The X-Project

While our erstwhile jungle explorers are preparing dinner, Yvette and Laurie manage to keep each other company and comfort each other a little.



If Laurie had known that going on field trips would mean getting chased by dinosaurs, eaten by bugs, and then covered in mud she might have brought along a few more provisions...like one of those sticks that zapped things when you poked it at them.

Or better yet, her bow and enough arrows to shoot the various nasty beasties with would be nice. Otherwise she felt somewhat useless, especially considering that Dinosaurs appeared to either be enraged by her, or really, really want to get to know her better in the case of the bugs.

Citronella candles, next time she left the house, she was seriously packing citronella candles.

Yvette, had she been able to read her roommate's thoughts, would have heartily agreed, although the increasing thickness and sharpness of her skin made the bug thing not so much of a problem. It also meant she was very hard to see in the shadows - her Hello Kitty pyjamas had gotten so tattered she'd discarded them, leaving only the black leotard-like garment made of Forge's self-repairing cloth, and between that and the was light seemed to be absorbed by the density of her skin, it was only the brightly glowing blue eyes that gave her away as she crept cautiously through the brush to the little river they had camped nearby. It took a moment for Laurie to notice the glow of Yvette's eyes as she sat by the river, absently scratching at the mud Sooraya had suggested they cake her with. She pondered the two glowing blue patches standing out against the darkness for a second with a thoughtful look. "What's the Albanian word for shadow?" she asked after a moment.

"It is being depending," Yvette said softly, coming out from her shelter, glancing around cautiously before she did. She moved in the low, sinuous crouch of some kind of predator, the movements at odds with the girl's personality. "If you are being meaning that I am following you, it is errësoj. If you are meaning the darkness, it is hije." Squatting beside Laurie, she gave her roommate a curious look. "You are being having the mud bath?"

Laurie mouthed the word silently to herself for a second before smiling wryly. "More I was going to nickname you 'little shadow', because you're so hard to see in the dark, and you move so quietly. But I think I'm going to need to learn more Albanian before I can pronounce it properly. The mud is to keep the bugs away though, since my power is attracting them. Small bugs I could probably handle, but the hand sized ones they have here are a little more scary."

Yvette smiled, although the expression was a little more hesitant than usual, mainly because her face was becoming too stiff for fine muscle movement. Still, Laurie's powers tended to help hers, even if they attracted the bugs. "It is being the good idea, the mud," she said. "Your powers, they are making you to be smelling good to the bugs? Now I am wishing I am to be sharing my powers with you, as you are to be doing with me. They are not to be eating me."

"And enraging the dinosaurs, it would seem." Laurie replied, voicing the worry that had been niggling at her since their first encounter with the large prehistoric creatures. "I wish Forge was here to fix my air scrubber."

"I am being wishing Forge is just being here," Yvette said sadly, poking at the ground with her talons. Without the gloves, they went in surprisingly easily, as if the thick loam was warm butter. "And being the okay."

"He's okay." Laurie replied, her voice firm. "He's just gotten lost or something. You'll see, before long he'll be walking into camp looking sheepish about that big brain of his not helping him find his way through jungle."

"I am hoping so," Yvette agreed, although she sounded less certain. It certainly seemed as though Forge had been eaten by the dinosaurs that had rampaged through their camp. "Miss Marie and Mr. Garrison are to be the superheroes, yes? They are to be finding him."

"I don't know about superheroes, but they are very good at the whole saving people thing." Laurie agreed, a smile hiding her own worry.

She was sure there were lots of reasons someone could disappear after a dinosaur attack and not have it be that they'd been eaten...millions of reasons...she hoped.




Dinner is served. Complete with uninvited guests



The hadrosaur meat made for a reasonably tasty meal, all things considered. Large thick leaves served well as plates, and once the barbecued meat cooled down some, it was easy enough to make it finger food. A good number of the students, however, chose to share the remains of what Powerbars and other 'survival food' had been scavenged from their supplies. Some were even rather vocal in their desire to find a way out, if only to avoid the thought of ever having to eat something that would gladly turn the tables at the first opportunity.

Around the large fire, the students and their chaperones were safe, they figured. Strength in unity, like a pack.

But another pack had other ideas.

One hundred and fifty million years ago, Allosaurus was the absolute top of the food chain. Thirty feet tall, with powerful forearm claws that could strip the flesh from its prey, and a maw filled with daggerlike teeth. And unlike other predators, it was not a solitary king of the jungle.

Allosaurus was a pack animal. And the pack smelled meat.



*****



The dinosaurs swarmed the campsite, a number of them heading straight for the fire where the remains of the evening's successful hunt were cooking. Others, however, saw another meal - specifically a soft and tender one running around on two legs, and began splitting up to pursue the students.

One of the allosaurs leaped over the fire, landing in a cloud of dust and exhaling loudly. As it inhaled through its nostrils, each the size of a grown man's hand, it turned its head to the side and noticed Laurie, knocked on her back with her dinner spread all over the ground. Opening its massive jaws, the dinosaur roared and prepared to lunge.

