeing in any Disney flick and a few he did not even recognize. Everyone looked miserable and sickly, and Dino was appropriately appalled. Crocodiles, dinosaurs, turtles, snakes. . . all stuffed together, some squabbling half heartedly, most just staring listlessly as Dino and his entourage passed. Most heartbreaking was passing a large open cage in which lay what should have been a magnificent black dragon. She barely raised her head as he passed, obviously beyond hope. "She has been here longer then most of us," Figment whispered as he saw Dino looking back at the dragon. "She was in 'Sleeping Beauty.'" Dino frowned heavily, "Are you telling me. . . all of you reptiles are not just guys in suits?" "Does this look like a rubber sponge suit to you?" Dino looked up at the new voice, which was low and feminine, with just a hint of childishness to it. His eyes widened at the shapely anthro parasaur before him, a light tannish green color with large liquid blue eyes. She wore what appeared to be a leather motorcycle jacket and pants, precisely because that was exactly what it was. Unbeknownst to Dino, these had been stolen from the live T2 show at the nearby Universal Studios. She certainly did not look like a rubber suit! Dino's eyes drifted down the curve of her neck, the rounded slopes of her body, her shapely tail, her large graceful feet. . .claws. . . "You were right," she said to the little croc beside her, "It _is_ the Dinosorceror. Yes it is." Dino blinked rapidly, hearing his name. He looked around at the group of reptiles surrounding him, the size of which was gradually increasing as news of his arrival spread through the dungeons. "You are all prisoners here? I don't understand." "Disney artists hate to draw reptiles, can never do them just right, and never capture the proper mood and movements," the lovely parasaur began, as the others gathered close. "So Disney would go to other dimensions for the reptiles that he needed. Yes he did. He enslaved us, forced us to act in his movies, then imprisoned us here for the benefit of the tourists. He keeps us all together, hoping we'll reproduce and provide him with future generations of reptilian slaves. That is what he does, yep, yep yep." "Um. Walt Disney has been dead for years," Dino reminded. She narrowed her fabulous eyes at him, wounding him with the fiercesome arrows of her cold gaze. "Walt Disney will NEVER die." Dino felt a cold shiver run through him. "What do you expect me to do? There are lots of you, and some of you are big. . ." he paused, gesturing up at a tan tyranno from a recent Aladdin episode, ". . .very very big. . .uh, why don't you all just riot? Fight your way free? Trust me, humans don't want to tangle with crocs, boas and dinosaurs." "If it were only that eassssy," Ka said wistfully, from where he hung from a water pipe. "Upon capture, we were each tagged with internal micro chips, wired directly to Disney himself. If we step out of line in any way, the central computers immediately know it and *BOOM!*" explained the little lizard henchman from "Rescue Rangers." "*BOOM!*?" Dino repeated. "We explode." the female parasaur said sadly, and everyone bowed their heads as she went on to say, "Little Chomper snapped one day and bit a small human tourist. We could not find enough pieces of him for a proper burial. No we could not. Nope, nope, nope." Dino considered that horrific thought for a moment, "Wait a minute. Disney started making movies way back in the forties or something. That sort of technology did not exist on Earth then. I'm not sure it exists now!" "So who said Disney was born on this planet?" snorted a croc. "Look, are you going to help us, or not? Huh?" the female parasaur glared at him. Indeed, dozens of eyes turned on him expectantly. Dino heaved a great sigh, so much for ignoring his destiny. "Fine, yes. I'll help. What do you want me to do?" A small group of the reptiles led him to a well hidden complex which appeared, by Dino's reckoning, to be directly under Cinderella's Castle. They had no problems sneaking past Disney World Security, or overriding lock codes. Dino began to wonder just what they needed him for. As they went, he studied the female parasaur as casually as possible, watched how natural her movements were, how she stopped to scent the air, how she moved with absolute silence. Dino, being only newly parasaurian, was a bit envious of what came so naturally to her. They paused in a nondescript room of stainless steel, with a door at the far end. A sign on the wall proclaimed this to be a high security area, "Cryo. Medical Clearance 10 or B