In the Time of Dinosaurs Page 11

  "HeeeRRRROOOOAAAARRR!" they answered, one by one.

  Four of us together in one place. Impossible! My territory. Mine!

  "HeeeRRRROOOOAAAARRR!" I raged.

  But the others did not run away. They roared back at me. Four huge voices cried, "Outrage!" We bellowed and roared our threats, but no one ran away.

  I stamped my feet, one after the other. I swung my tail back and forth.

  The others did the same. They stamped their feet at me. At each other. Tails were swishing madly, ripping bushes and small trees out of the ground. The threat display was clear. Someone should back down. The only alternative was to do battle.

  "HeeeRRRROOOOAAAARRR!" we each cried, swaying as we stomped, swishing our tails, tossing our heads, opening our mouths wide to display our deadly teeth.

  Then ... a scent.

  We each caught it at the same time. The bellowing stopped. I turned my head toward the smell. Darkness. But the scent was there: living flesh. Prey.

  «You guys, you're losing it! Jake, Cassie, Marco, you guys are losing it!» Page 72

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs

  There was prey just a few feet away. Two smaller creatures. Only two of them, and four of us. Not enough prey. The others would try to take them. I leaped! The little dinosaurs turned and ran. I was after them! «Jake! Ax! Marco, you idiot! You guys are caught up in the morph! That's

  us you're chasing.» Noises in my head. Meaningless. Running

  now, the chase was on! But the others like me were still there. Running, too. Trying to steal my prey! «You guys are grinding my nerves! You're hunting us.» «Rachel, we can't outrun them! But we can out-turn them, I bet.» «Oh, this is so not fun! I'm gonna end up being breakfast for Marco.

  Talk about humiliation. When I say "now!" we double back on them!» «Yeah.» More sounds in my head. Strange. Disturbing. «Now!» The two swift, small creatures suddenly stopped and ran straight for me.

  In a flash, they were past. I stopped. I blinked. I was confused. But then I smelled new prey. More this time! Close by. The wind was in

  my face. I knew this was a good thing. When the wind was in my face, the prey did not flee as quickly. I quickly forgot the two small creatures and advanced toward the herd I

  smelled up ahead in the darkness. «I have never seen a morph take over this total ly.» «I know. I'm starting to worry.» «Jake! It's me, Rachel. Snap out of it. Cassie, buddy. It's me, Rachel.

  You're being controlled by the morph.» The prey was close now. Yes, I could smell them. I glanced at the

  others like myself. Marching beside me through the darkness. Many prey this time. Enough for all. Closer. . . closer. . . Attack! I bounded forward at full speed. Attack! Tail out behind me, head held

  forward, I raced toward the helpless prey!

  In the darkness I saw a shape. Prey! I saw the bulk, the curved back. I saw the horns. Two very long and a shorter one. The horns disturbed me. But too late to do anything but attack! Nothing

  could stop me. Nothing could escape. The horns turned toward me. Page 73

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  Hmmm. I dodged left. The horns turned. Hmmm. I slowed down. I stopped. "Shnorf! Shnorf!" the horned creature said. I saw the others like myself. All were staring at the horned creatures.

  All had stopped their attack.

  «Maybe now they're calmer,» the voice in my head said. «Um, you guys? Those are Tricer-atops.» Huh? «Jake, Ax, Cassie, Marco, get a grip. You are in morph.» In morph? Me? Marco? Yaaahhh! My brain snapped back suddenly. Instantly I was me again. Okay,

  me again in a body that was fourteen thousand pounds' worth of trouble. But at that exact moment, one of us attacked. "ROOOOAAAARRR!" A Tyrannosaurus leaped suddenly to the right, jerked its

  head left, and chomped its humongous jaws down on the arched spine of a

  Triceratops. "Rrr-EEEEE, Rrr-EEEEE!" the Triceratops screamed. And then everything went completely insane. The Triceratops staring up at me lunged. Deadly three-foot-long horns were aimed at my belly, propelled by six tons of weight.

  I jumped back, inches from being gored.