'Oh God, oh God.' Laurie thought, frozen as the dinosaur crouched above her. She couldn't take her eyes off it's jaws, they were large enough to bite her in half. 'GodohGodohGod'

Over the echo of the roar, Laurie heard a small twang, almost like a guitar string being plucked - no, something more familiar. That was--

The allosaur's jaws descended, then snapped back as suddenly a two-foot-long shaft sprang from its eye socket, blood spraying. Roaring in pain, the dinosaur's powerful clawed forelimbs tore up the ground on either side of Laurie as it tried to scrape the invading object from its eye.

What happened next, Laurie had no warning of whatsoever. With a muted hiss of expanding gas, the skin around the carnivore's pierced eye socket swelled briefly, before the side of its head exploded in a cloud of meat and bone.

Laurie screamed as she got covered in allosaur guts, crab walking backwards several foot before attempting to stand and then falling on her butt again. She looked around frantically to see where the shaft had come from, hoping the person was a friend and not a foe.

Glancing up to a nearby ridge, she could see a thin figure backlit by the setting sun.

Lowering the oddly-curved bow, Forge smiled at Laurie and the dead dinosaur. "And they thought I never learned anything at summer camp," he remarked wryly.

Apart from not being dead or maimed, Forge's appearance was a marked difference than the last time Laurie had seen him before the first dinosaur stampede almost eighteen hours ago. His shirt had been lost to some unknown purpose, and his torso was covered in awkwardly-bandaged scrapes and bite marks, including a large gouge over his shoulder and neck that had the gauze packed around it soaked a dark brown. His prosthetic leg looked more like a glorified skeleton, most of the rods and wires stripped and apparently reconstructed into the powerful-looking bow he carried. A makeshift quiver fashioned out of a pant leg hung from his waist, sporting a half-dozen more arrows that clattered as he awkwardly shuffled down to Laurie. He smiled through a face stained with dried blood, dirt, and other jungle effluvia and extended a hand to her.

"Hi, I'm John Forge. I'm here to rescue you," he quipped.

"Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" Laurie replied, almost giddy with relief that Forge was not only alive, but also wasn't one of the wackoes that had left them here to be eaten by dinosaurs. "But... alive! And... there are dinosaurs!" she babbled, heedless of the obviousness of her remarks.

"I'd noticed," Forge said matter-of-factly, pulling Laurie to her feet. He didn't bat an eye at the mud caking her skin, looking past her to the remainder of the dinosaur pack menacing the students. With a determined look, he unstrung the quiver and picked up the bow, handing both over to Laurie. "It's a compound pulley draw, should feel like about thirty-five pounds, but deliver closer to four hundred. The red-shafted arrows have a pressurized carbon dioxide delivery system in the shaft." He nodded at the allosaur's exploded skull. "Only got three more of those, so make them count. Cannibalized everything I could find to make that, you're the best shot I know, and..."

His voice grew quiet, and he began to wobble unsteadily. Placing an arm out to brace himself against the hillside, he jerked his head towards the melee. "Go," he insisted. "Be heroic and stuff. I'll be... right here."

Laurie looked at him with concern, reaching out a hand to brush against the bare skin of his arm and thinking strength at him. She wasn't sure what was wrong, so she couldn't be certain an adrenalin boost would help but it was the best she could do at that moment. "Don't go fainting on me, okay? And no more getting eaten by dinosaurs or we're going to have words."

Without another word she turned and dashed off toward the other students, placing an arrow against the string of the bow as she ran.



*****



Everywhere chaos.

It had all happened so fast. One minute they'd been sitting around, full of food and comfortable in the late afternoon warmth, the next... Yvette hunkered down, trying to make herself as small as possible, while around her people scattered and the dinosaurs - big, fast-moving creatures with enormous mouths full of teeth - stampeded. She could almost feel her skin changing, thickening and sharpening even more, her hair hardening into tough spikes

Mondo had never bothered to synch back once he'd borrowed his steel necklace's properties. So for once he was prepared for the onslaught. He sprang to his feet in a flash, planted his feet like his shihan had taught him, and got low to the ground. Time to make these dinos pay. And definitely time to ignore that oozing sensation from between his right toes that said he'd just stepped in someone's discarded dinner.

On the other hand, Tommy was moving and trying to get out of the dino's way. He was looking around for Yvette, knowing she'd probably try and hide again, but lost her in the chaos. "Yvette!" He called, his hands cupped around his mouth as he moved, finally finding a relatively safe spot between a couple trees.He climbed up onto some of the lower branches to both better get out of the way and have a better vantage point to find her. "Yvette!"

The small Albanian girl glanced up as she heard Tommy's voice, but couldn't see him in all the panic. "Tommy?" she called, uncertainly, beginning to uncurl just a little. Perhaps she could find him and hide with him...

