moving. Totally still. «Rachel. I think there's something just on the other side of this clump of trees. See that -yaahhh!»
The fan had moved. Rachel froze. "Please don't tell me it's another of your dinosaurs." «When did they start being my dinosaurs? Let's just back away slowly.» Rachel reached down to lift me up. "What is it?" «I can't see enough of it to tell.» We backed away, keeping our eyes firmly fixed on the spotted fan or
sail. But as we backed away I realized Rachel's shoulder was getting tougher to hold on to.
«What are you doing?» "I'm morphing," she said. "I'm hungry, you're hungry. Maybe we can take this guy down and have a nice big dinosaur breakfast."
«What? What?» "I'm morphing that dannynockorus." Page 51
K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs «Deinonychus?»
She couldn't answer. Her tongue was no longer human. Her skin was pebbly and rough. Her shoulder sloped downward and I jumped off to land in the grass.
I wasn't exactly happy with Rachel at that point. But at the same time, I wondered if maybe she was right. We had the Deinonychus morph. Why not use it?
I began to morph myself. Great, it would mean resetting my splint yet again. This was no way to heal. Then again, starving wasn't all that good for your health, either.
The breeze shifted. The skin and bone sail moved. It moved to catch the breeze. Why? I should know. There was some fact hiding just in the back of my head. What was I forgetting?
I pictured my toy dinosaurs. Tyrannosaurus rex, Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Spinosaurus.
Spinosaurus?
Big sail on its back. What about it? What was it like? What did it do? Was it an herbivore?
Moving!
CRASH! CRASH! Crrrrr-UNCH!
Up rose the sail as the Spinosaurus stood up. Crash went the bushes as it swiveled to look at us. Crunch went a tree trunk as it thrust its head through the trees to get a closer look at us. The head was bigger than Rachel.
She was just completing her Deinonychus morph. Would she be able to control the dinosaur's active instincts? She was more experienced at morphing than I was.
The Spinosaurus glared at us. Or at Rachel, at least.
«He's scared of us,» she said. «He's big, but he's probably just some great big prehistoric cow, right?»
«Rachel. Look at the teeth. Do those look like herbivore teeth?»
«Oh.»
The Spinosaurus rose up to its full standing height, looming up huge behind the trees. The curved sail on its back was more than five feet high. Tail to nose it was fifty feet long. It stood on two legs - smaller and weaker legs than a Tyran-nosaurus, but plenty to move with.
The Spinosaurus was silent. It just stared as two Deinonychus emerged from a girl and a bird.
«We can still take him.»
That would be Rachel, of course. I'd never say anything so stupid. «What are you, crazy? He weighs tons. We weigh pounds.»
«There's two of us. One of him.» Page 52
K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs «One is plenty!» «Okay. Then let's run away.» «Now you're talking.» We turned. We ran. We ran right into the Spinosaurus's mate.
Rachel
What could I do? I had to attack. The Deinonychus body was surging with power and deadly energy.
Then again, the Spinosaurus was way, way too big. To give you some idea, if we'd both been dogs, the Spinosaurus would be a German shepherd and I'd be a Chihuahua.
No choice. No way around the second Spinosaurus.
«Attack!» I yelled.
I leaped. The steel spring legs lifted me off the ground and I flew through the air, deadly raking claws outward. I was aiming for the Spin-osaurus's exposed belly.
SLASH! With my oversized talons. Two bright red lines in the Spinosaurus's belly!
Two little lines that looked like something the Spinosaurus might put a Band-Aid on. The Spin-osaurus looked puzzled. And then it looked annoyed. It ruffled its weird sail back and opened its jaws and looked at me like I had "Oscar Mayer" printed on my back.
«Okay, forget attack. We go back to plan "B." Run!»
And that's when I noticed the other creature step smoothly out from the bushes.