  Another Big Rex -I don't know if it was Jake or Cassie or Ax -went roaring into battle. The massive jaw tried to clamp on one horn and hold it. The battle was on. Tyrannosaurus versus Triceratops. The battle every

  kid with toy dinosaurs imagines. It was sheer, screaming madness. «You idiots!» Rachel roared. «Back away! Back away!» But then she and Tobias joined the fray, trying to help. They were

  tiny, but they could attack the lumbering elephant-sized Triceratops

  with more agility than we could. My own opponent shnorf-shnorfed a couple of times, then came after me again. I backed away. I didn't need this fight.

  «Aaaahhh!» I tripped, staggered back on one knee, and began to fall over. I reached to use my hands, but they were useless. I hit the dirt on my side.

  The Triceratops was on me! «Aaarrrgghhh!» Three feet of horn rammed into me. It caught between two ribs. The pain was shocking and immediate. Page 74

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs But now the Triceratops was vulnerable. Its dangerous horns were stuck, and its front leg was in reach. I opened my jaw, jerked my huge head forward, and clamped down with all my might.

  The Triceratops backed away. I released his leg and snapped at his side and missed. He lunged again. I was still down, still on my side, bleeding. I swung my legs forward and shoved my taloned feet in his face. I caught the closest horn between my toes and shoved back with all my might.

  I went scooting backward under the impact of the Triceratops's charge, but those horns didn't get me. Not this time.

  I rolled into something that splintered and crashed. A tree! I had just knocked over a tree. I scrambled up, not an easy thing to do when you're a Tyrannosaurus. I got to my feet just as the Triceratops charged again. I backed away, but now there were trees all around me, hemming me in like a cage.

  Then, in the darkness, the shocking sight of another Big Rex. It leaped on my Triceratops! It opened its mouth wide, and then sank three dozen or more seven-inch-long teeth into the Triceratops's neck.

  "HoooRRROOOOAAARRR!"

  "Rrrr-EEEEEEE! Rrrr-EEEEEEE!"

  In fury and rage, the big predator yanked the front of the Triceratops up off the ground. An animal the size of an elephant, simply yanked up off the ground.

  The Tyrannosaurus shook its head, shaking the screaming Triceratops like a dog worrying a bone.

  And then, the Triceratops stopped making sounds. It hung limp. The Tyrannosaurus dropped it and stood over the fallen creature.

  "Huh-huh-huh-RRRRRROOOOOAAAARRR!" it bellowed in triumph. The sound shook the leaves in the trees. It rattled through my wounded belly.

  "Huh-huh-huh-RRRRRROOOOOAAAARRR!" it screamed again.

  It was all the violence of nature, all the ruth-lessness of the survival of the fittest, all the power of muscle and bone and claw and tooth, all the ageless, never-ending lust for conquest wrapped into one awesome roar.

  I braced myself, afraid it might attack me next.

  «Jake? Is that you?» I asked.

  «No,» a thought-speak voice replied.

  Jake

  Cassie stood roaring over the fallen Tricer-atops. She was the only one still caught up in the Tyrannosaurus's mind. It scared me. It scared me for her. She hadn't wanted to do this morph. And now it had seized control of her. Gentle Cassie was trapped in the mind of a killer.

  She swung her head around and glared at me, eyes mad with rage.

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  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs «What do we do?» Rachel demanded.

  She was scared, too. It scared me all over again, knowing that Rachel was scared. Rachel doesn't scare easily.

  «Cassie!» Marco yelled. «Snap out of it!»

  Cassie hunched over the Triceratops and began chowing down.
It was an unbelievably gross scene. The sun was just coming up, and there in the pink glow, a creature as tall as a tree was devouring a creature the size of an elephant.

  I took a step forward on my massive clawed feet.

  Cassie spun her head around and bellowed a threat: «Stay away. It's mine!»

  «Jake, you have to stay back,» Tobias said. «You are invading her territory. That's her prey. She'll have no choice but to defend it. She'll annihilate you.»

