Earlier, I posted a link to a site with my story posted up on it. But for those who don't want to read long chapters, I decided to post shorter chapters in a seperate topic.
This is part 1 of the fanfic, entitled Kidnapped.
Chapter 1:
The landscape was tranquil. The air flowed through the hundreds of trees that lined along the mountain side. Birds soared overhead, cawing out their calls to each other as they disappeared over the horizon. The sky was a perfect light blue, and clear save for one or two tiny white clouds, puffy and streaky at the same time. The sun lay directly overhead. Its yellow rays bathed the land in a warm glow, and a couple lizards crawled out of their den to sunbathe.
Then, without a single warning, the tranquility was destroyed as a roar echoed in the jungle.
RAAAAAAAAAAOOORRRR!
A large red foot stomped onto a tree, kicking it up from its roots and flattening it on the ground. The earth shook as this massive behemoth walked out. The creature was a Tyrannosaurus Rex, nearly solid red save for the couple white stripes that decorated its back. The creature's eyes glowed an unnatural yellow-orange, and it opened its massive jaws, revealing several different sized teeth. The lizards nearby looked up and quickly dashed underground before the monster could stomp its foot on them.
From underneath the T-Rex came another figure. This creature was much smaller and swifter, sporting a green hide with purple stripes and a white underside. It looked up at the enormous animal and screeched at it and attempted to look intimidating. It wasn't working. The Tyrannosaurus Rex merely looked at this animal, a Velociraptor, as though it were a meal, licking its scaly lips with anticipation.
The Velociraptor immediately retreated, running towards the safety of the jungle where the vines and thickly packed trees would surely slow down this behemoth. However it had little effect as the T-Rex effectively and efficiently cleared the path by using its body to push the trees aside so it could fit through. It snapped its jaws at the Velociraptor, but only ended up getting a mouth full of plants.
Wrinkling its nose in disgust, it opened up its maw quickly, allowing the leaves to spill out as it desperately drooled to get the awful taste out. As it hung out its tongue and shook its head, the green Velociraptor had managed to get away, heading towards a rock face that formed a mountain. When the giant dinosaur realized that its prey had gotten away, it looked up and spotted the raptor, apparently cornered. Almost grinning, the animal lumbered towards the helpless raptor.
The green raptor just hissed, backing up against the wall, as the larger predator stomped towards it. It let out another roar, one of triumph, and it gave into a sprint, and lunged at the Velociraptor. At the last second, the small carnivore jumped up, and landed on the big animal's head. It made a mad dash up the Tyrannosaurus's back and jumped off the end of its tail, and landed on the ground nearby. The T-Rex, looking infuriated, turned its body around to have another go. The green Velociraptor simply pointed a clawed finger towards the animal, and the T-Rex turned its head, and its eyes widened.
An ocean of orange ooze was erupting from the mountain. It was actually a volcano! The earth began to rumble as the eruption continued, and the ooze, burning hot to the touch, swept towards the T-Rex. It tried to run, but the ooze spread too fast. The raptor seemed to smirk as the strange lava now encircled the T-Rex, making even jumping an unlikely solution. The red-skinned T-Rex looked left to right, desperately trying to find an exit. But it could find none.
Then just as things could not get any worse, a massive eruption ejected several orange lava-covered boulders in the air, crashing in the area near the two theropods. The Velociraptor squealed as it narrowly dodged getting hit. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was not so lucky. Its massive bulk made it helpless to escape two boulders that slam into it. One smashes into its back, a second hits it in the head. The animal falls to the ground, and, in just a couple seconds, disappears into a short of pixels. A score is displayed.
10,000 POINTS
“What?!” came a groan. “That wasn't fair! You totally tricked me!” The voice came from a seventeen year old boy named Buzz. He wore an orange sleeveless shirt and dark green jeans. His head was bald except for a green mohawk that spiked along the middle of his head. He set his controller down, and leaned back in his chair. He turned to face his opponent, who sat in a desk on the other side of the room, a laptop set in the middle of it.
“I'm sorry, Buzz.” The voice came, sounding feminine and elderly. She pulled the laptop cover down, turning off her computer. She appeared to be in her fifty's or sixty's. Her hair was gray and she appeared to be a bit overweight. She wore a green shirt with a purple vest and a long, dark purple shirt. She smiled sincerely at the young boy as she stood up from her desk, supporting herself with a wooden cane. “But it was important to teach you this lesson.”
The punk teen groaned and folded his arms. “What lesson? The 'Do Not Dive After A Raptor' lesson?” He was not pleased to losing to a girl, especially since he played the game longer than his mentor, Moynihan, has. He only agreed to play with her because he thought he could win. After all, the old woman probably never played video games before and would probably have been easy to defeat. However, he had misjudged her, and paid for it.
Ms. Moynihan chuckled light-heartedly. “No. Don't you remember? This was supposed to teach you that you should be more aware of your surroundings. If you pay too much attention to your opponent, they could take advantage of that, and lead you straight into a trap.” She pointed at the screen next to Buzz, which was now flashing Game Over in red letters. “Just like what happened in there.”
“That was just luck.” Buzz muttered, turning his head away.
“Oh don't be so sore about it.” The old woman cooed as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “Remember it is only a game.”
“Yeah..I suppose you're right.” The young teenager's frown turned into a smile. He looked at his teacher, and said, “It was a pretty cool trick you pulled. I guess you are better at games than I thought you were.”