A large clawed foot stomped down in front of her, and she gasped, looking up at the creature. The allosaur was looking down at her with a distinctly hungry gleam in its reddish eye, and before she could even think to move, its head plunged down. Jaws opened wide to snatch up the red-skinned girl, and in a single gulp, she was gone, the only indication she'd been there at all a certain expression of discomfort on the dinosaur's face as the extremely sharp and prickly mouthful went down.

Mondo screamed something in his native tongue and charged the dinosaur that had swallowed Yvette whole. In true Sumo style, he was low to the ground and hit the dino like a human torpedo. A steel-hard human torpedo. He struck just above the beast's left ankle, and his strength and momentum were sufficient to rock the beast. However, as he pushed hard to try to knock the beast over his right foot, still coated in someone's dinner, lost its grip on the earth and slipped. Despite his soft knee brace, despite all the hard work he'd put in on rehabbing his knee, it crumpled like a discarded beer can, flopping Mondo onto his belly in front of the beast.

"Shit!" Tommy saw Yvette get eaten and Mondo take a fall. Cursing, he snapped a branch from the tree, turned it to steel and threw it at the dinosaur. "Hey! Lizard-breath! Over here!" He hoped to fucking god Mondo used the distraction to get up or he was going to be joining Yvette in the dino's stomach.

Mondo climbed to his feet, ignoring the pain in his knee, and grappled the dinosaur. His arms were just long enough to fit around the beastie's leg. Unfortunately for him, he reckoned not with the beast's flexibility and wound up getting bitten as the dinosaur craned its neck and nipped at him. The unnatural solidity of Mondo's flesh stopped the bite from being instantly fatal. Mondo surged with every ounce of strength he possessed and the astonished dinosaur screamed as it rose into the air fractionally then was pounded to the ground as Mondo arched himself backwards, suplexing the beast onto its back.

Seeing the steel give even slightly made Tommy wince and realized the steel Mondo had synched to wasn't going to be strong enough if he was going to keep fighting the dinosaurs and survive. And damnit, Tommy wasn't losing another classmate to these damned lizards. Snapping off another branch, he closed his eyes and concentrated on a denser metal, changed the branch to titanium. When it was done, he threw it at Mondo so it landed by his foot. "Mondo! Synch to that!" He yelled through cupped hands to be heard over the roaring of the puzzled dinosaur.

Mondo stomped on the metallic tree branch and borrowed its traits, letting go of the steel at the same time. The rippling as one effect left while another swept over him felt decidedly odd, but he didn't have time for oddity right now. The dinosaur he'd thrown was thrashing, and it was time to end things. Mondo kept his low stance and moved over to the dinosaur, heedless of the screaming pain in his knee, grabbed the beast's leg with both hands, and with a heave of his newly-enhanced musculature snapped the leg like it was a twig. The dinosaur screamed again, but Mondo wasn't done with it. He kept moving towards the beast's head, snapping a forearm as he got closer to that end of the beast and finally, once he was to its head, dodging a desperate bite attempt and stepping _into_ the beast's maw, planting his feet on the critter's lower jaw and hoisting upwards with all his strength. But this tactic was defeated by the beast's ability to open its jaws being larger than Mondo was tall. So Mondo hrmmed to himself, tried not to inhale (the beast's breath was foul) and instead punched his way upwards, through the roof of the mouth, and into the beast's skull.

It took a long time to die.

When it was finally dead, Tommy left the safety of the trees and walked over to Mondo. "Nice work." He said quietly.

There was a wet sort of tearing noise, and a sudden bulge appeared in the creature's abdomen. Before either boy could react, the bulge was followed by two sets of dark-red claws tearing through the tough skin as if it was paper. A spiky-haired head appeared in the hole, followed by the rest of Yvette, covered with blood and other less-pleasant substances. Panting slightly, she clambered out of the dinosaur's belly, landing in an awkward crouch on the flattened grass. The cloth of her leotard tore and repaired itself with each tiniest movement, so sharp was her skin now.

"I think," she managed at last, looking up at the two boys. "I would like to be going home now, please."

Mondo didn't even bat an eyelash. He limped over to Yvette and engulfed her in a hug that gave him shavings up and down his titanium-hard torso. He didn't say anything, but tears streamed down his face as he held the spiky Albanian. After a _long_ moment, he let her go, looked at Tommy with a grim expression, and then headed off into the brush. They had to keep moving.



*****



Hovering was, if a little difficult thanks to shoddy concentration, better than staying on ground level. The dinosaurs that were attacked were a foot or so beneath her, unable to do anything more than snap and snarl. The flames licking up and down Angel's body seemed to make them wary, which was a good thing. But she didn't want to go higher, just in case something happened.

"Oookay, now what?" she whispered. When the attack had started, she'd gone up and stayed there but she couldn't hold the hover forever. Not when she was exhausted, hurt and scared to death.