  «No. She might annihilate this Tyrannosaurus morph,» I said. «But she would never hurt me.»

  I knew what I had to do. I began to demorph.

  «Prince Jake! That is foolish! You will look like another prey animal to her!»

  «No. She won't hurt me. She'll recognize me.» I was shrinking already.

  «Jake, look,» Marco said, «you may be exaggerating your charm, you know? And if she goes for you, that means we have to try and stop her.»

  I hesitated. Marco was right. What if Cassie attacked? But I continued demorphing, shrinking, growing smaller and weaker all the time. The three tyrannosaurs loomed larger and larger above me. They looked to me like Tobias must look to a mouse. Even the Triceratops seemed as vast as a beached whale.

  Cassie watched me, curious. Her forwardlooking yellow eyes glanced at me, then at her kill, then belligerently at the other dinosaurs.

  And then, slowly, slowly, as my own flesh emerged, as my hands grew human fingers, as my face flattened and hair grew and toes replaced claws, she blinked.

  «Oh, my God. What have I done?» she asked. She backed away from the Triceratops.

  "It's okay, Cassie," I said. "It was just a dinosaur." It was all I could think of to say. I knew it wouldn't help. You can't say "just" an animal to Cassie.

  «You got caught up in the morph,» Rachel said. «It happens. All four of you did it.»

  «Oh my God!» Cassie cried in horror.

  «Cassie, look, it's not your fault,» Rachel said. «It was the Tyrannosaurus. It was just being itself, you know?»

  «I told you guys I didn't want to do this morph!» Cassie yelled. She Page 76

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs began demorphing. But at the same time, I was returning to the Tyrannosaurus morph.

  "Cassie, you have to stay in morph," I said. "We have a mission."

  «No! I don't have to be this . . . this . . . killer!»

  «Yes, you do, because we need to go kick some butt on these space ants, all right?» Marco said.

  «Cassie, come on,» Rachel said. «We need you.»

  «I destroyed a living creature. A fantastic living creature,» Cassie mourned.

  «Cassie, get over it. This is the late Cretaceous, according to Bird-boy here,» Marco said coldly. «There are no humans. No human civilization. No human morality or religion or philosophy. This is hardcore nature. We're down to survival, here. Survival. That's all that counts.»

  «Surviving and getting home,» Rachel amended.

  «There are humans here,» Cassie said. «Us. We are human civilization. We have all that stuff inside us. It doesn't matter what year it is.»

  «Okay, you're right,» Marco snapped. «It doesn't matter. If this were 1998 or 2000 or 2121, it would still come down to surviving. And when it's down to kill or be killed, all that morality and guilt and all is crap.»

  Cassie stopped morphing. For a while no one said anything. Then, at last, Cassie said, «You know something, Marco? You're my friend. I'd do almost anything for you. But you're wrong. Yeah, we're just animals ourselves. But we're the animals who can think. We're the animals who can imagine something better than kill or be killed. I don't think predators are immoral. I'm not an idiot, whatever you may think. But I'm a human, okay? And I have to think and care, and I have to feel things. Otherwise I might as well be some gang banger, or a Nazi or, or -»

  «A Yeerk,» Ax supplied.

  I had finished morphing back to Tyran-nosaurus. I waited for Marco to toss out some clever comeback. It never came. Instead, as we once again headed for the Nesk camp, I heard him whisper so that no one but me could hear:

  «You know, Jake? I see why you like that

  AX

  The sun had fully risen by the time we arrived at the Nesk base. It was near the lowest slopes of the volcano at a place where a rushing stream came down through the pockmarked gray rocks and gave rise to sparse vegetation.

  It was very obviously a military base, not like the peaceful agricultural town the Mercora had built. There were perimeter defenses in the form of robot towers thirty feet tall. The towers bristled with several different types of energy weapons. I could see that widely differing technologies were in use. Obviously the Mercora were correct: The Nesk were scavengers. They had stolen these weapons from a variety

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  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs of races.