Equivalent Only Permitted." There did not seem to be anything else in the room, and Dino wondered aloud why they didn't proceed. "Watch and learn," said the female parasaur. She drew in a deep breath then stretched her neck out. Dino did not exactly hear anything, but he felt a low vibration in his crest that was tickling and slightly uncomfortable. The low noise from the parasaur caused unseen laser beams, criss-crossed throughout the room, to shimmer and dance visibly for just a moment. Ka slithered forward. "Thank you Ducky, I will be but a moment," he said and made his way into the room, avoiding the areas where the lasers were with graceful skill. "Wow, neat." Dino was impressed. "I did not know parasaurs could do that." Ducky looked sideways at him, her blue eyes twinkling, "You have not been a parasaur for very long, have you?" "It shows, huh?" Dino grimaced. Then he realized what Ka had called her. "Ducky?! That little ultra-cute hatchling from 'Land Before Time'?!" She nodded. "I have been here a long time, yes I have, yep, yep, yep. We were all here, but one by one Little Foot, Spike and the others all fell, and now I am the only one left. Yes I am." Dino tipped his head, "But Cera. . ." "Cera!" Ducky interrupted, an evil temper flaring quickly, "Cera talked her way out, made a deal with a member of Disney Security who was a closet herp and had a flat chest obsession. She promised to send help for us but never did. If I ever set eyes on her again I will kill her with my bare hands, yes I will! Yes, yes, yes!" "You'll be pleased to hear that she was vaporized two episodes ago," Dino told her warily. Ka had reached the far end of the room and with the end of his tail, he pushed the button that deactivated the security lasers. They all joined him in front of the final door. "We can go no further, Dinosorceror," Ducky told him in a low sweet voice. "The security beams in this room are far too close together to avoid. Disney is in here. You must kill him, sever his connection with the main computer, and then we will all be free." "Geez guys, I've never actually intentionally killed anyone before." Dino told them uncomfortably. "Disney is evil," Figment assured him, "You will find it easy." "Remember the dragon from 'Sleeping Beauty,'" Ducky said, "You do this for her as well as for all of us. She has been here since longer then most of us have been alive, she was forced to portray dragons as evil, and has been imprisoned ever since, brought out only for parades and the occasional TV special." Dino felt a lump in his throat. "Alright." He examined the locked door and decided the best way to get in was through the lock mechanism. He gestured the others back, took his Lens, and activated it on himself with the intent of shrinking down small enough to climb through the lock. Instantly he was 15 feet tall and banging his head painfully on the ceiling. "OUCH! Damn that cursed raptor!" he snarled, remembering that this was the Dark Lens and worked the opposite of his favored 4-D Lens. He zapped himself again, and this time zipped down to the size of a mosquito. Ducky picked him up in her talons and stuffed him into the lock mechanism. It took him a few minutes to crawl through, avoiding metal and electrical circuits. He peeked out the far end and hooted in amazement at the room before him. It was a giant computer, every inch of wall and ceiling was filled with monitors and blinking electric lights, flips and switches. It was in control of every aspect of the amusement park on the surface, every facet of movie production, every last detail of the entertainment industry. Lines ran from outputs to a glass cylinder at the center of the room, and there Dino was shocked to see the body of Walt Disney, cryogenically frozen, but still in complete control of his Empire. It gave Dino the willies something fierce. Red lasers criss-crossed the entire room so densely that there was barely centimeters of open space between them. Dino dropped to the floor and discovered that he was small enough to just slip under the lowest of the beams, and gingerly he began to make his way toward the shining coffin at the center of the room. The computer droned on, oblivious. Dino wildly wondered just what he intended to do once he reached Disney. ________________________________________________________________________________ Well, over to whomever is next! N'joy! .*&#, ______, ##mmWWWU-^~ -' `^4Xz. Jenn _7/ Joy and Raptors! raptor@mosquitonet.com -Raptor X- "Eggs Benedict is always better in Alaska, because there's no place like Nome for the hollandaise." --Helvetica Bold