There was a shrill whistle, and the dinos snapping at the tasty flaming treat in the air turned in unison to the figure on the ground. It was Jennie, sweaty, dirty and flushed from running, and she was smiling.

"You really ain't that smart, are you?" Her hands flashed red and the rocks the dinos had been perched on began to crack and crumble, sending them stumbling.

"Damn, close enough, come on Angel! Down!"

Instantly, Angel dropped to the ground, landing on the ground in a slight crouch. At least Mr. G would be proud of her, she thought tiredly before dashing over to the older girls side. "Fantastic timing," she said, beaming. "So, uh. Little cliched but...how you doin'?" If she laughed, she wouldn't run into the woods screaming. That was the plan at least.

Angel kept a wary eye on the dinosaurs that were scrambling to keep their footing.

"Fine, fine," Jennie said, eyes darting around the field. Impulsively she reached out and gripped Angel's hand. "You okay? feel like a run?"

They both could have won a contest for best death grip. "Yep! I recommend a vigorous jog!" Angel took a deep breath before they both turned and bolted away from the now angry creatures.

They were small and had years of vigorous physical training behind them, but unfortunately the pissed off dinosaurs chasing them had longer legs. To Angel's left Jennie saw the lights change to red and yanked her sharply to the right just as the allosaur's jaws snapped at the empty air where Angel had been moment before.

The yank nearly had her stumbling but Jennie's grip and the knowledge she'd be dinner kept Angel on her feet and moving. "Ohcrapohcrapohcrap," she gasped, for once giving in the urge to curse at least a little. They were starting to circle the two girls, their leg advantage letting them gain ground. Without thinking, she flung a small fireball at one that came scrambling towards them from the front and it shrieked, disappearing into the underbrush.

"One down," Jennie muttered, eying the trees above the second one. She was exhausted, never had she used her powers in so many ways in one day, and trying to get them to work now was like trying to mold jello. Somehow she managed it this time, as a red disk sailed over the allosaur's head. It followed it, like a puppy following a frisbee, only to get smashed with a tree branch between the eyes.

If Angel was grateful for one thing, it was that her powers were straightforward. See something, throw fire at it. The girls skidded to a stop suddenly as two of the creatures passed them and then swung around, effectively blocking them. The first one approached, preparing to pounce.

Yanking her hand from Jennie's, Angel thrust out both palms and instantly blue flames flared up around her. Concentrating, she pushed out, sending the fire out out out...and at the same time, pushed the microwaves out as well. Heat, fire, combustion...flames. The creature shrieked, not in fright, but in pain as his body caught fire, part of the flames erupting on the pieces of forest it had gathered in the run but the rest eating at the body.

Watching the lights shimmer and change as Angel added more fire, extended one shaking hand towards it. A small bead of red formed at her palm, before sputtering, wobbling and then flattening into a disk shape. When it splashed against the dinosaur, it tripped and fell even more into the flames, shrieking so loud Jennie had to cover her ears.

With a cry, the last dinosaur turned tailed and bolted, fleeing the death cries. As soon as it was out of sight, Angel powered down and staggered backwards. She imitated Jennie, hands over her ears, until the screaming started to die down. Her hands lowered, shaking, as she stared at the animal.

Jennie reached out and hugged the younger girl hard, both still staring at the smoldering corpse before forcing them both to look away. "Come on," she said, still out of breath, "The others still need our help."

"Y-yeah," Angel agreed, clinging to Jennie for a few more seconds before reluctantly letting go. Even though as soon as she did, she reached for her hand and clung as tightly to that as before. "Finding the others is a good thing."

The older squeezed the hand in hers reassuringly, before looking out towards the field. "Look, there's Kyle." She pointed, and then quickly checked over her shoulder for the other Allosaurus.

"Thank God," Angel sighed, suddenly exhausted. "We'll get through this...of course we will."



*****



"Right," Marius said, peering over the trunk of the fallen tree he'd dragged his startled but mercifully tolerant classmate behind, "One dinosaur attack, that can be understood. A second is just excessive."

"Dinosaurs are not supposed to exist," Crystal said, eyeing the meat-eater as she voiced what was also her reason for politely declining to eat dino meat or dino eggs. Eating something that shouldn't even exist was just... wrong. "Creatures that are not supposed to exist can do whatever they want, I believe. At the moment, they appear to be choosing to run amok in our campsite and they are probably hungry. We have to do something to prevent a repeat of the previous time."

"On the brighter side of it we've no propane left to explode--"

Somewhere near the main group there was a burst of light, immediately followed by a truly hideous shriek.

"Ah, sod," Marius finished, resigned.

The nearest allosaur swung its head at them, the bonespurs above its eyes cutting a harsh silhouette against the sky as the two students behind the log became the center of its attention, and a sort that promised to be short but intense.