It walked on two legs. It was rough-textured, like it had really chapped skin. It was reddish in color. It had two big eyes and a small mouth, all of the same reddish-rust hue. It stood about eight feet tall. It was carrying a weapon.
It was not a dinosaur.
The creature raised the weapon and pointed it at the wounded and angry Spinosaurus. I saw no flash. Heard no explosion. But the Spinosaurus fell over. Like a redwood falling in the forest, it fell over.
WHAMMM!
The second Spinosaurus processed this and decided to go back to sleep.
Tobias and I stared at the rough-textured creature with the gun. «What the . . . what is thaf» »
«I don't know,» Tobias said. «But I can guarantee none of my toy dinosaurs ever carried guns.»
Page 53
K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs The creature gazed curiously at us with what seemed to be eyes, although they were mere indentations in its face. From its head a pair of antennae, flexible as whips, grew and began waving toward us.
Satisfied after a few seconds of this, the antennae were retracted. "You may not kill those creatures. There are very few left. They are
ours. All creatures are ours. All things are ours. What are you?" it asked in a rough, raspy, buzzing voice. It was speaking English. Now, on Star Trek you see aliens speak English
all the time. Like that would be normal. But in real life when you encounter an alien speaking English, it's just weird. You figure at the very least they should be speaking Russian or Japanese or something.
"Answer." «We're . . . dinosaurs,» I said, feeling fairly idiotic. "You speak now without making sound. Explain." «Why don't you explain?» I said. «Who are you? What are you doing here?
And how do you speak our language?» "We hear while you are talking. Listening long time. Since night." «How did this guy manage to follow us and listen in?» I asked Tobias. «I don't know. I would have seen him.» "Change to your other form." «He's seen us morph.» «What are you?» Tobias demanded. "We are the Nesk. This is our planet. Change to your other form." «Pushy, isn't he?» I said. «He's got the gun.» «I don't like him. He smells, for one thing. And the smell . . .
something familiar about it. Something wrong. I can't quite remember.
Can't quite place it. But something's wrong.» "This weapon can cause creatures to become unconscious. This happened to the great beast you were attacking. But it can also cause death. Change into your other forms. Or I will cause your death."
The Nesk raised the weapon and pointed it at us.
Now, maybe I have to back down before a fifty-foot-long Spinosaurus. But I've faced plenty of pushy aliens with ray guns. I knew this Nesk character with the ego problem would expect me to
charge him, like a dinosaur. But I'm a human. Better yet, I'm a gymnast. So, just like on the balance beam, I spun on one leg and whipped my rigid tail into the Nesk.
«Take that!» Page 54
K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs My tail hit hard. It slammed into the Nesk at his chest level. My tail broke him in two. The top half simply fell off. Like I'd chopped through a tree.
«Oh, my God!» I cried, horrified. I'd only intended to knock him down.
But then my horror changed tone. The severed lower body seemed to be dissolving. Breaking into thousands and tens of thousands of tiny squirming pieces!
And the fallen upper body was still holding the weapon. Raising it toward me again!
No time for pity. I lunged, mouth wide-open. I bit down on that raised hand.
It dissolved. Crumbled. I felt a squirming in my mouth. Then stinging, burning. I spit out the gun. It hit the dirt. And a wave made up of the Nesk's body parts raced
to reach it.
My mouth was still alive with stinging and burning. The tiny reddish body parts began to crawl out of my jaw, up onto my muzzle. Up where my eyes could see them clearly.
Then I remembered that smell. The acrid smell of a tunnel, the stink of deadly automatons racing to tear me apart.
Ants!
The Nesk was made up of millions and millions of ants.
Cassie
Okay, those buildings were not built by dinosaurs," Marco said.
Jake looked at Ax. "Ax? Do you have any idea what is going on here?"
Ax looked as puzzled as he was capable of looking. «You are sure this is not some unknown chapter of human history?»