  The same was true of the spacecraft parked within the camp. There were two of the small pyramidal ships Rachel and Tobias had described. But there was also a ship in the more classic airfoil design, as well as very odd oval-shaped craft.

  There was little obvious activity within the camp. But then, the Nesk are a strange race. Essentially social insects with the ability to unite and cooperate to a stunning degree. The "bodies" they formed were only assembled in order to operate the weapons and ships they had stolen. The rest of the time, I assumed, they remained as insects.

  «Okay, everybody keep moving forward. Casual. Like we're all out for a nice morning walk. Ax, what do you make of it?» Prince Jake asked.

  «I think the Mercora were correct and the Nesk have no interest in dinosaurs,» I said. «Those two creatures over there may have walked right through the base, judging by their present locations

  «Iguanodons,» Tobias said.

  «Do you see the mound?» Cassie asked. «Looks like a dirt pile, except it's so tall and narrow? That may be their mound. Like a termite mound. That's where their queen will be.»

  I had seen the mound. But I hadn't paid it any attention. Now I looked closer. «The mound is defended. Motion detectors tied to what are probably stun weapons. Dinosaurs may travel freely through the base, but the Nesk protect their mound.»

  «So where do we find these alleged nukes?» Rachel asked impatiently.

  «Warehouses or storage rooms over there,» Marco said. «Three of them in a row. If it were me, I'd put my most valuable stuff in the middle one. It's more protected. On the other hand, I don't see any guards.»

  «I agree,» I said. «But there are probably thousands of guards. Remember, the Nesk will only assemble into a larger creature if they have to hold weapons. But the individual insects are everywhere throughout the camp.»

  «Okay,» Prince Jake said. «Here's what we do. Ax and Rachel, head straight for the center warehouse. Ax to point out a nuke, Rachel to grab it, because those Deinonychus hands work better than the Big Rex's. Marco and Tobias flank to the left. Me and Cassie to the right. We rip open that storeroom, get what we came for, and head for the trees over there.»

  I felt nervous. Not about possible battle. Well, yes, about that, too. But mostly, I felt nervous about identifying the "nuke." Explosive weapons come in thousands of different shapes and sizes. Some are as big as human automobiles, most are much smaller. Andalite explosive weapons are usually no bigger than a human baseball.

  «Ready?» Prince Jake asked.

  «Been ready,» Rachel grumbled.

  «Okay, everyone just keep moving like we're dinosaurs.»

  «Which, thanks to the fact that our lives are totally, completely Page 78

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs INSANE, we actually are,» Marco said. «I mean, does anyone else think it's just plain weird that we're dinosaurs, getting ready to steal a nuclear weapon from a bunch of antlike aliens, sixty-five million years before the first human being ever said, "Hey, I know what, let's try cooking the meat this time?" Does anyone else find this slightly nu
ts?»

  «Nope,» Rachel said.

  We advanced on the base, not exactly stealthily. There was a definite impact sound each time my Tyrannosaurus foot hit the ground.

  I focused on the center storeroom. I glanced over to the trees. The Nesk ships would have a hard time following us through the trees. But getting to them would be difficult. Especially if it took me a while to find what we were after.

  The base seemed empty, deserted. But when I focused my Tyrannosaurus eyes, I could see narrow columns of the antlike creatures spreading out like a web across the entire area. When I lowered my foot near one of the columns, it simply swerved aside.

  We passed closer to the small, oval ship. It was perhaps twice the size of an Andalite fighter, but it was made up of three interlocking oval tubes. I wished I had time to study it.

  The storeroom, just ahead. It had appeared to be built of crude metal. But when I got closer, I could see that it was actually dirt. It had been built in just the same way as the mound, by the labor of millions of the tiny creatures. Then, it had been covered in some sort of residue and polished till it was bright.

  «A bizarre race, these Nesk,» I said. «They have stolen and made use of amazingly sophisticated technology. Yet at the same time -»

  Scrr-EEEEEE-eeeee-EEEEEE-eeee-eeee. Scrr-E E E E E-eeeee-E E E E E-eeee-eeee!