This was no good. Marius had no doubt of Crystal's fine control, but there was a question of whether or not an attack from her would disperse the threat or simply anger it. He could attempt a hamstringing, but there had been an uncomfortable amount of flailing when Yvette had done that with the hadrosaur, and at a length he did not cherish accompanied by a side of predatory instinct and many sharp teeth. This needed to be over fast.

Marius turned to Crystal slowly. "Oi, could I possibly ask your assistance for an horrible idea?"

Crystal was trying to get a glimpse of whoever might be around. She wondered if she could actually pick up the dinosaur in a strong enough whirlwind, but she didn't want to hurt any of the cursed field trip members. Being attacked by a dinosaur was bad enough, having one land on top you had to be worse. Luckily, the last time she'd looked, they'd been far enough away from others to where that shouldn't be an issue. She wanted to get back in view of the others, get a good idea of the situation... but it was rather hard to do that behind a log with a particularly hungry supposed-to-be-extinct creature wanting to eat you for dinner.

"If it comes any closer, it is in for a rather unpleasant surprise," Crystal told Marius, preparing to launch an attack. "What is your idea?"

"I've heard rumours hurricane-force winds can drive a straw through brick an' other such impressiveness." Marius held up one hand, and the already greyed fingers flowed longer, sharper. Like Yvette's, in fact. He cocked his head at Crystal. "Up for testin' the theory?"

"You are not a straw, and the only one I'm considering throwing around with hurricane-force is the creature who thinks we would make a tasty..." Crystal's voice trailed off as the allosaur gained a companion. "As, unfortunately, we do not have any paper on which we could write and sign in triplicate that this was your idea and that you actually asked to be thrown at a carnivorous animal with extremely sharp teeth, I will have to trust that, should you survive this particular experiment you will not place the blame on me, and that if you do not survive you will return to the mansion as a ghost or a zombie and inform everyone that your death was not my fault."

While considering Crystal's speech a part of Marius wondered if this was how the people around him felt all the time. Most of him, however, was more focused on with the strong wind that had arisen from nowhere and created a sudden case of airborne.

As Marius hurtled toward Allosaur One, Crystal focused her attention on Allosaur Two, quickly becoming airborne herself for a quick glance around. Flying above the dinosaur's head, out of its reach, she created swirling winds around the dinosaur's feet, drawing them up towards her. The animal was big, larger than anything she had ever tried to move this way. There'd never been any reason to try something like this before.

In mere moments, the dinosaur was surrounded by what was for Crystal a very large whirlwind. She hated the idea of killing it; it wasn't the creature's fault that it was a hungry animal who thought a group of mutants made for the ideal picnic. She considered trying out her own idea from earlier, but wasn't sure how well that would work out and didn't want to risk it. The animal, although temporarily distracted, was angry enough as it was, and messing up by dropping a very angry allosaur in the middle of the other students didn't appeal to Crystal at all.

The wind coalesced into several solid blasts of air that stunned the dinosaur enough to knock it over and out. Thud!

Crystal's attacks were precision blows, carefully choreographed and the end result of many years of practice. Marius', on the other hand, was formulated off a once-witnessed strategy the previous October involving Cain, Kyle, and a very definite need for maximum expedience. It had definitely been effective against Marius, and the boost from Yvette's power meant he had little to fear even if he the place he was headed was right for the throat of a very large carnivore.

Of course, since Kyle's attack had factored neither a hurricane-gale nor a projectile capable of sharpening itself to the point of diamond hardness there were some key differences in the result, which was why Marius was forgivably startled when the flesh of the dinosaur's neck gave way before Marius' momentum did.

The thud of Crystal's dinosaur hitting the ground was almost simultaneous with the thud of her classmate hitting a tree, though the latter was made somewhat wetter due to the fact the impact was accompanied by several chunks of allosaur.

From a vantage point about fifty feet up in the air, Crystal looked at the two downed allosaurs. Hers was out for the count, but intact, and alive. Marius's was missing a rather impressive piece of throat and there was a decent amount of blood pouring from the animal. And covered-in-dino Marius has just hit a tree! Quickly, Crystal dropped to the ground and landed near him. "That was, ah, interesting," Crystal said politely when she was assured that, although Marius was sticky and nasty and gross, his pass through the dinosaur and subsequent impact with the tree had left him unharmed. "This was a rather unique idea, and although the result was not entirely unexpected and I am quite glad that you are not hurt, I hope you will understand when I say that this was a one-time occurrence and I never intend for us to do anything like that ever again. Now, let us go see if we can help the others, just without the throwing at rather large animals this time, yes?"

"Right," Marius said, a bit unsteady from where he was pulling himself up from the base of the tree. "To business." Something was in his hair. Marius reached up, removed it, and very pointedly did not look at what was combed out before he chucked it into the bushes. "If nothin' else, this fieldtrip has most definitely provided at least one solid point of education."

He turned to Crystal, dark skin smeared with gore and the corpse of a massive dinosaur twitching several yards away to the roars of its more intact but steadily decreasing peers.