"Ax, at this point humans aren't even a gleam in some tiny mammal's eye. We're a long, long way from seeing the first primate. Let alone an actual human. Could they be Andalites?"
«They are not Andalites,» Ax said. «We, too, have not yet evolved by this point. In fact, I believe our planet is still wandering between two different stars, one of which will later go nova, but in such a way that the shock wave will -»
"A simple 'no' would do," Marco interrupted.
«They are certainly not Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, or even Yeerks. None of those species exists yet.»
"The Pemalites?" I suggested. We knew of the Pemalites from Erek. Erek looked and acted like a normal kid, but he was actually an android-a Chee -built by the extinct race called Pemalites.
Marco shook his head. "Erek told us when they arrived on Earth, the last Pemalites were dying. The Chee joined their essence or whatever with wolves. There aren't any wolves. We're probably tens of millions of years away from wolves, too."
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K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs
"So who is hanging around on Earth in this era who can build cities and flying saucers?" Jake asked impatiently.
"Why don't I go ask them?" I said, pointing to the small city in the valley. "Or at least go check them out. My osprey morph would be perfect. There are birds in this era, so I shouldn't be too obvious."
Jake nodded. "Okay. That's what we'll do. We'll all go. But this just gets weirder and weirder."
"You know, only one of us has to go," I suggested. "Why don't I do it? You guys can all stay here for now."
Jake cocked an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, shouldn't we take the absolute minimum risk?"
Jake shook his head and kept looking at me like he couldn't figure me out.
"Look, we've already lost Rachel and Tobias," I blurted. "I lost my best friend. I don't want to lose . . . you know. Anyone else."
Marco looked like he was right on the verge of making a wisecrack. But he stopped. Still, I guess he just couldn't totally restrain himself, so he said, "Why don't I go with Cassie? Somehow I don't think it's me she's worried about losing." He gave Jake a sidelong smirk.
Jake rolled his eyes. "We are not going to lose anyone, okay? It's probably safer for us all to be in the air together. Here on the ground we have Big Rex to worry about."
It made sense. But it didn't make me feel any better. It had been just twenty-four hours since I'd last seen Rachel. I hadn't had all that much time to think about her. I'd been busy staying alive. And I guess the truth is, I almost didn't want to think about her really being gone.
But last night, in that terrible black chaos, blind, unable to tell where Jake's terrified cries were coming from, I just kept thinking, No, it can't happen again. I can't lose Jake, too.
Now here we were, staring down at what might be our only salvation in this dangerous world. But I was more worried than before. Maybe I trust animals more than civilization.
"Okay," I said. "But I get a bad feeling about this. See, this can't be right. There can't be a city down there. It doesn't make sense. There are no cities in the age of dinosaurs. And no flying saucers, either. I know we have to check it out, but we need to be careful."
I began to focus on my osprey morph. An os-prey is a type of hawk that normally lives by water and eats fish.
Gray feather patterns began to appear on my skin. I saw my bare feet become talons, my arms twist into wing shapes. It was a morph I had done many times before. But it was a morph from a different world. This was a world where true birds seemed to be small in number.
There was a nice breeze blowing. And I could guess that there would be excellent thermals -warm updrafts -welling up from the steep valley walls.
«Everyone ready?» Jake asked. Page 56
K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs
«Look!» Marco yelled.
Half a dozen small dinosaurs, each standing on two legs and no more than three feet high, goggled at us with huge yellow eyes.
«Let's fly,» Jake said.
The dinosaurs attacked at a run. A very fast run.
«I am getting so sick of this place,» Marco said as we flapped into the breeze and raced along on our talons.
I reached the edge of the cliff. I opened my wings and sprang out into the void. The tiny dinosaurs stopped at the edge and watched us go.
«This does seem to be a dangerous time in Earth's history,» Ax said. «It's a wonder humans ever evolved in such a dangerous world.»
«The dinosaurs were all gone before humans evolved,» I pointed out.
«All?» Ax asked, puzzled.