"No matter how dire the circumstances, no matter how uneven the odds, never draw inspiration from Kyle Gibney."




*****



Laurie felt a brief moment of worry about leaving Forge behind but he'd told her to go, and with these arrows she'd have a good chance of defending the others. She dashed toward the main group, only to notice another allosaurus coming up to the left of them.

Skidding to a stop, she planted her feet firmly in the ground, trying to shut out everything but the Dinosaur she was aiming at. It'd do no one any good if she missed, and these things moved quickly for such large sized creature.

Having set her feet and her mind to the task, she notched one of the explosive head arrows to the bow, took aim and fired. It missed as the allosaurus darted out of the way, hitting the ground and exploding turf close to the allosaurus legs.

Laurie said a word that would've gotten her mouth washed out had her mother been there and pulled out another of the arrows. She just wasn't used to hitting a moving target, but she only had two of these arrows left and she needed to make the next shot count. Especially since the Allosaurus was now heading straight for her.

'Failure is not an option' she thought firmly to herself and pushed away the fear that was settling in her belly, taking aim again.

This time the arrow hit home, and Laurie cheered as the Allosaurus keeled over sideways.

There wasn't time for more celebration as Kane hit her low with a flying tackle, throwing them both end over end across the clearing. She barely had a moment to gasp before he'd slammed into her, but the hot and dank smell of the Allosaurus jaws that had snapped shut a bare few inches from her head silenced any protest.

Garrison pulled her to her feet as he rose, keeping her behind him as the dinosaur closed. It was bobbing its head left and right, nostrils flaring as it used its keen sense of smell to compensate for poor vision while tracking them.

"Laurie, just keep backing up." Kane said through clenched teeth, as he edged backwards with the girl behind him.

"Okay." Laurie replied, still somewhat shaken by the abrupt change in circumstances. She'd not even noticed the other allosaurus...God, she could've been eaten. Shaking her head, she tried to focus on the situation at hand, backing away as Garrison had asked. "You have a plan right, Mr Garrison?"

"Of course I have a plan." Kane said, trying to sound confident. Unfortunately, that plan is to be horribly and messily eaten by a giant dinosaur, he didn't bother to add. The creature was bobbing its head as it moved, like a giant stalking bird. In a minute, it was either going to strike or Garrison was going to run out of room to retreat to.

"Laurie, when I tell you, I want you to run to my right. Marie's out that way. Get to her."

"But..." Laurie started, not wanting to leave him to face the dinosaur on his own, but then realising that he had a hell of a lot more training in facing situations like this then she did. If he told her to find Marie, then she'd find Marie. "Run. Find Marie. Got it."

Kane paused his retreat, setting his feet firmly on the ground. He could feel the twitches in his fingers, ready to move. The chip wired into the top of his spinal column had been soaking up information, feeding reactions into his body's physical memory. Hopefully it was going to be enough.

"Kid... now!" Garrison yelled, just as the allosaurus lunged. His jaws snapped shut just inches from Garrison, who braced and took the impact of the thing full on. The dinosaur was powerful, but it was matched up against the mutant strength of Kane. His feet dug two channels in the dirt as he fought to stymie the rush, using his shoulder to keep the jaw pinned shut as he grabbed the thing by the neck.

Laurie took off at a dead run, feeling the ground connecting under her feet as she ran to the right, leaving Garrison and the dinosaur behind. She felt a moment of guilt, for leaving him behind like that but she didn't dare look behind her. Instead, she focused on the goal, find Marie, she had to find Marie. God she hoped that thing didn't eat him before she could bring help.

"Oomph!" Garrison said as the thing rammed itself to the side, slamming him into a tree. His hold was tenacious, but there was simply too much dinosaur for him to have any hope of holding on. It tried again to break his hold, rubbing him against the ground. It flared its nostrils, and started down the path after Laurie, still trying to shake Garrison off, but following the pheromone trail left by the girl at the same time.

Laurie could hear thumping steps behind her and risked a quick look over her shoulder, almost tripping as she realised the dinosaur was following her, Garrison in tow. It would seem that the Allosaurus wanted a bite of her more then it wanted anything to do with Kane. She was going to have to do something, there was no way she could outrun a determined dinosaur.

Sending up a prayer to whatever deity might be listening she turned and brought up her bow, placing a normal arrow against the string as she tried to line up a shot at its head.

Garrison risked a brief glance over his shoulder to see Laurie deciding to stand her ground with the bow made out of parts of Forge. He bit back a curse, seeing no other options. Switching his precarious grip, he loosened his shoulder block, instead grabbing the sides of the lizard's jaw. It opened its mouth, finally free of the impediment to ripping and tearing. Kane launched himself down from the thing's neck, his strength forcing the jaw open to an unnatural gape.

Laurie grinned as she realised Garrison's actions had given her a perfect shot at the things mouth. Pulling back on the bow hard, she then let it go, watching the arrow fly straight and true. The arrow hit the Allosaur square in the mouth, causing the beast's head to slam backwards with the impact. Laurie pulled another arrow out and placed it against the string, aiming and firing at the same spot in one fluid movement. This time it did the job, hitting the allosaur in the back of the throat and pushing through into its tiny brain stem.

The creature continued forward with several thundering steps before it pitched sideways and crashed into the ground, momentum carrying it a dozen feet forward in a groove. It twitched as it lay there, and suddenly heaved to one side, for a single terrifying moment looking like it might be alive, until the Canadian crawl out from underneath it. He leaned heavily on the carcass, shaking his head and trying to catch his bearings. Strong as he might be, having a whole dinosaur land on you was an unsettling experience at best.

"Oh God, are you alright?" Laurie called out, rushing over to where the dinosaur had fallen and Garrison was looking a bit worse for wear. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea it'd land on you like that. Okay, so I probably should have known it'd land on you but well, it was kinda charging and um, yeah."

Garrison flicked some of the gore from his shirt. "Good god. And I thought these things smelled bad on the outside."

His eyes finally focused on the younger girl. "I'll be fine, Laurie. Takes more than a creature that's been extinct for a hundred million years landing on your head to stop a Mountie." He wavered and put a hand on her shoulder. "But I wouldn't refuse help finding a place to sit for a minute that isn't still oozing."

"I think I can help with that." Laurie replied, grinning as she placed a hand around his waist in order to help him to a clearer spot. She noticed the others had seemingly taken care of the remaining Dinosaurs. "I'm going to be so very, very glad when we get out of this place. I think I may well stay in the shower for a week."

"I'm definitely going to suggest that to Marie." Kane groaned a bit as he sat down, shaking his head to clear it. His healing factor, not quite so impressive as Kyle or Logan's, was going to work on the impact, which meant he only needed a few minutes to regain his bearings. However, he'd feel the bruises for a couple of days at least. "Go get Marie, get a head count of everyone. Let's make sure we didn't lose anyone this time. I'll catch up in a sec."

"Roger Roger." Laurie replied, grinning and taking off toward where the others would be, it helped to have something active to do. That way she didn't have to think about the fact that they'd very nearly been eaten by these things.



*****



Even over the rumble of giant clawed feet tearing up -everything-, Kyle could hear the panicked yelling of his classmates. He'd already taken a dive into a bush to get away from one stampeding dinosaur, and now there were more? There were so some science guys who deserved an asskicking. And since when did big meat-eating dinosaurs come in more than -one-?

Marie crashed into a tree nearby, the result of an allosaurus headbutt. "We'll chaperone a field trip together Marie, it'll be fun," she muttered to herself. "What's the worst that could happen Marie? You're overreacting." She finally noticed Kyle sticking out of a nearby bush and she pushed the thoughts out of her head. She could kick Garrison's ass later. Now, she needed to focus on keeping the kids safe - which with the amount of dinosaurs in the clearing was getting increasingly more difficult. Landing, she shot a concerned look at the feral student. "You ok?" Hearing a noise behind her, she sighed and held up a hand. "Hold that thought." Turning, she powered at the 30 foot tall dinosaur charging her way, the creature roaring as the superstrong girl punched it full in the gut.

"Allosaurs!" Kyle yelled. "They're allosaurs! Pack predators, like lions!" He wasn't sure why he remembered that -now-, but like every other boy, he'd spent the ages between seven and nine obsessed with the creatures. He was all at once, scared to death, for his own safety and his classmates, and fascinated by Marie beating down a dinosaur with her bare hands.

Pack? Great. As Marie continued to punch the dinosaur in front of her while doing her best to avoid it's teeth, two of the dinosaur's buddies decided to come see what was taking their friend so long - and Marie found herself surrounded by dinos. "Now now guys, Ah'll play with all y'all, but you gotta take turns," she said, bringing her heels together on either side of the original dino. He dropped hard, fragment of bone spiking through his brain and the ground around him shook as he collapsed. "Your turn," Rogue said as she spun to face another of allosaurs at random. Of course, it was the other one that decided to reach out and take a chomp of her leg, it's teeth breaking as it tried chewing the invulnerable girl. "Is that the best you got?"

There was something about these dinosaurs that terrified Kyle to the core. It wasn't like the raptors - those had been scary, but not like this. These were almost five times his size, and built, it seemed, just to destroy. ~Like Sabretooth~ he thought. And if these were like Sabretooth, then what was he? The raptor? And he didn't have time to think about it much, there were allosaurs everywhere, and he'd seen Marie take down one, but now there were two more. Two more thirty-foot tall dinosaurs versus one woman. Super-strong or not, how many dinosaurs could one person fight before they got overwhelmed? And what would happen if even -more- showed up? Or they ran off to attack something less invulnerable and more tasty?