«Yeah. There were no dinosaurs by the time humans began to appear. They were all wiped out much earlier.»
«Unless you count the Flintstones,» Marco said. «"Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're the modern stone age family."»
I'd been right about the thermals. It felt good to be floating on a warm breeze. I know this seems crazy, but I somehow felt more at home in the osprey morph than my own human body. Humans just seemed so totally out of place in this era.
We flew toward the shining city in the valley. With osprey eyes I could see much more clearly. I saw buildings that rose in steep, smooth sweeps, like they'd grown from the bedrock. Windows were stuck in odd locations, some aiming out, others more like skylights. And there were fields planted with green and arranged in neat circles instead of rows.
«"From the town of Bedrock, they're a page right out of histo-ree,"» Marco sang.
As we got closer, I could see creatures of some sort. They looked a little like large -very large -crabs. Only with shells in a wild array of colors, deep blue, spring green, orange. And while on one side there was something very much like a large pincer, on the other side there was a pair of hands.
«Those are definitely not any species I know of,» Ax volunteered.
«They don't look friendly,» Marco said.
«Marco, how can you possibly -»
WHAM!
Something hit me! I was tumbling through the air. I fell ten feet, opened my wings again and veered into a breeze. I caught air. Nothing broken. «Jake!» I cried.
«Look out, it's coming around again!» Jake yelled. Page 57
K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs
I turned my head just in time to see it fill my entire field of vision. Like some monstrous bat. Green-and-yellow leather wings twenty feet across. An impossibly long, bony head.
«I can't believe something that big could sneak up on me,» I said.
«There are more,» Ax said tersely.
They were dropping from caves in the valley wall. Three, four, six of them. They opened their wide leather wings and swooped toward us.
Tobias
They swarmed toward Rachel. Millions of ants. And a group of them was already reforming around the weapon, forming a sort of hand to raise it high and aim it.
I had a very low-tech idea of how to deal with that. I leaped. I landed with both feet on the ants around the weapon. And I began to stomp.
I stomped like mad with my Deinonychus feet. They weren't great feet for stomping because they were basically built like bird feet. But they were fast. I was stomping at a r
ate of several stomps per second. And whatever kind of super-alien ants these might be, they couldn't stand some man-sized dinosaur stomping on them.
The Nesk broke and ran. I roared in triumph and turned to Rachel. She was avidly licking the ants off her with her long tongue.
«What on or off the Earth was that?» I said.
«I don't even want to know,» Rachel said. «I'll tell you something about your Cretaceous Park here, though. I don't like it. It's grinding my last nerve. Not bad enough we have murderous dinosaurs everywhere. Noooo, we have to have ant-creatures from planet Zeptron!»
«Zeptron?»
«It's the first word that came to mind, all right? You want to grind my nerves, too?»
«Nope. Definitely not. But maybe we should -»
Ch-ch-ch-CHEEEEEW! Ch-ch-ch-CHEEEEEW! Ch-ch-ch-CHEEEEEW!
The ground beside me exploded, like it had been ripped by an invisible plow. I jumped. Another plow mark just behind me! I saw movement. And there, racing toward us across the plain, was a gleaming, silver craft. Maybe twice the size of a Bug fighter, but shaped like an elongated pyramid, long end forward.
Ch-ch-ch-CHEEEEEW! Ch-ch-ch-CHEEEEEW! Ch-ch-ch-CHEEEEEW!
The ship fired again and blew two more five-foot-long furrows in the ground.
«Run!» Rachel said.
«Run!» I agreed.
We ran. Deinonychus can run when it wants to. Very fast. Maybe Page 58
K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs twenty miles an hour. Too bad the silver pyramid was about a thousand times faster.
But it hesitated. I glanced back and saw it pause over the spot where we'd been. A sort of tube with a scoop on the end lowered to the ground. And I swear it vacuumed up the ants we'd scattered.