Kyle was out of his leafy hiding place before he'd realized he'd even moved, ducking under the stomping feet of one of the allosaurs. He dug his claws into the thick skin of the reptile's ankle, and got a enraged bellow for his trouble. And then a scaly leg in his side, and he rolled back with the force of the blow.

"Kyle, get back," Marie bellowed, though she highly doubted the boy would listen. And at least he was more able to defend himself than a majority of the other students on the trip. She frowned at the dinosaur chewing on her. It may not have been able to do much damage, but it did cause her to be rather stuck where she was. Bending forward, she punched it in the nose, hoping it would be like the dogs back home and open it's jaw automatically.

There were vulnerable places on the human body. Kyle knew that from experience. The eyes and the throat were the only ones he could identify on the dinosaur, and they were twenty-some feet up. He gritted his teeth and got back up, charging at the allosaur again. But this time, instead of clawing at the giant lizard's leg with slashing motions, he took a running jump and grabbed at the creature's back. His claws dug in to give him a better hold, and he climbed up, ignoring the attempts to shake him off.

As the dinosaur released her leg, Marie swooped around to the other side of, keeping clear of the snapping jaws. She tried the same move she'd been successful using on his buddy, but this allosaurus ducked her carefully aimed kick. "Kyle, what the hell are you doing? Grab some of the others and get to safety." Her attention was quickly pulled back to the dinosaur she was dealing with and she began pummeling the creature into submission.

"Going for the eyes!" Kyle yelled, halfway up the dinosaur's back. "Everyone's clear. Too many dinosaurs for anyone to keep track of!" He was so in trouble when they got back. Grounded for life. Double-grounded even. If they didn't all get eaten by dinosaurs first. For every inch that he got up the allosaur's back, it got even more angry, and by the time he reached it's shoulders and clawed arms, he had both the claws on his hands and feet dug in as deeply as he could just to hold on.

At the head, he had nothing to do but try to hold on with his legs and take swipes at the allosaur's face with his hands. The big dinosaur thrashed it's head around wildly, and Kyle slipped, hanging nearly upside down with his legs still wrapped around the dinosaur's neck. He clung with his knees, and tried to get his hold back, only to realize that while he was safe from being bitten, he was not safe from the dinosaur's claws.

There was nothing Marie could do to stop him at that point, so Marie focused on getting the dinosaur in front of her to drop so she'd be able to go help him. A few more punches and the dinosaur was knocked out, Marie lowering him carefully to the ground to avoid squishing another student running past.

Even with Kyle desperately trying to avoid contact, the allosaur managed to strike twice, once in Kyle's leg and once on the shoulder. The pain sent spasms up his leg, and he could feel the blood seeping through his shirtsleeve, and he let go, twisted and reached up to grab at the dinosaur's neck. One set of clawed fingers dug into the giant lizard's neck, and Kyle reached out blindly to grab at whatever else he could with the other hand.

It didn't hurt. But he knew something was wrong when his hand closed on something wet, and then he lost his grip, arm dangling uselessly. He yelled in surprise, nearly a howl, and kicked away, throwing himself away from the animal and to the ground.

The allosaur roared, and turned towards Kyle, howling in pain from the bloody wound in the side of it's throat.

It was charging, there was no way Marie would get to it in time. But from out of nowhere a figure rushed in front of Kyle. Not Marie-- this girl had black hair-- and something red was in her hands. A bright red light that she threw at the charging allosaurus, which splashed against it's hide without a sound. The rampaging Dino halted in it's tracks, let out a noise that sounded something between a gasp and a gurgle, and it's eyes rolled to the top of it's head. There was nothing unluckier than a spontaneous cardiac arrest, it seemed. The allosaurus fell heavily to the ground, narrowly missing both Kyle and Jennie by inches.

"Woah," Jennie said, blue eyes wide.

Marie landed in front of the two teens, her face pale. "Are you two ok?" she said, her voice coming out fast and worried. A quick glance around and a sigh of relief escaped Marie's throat - the tide seemed to have turned and she was just praying that Kyle was the worst of the injuries. It was then, her attention turning back to the pair, that she realized the true extent of Kyle's injuries. "Well shit."

Kyle was holding one hand in the other, with blood seeping through his fingers. He looked up at Jennie and Marie, face pale and then doubled over, vomiting noisily. "I don't feel so good," he muttered, and then abruptly sat back down, groaning.

Marie folded to the ground beside him, reaching out to grab a hold of him. "Gar, we've got trouble," she called out over her shoulder. It took a fraction of a second for her to glance over her shoulder - a fraction of a second during which her attention wasn't fully focused on the boy in front of her. She hadn't expected to need to hold him, only to support him - so when Kyle suddenly leapt to his feet and bolted, she was caught offguard and her grasp didn't tighten before the boy had started running. This is not my day. "Garrison!" she yelled out, pointing in the direction Kyle had gone. The Canadian was closer and she'd have to count on him to follow up.