This was the first time Joanne Moynihan has trained any of her mutant students through the use of a video game. At first, she did not see any benefit of having such a game on her computer except for recreational reasons. But when she decided to play through the game herself, she saw a lot of potential in it for training, especially since the game contained the very dinosaurs they could transform into, and more. The training with Buzz was not a complete success, as he was not able to avoid the trap she set up for him. But it was not a total loss. He still learned something from it.
“So are you ready to join the others?” Joanne asked Buzz as she headed towards the spiral stairs. As she walked by, a small white dog with a few black spots lifted up his head. The dog wagged his tail as he quickly jumped up and dashed down the stairs. Moynihan did not fear him getting loose. The doors were all closed and the rest of the Dino Squad were down in the lap section of the lighthouse. Rump, the dog, would not be able to run off without one of the kids spotting him.
“Almost.” Came Buzz's reply. “I'm just going to continue..training..on this online game.” He picked up his controller again to start a new game on Multiplayer. Rodger had upgraded the game, so it now included far more dinosaurs and more levels to choose from. He selected his favorite avatar, the green Pteranodon.
Moynihan smiled gently. “All right then. You can play for twenty more minutes, then you have to get off.” She started to climb down the stairs. “After all, you are not the only one I intend to train using that game.”
“All right, Ms. M!” Buzz called out to her, although most of his focus was on this game. He flipped through the list of opponents that were online at this time. There was not a whole lot, which didn't surprise him. There was some sort of extreme sale going on in the mall nearby. He figured the locals would be attracted to it, so not many were near a computer to play this game.
Although Buzz did not mind. There was still a good number of people to challenge online, and he scrolled to try to find one that closely matched his skill level. When he came across one, he quickly put on his headset. He moved his mouse over the avatar, which looked like a raptor with a crest on its head. Buzz had never seen this kind of dinosaur before, but shrugged it off. A dinosaur was a dinosaur.
He clicked on the icon, allowing the avatar to enlargen. The dinosaur was a Guanlong Wucaii. It had a red crest with orange streaks. Its head was black in color with a red lower jaw, the color extending on the underside of its neck. A small feathery mane was centered on the nape of its neck, and a white streak went along the top and bottom of its eyes. Buzz clicked on Challenge, which would send an invitation to the user for a one on one battle.
“Hey! Raptor! Do you want fight me?” Buzz said into the speaker.
In a few seconds, the response came. “All right, sure. Ready whenever you are.”
Buzz narrowed his eyes. The voice that came was feminine. “Another girl?” He was not looking forward getting tranced by another girl raptor.
The user, obviously annoyed and had taken offense to Buzz's remark, said, “And what's wrong with girl players? You think we can't play or something?”
Buzz's eyes widened. “Whoa! That's not what I meant at all!” The punk kid quickly said in an apologetic manner. “It's just that I got my tail kicked by two other users playing as Velociraptors, and they were both girls. I'm just afraid I'm going to lose again.” Well that was only partially true. Buzz had been challenged by two Velociraptors, but he only lost against one of them. He won against the other, but he isn't sure if that could count, since it was really Victor Veloci.
Buzz frowned as the memories came back to him. When Rodger had first showed off the video game to the Dino Squad, Buzz had taken a huge risk and gave out more information than he should have. He should have realized he was being tricked by an online creep, but he was too busy having fun to realize that. And he was almost turned into Veloci's lab rat because of that. If Ms. Moynihan hadn't tricked Victor using the same technique as Victor did to trick him, Buzz probably would have never returned. He shuddered, not wanting to think about what it would be like to have Victor experiment on him.
“I'm sorry to hear that.” The user responded. “But don't think this means I will go easy on you.” She chuckled.
Buzz chuckled. “That's all right. I wouldn't have it any other way.” The green-haired kid said, smiling in a determined way. “Now let's get this show on the road!”
The screen turned a bright blue for a few seconds, and quickly faded as the level loaded up. It was the ice level. Buzz groaned again. He had not trained for this level. He skipped that lesson, and now fully regrets it. In cold weather, his Pteranodon would lose body heat rapidly. But then again, so would the Guanlong Wucaii, so they were still on even playing terms.
The avatars loaded up. On one end, a green Pteranodon emerged, sporting an orange chest. It spread its wings proudly and screeched at the opponent, a Guanlong Wucaii, standing on the other end of the icy level. In edition to having an ebony body and red underside, it also had white rings around its tail and limbs. It responded with a cry of its own, sounding very raptor-like but had more of a growl to it than a raptor did.
“A..Gu-Gua...” Buzz started to ask, but couldn't get the word out.
“Guanlong Wucaii.” The user responded, chuckling. “It was an ancient ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex.”
Buzz grinned. “Whoa... That's wicked!” The punk teenager was surprised to hear this.
“Yeah. So..are we going to sit here chatting all day or are we going to play?” She asked.
“Oh yeah. I only have about twenty minutes to play so...” Buzz held up his controller and began his attack. The Pteranodon dove down towards the raptor-like dinosaur, its beak opening to try to cut into the smaller animal. The Guanlong Wucaii responded by jumping out of the way in time. It quickly whipped around and jumped on the pterosaur's back.
“No way!” Buzz said, his eyes wide with shock. The Guanlong Wucaii didn't waste anytime and sank its teeth into the neck of the Pteranodon. Buzz quickly maneuvered the flying dinosaur in between two closely grown trees. The theropod bonked its head against a low growing branch and fell off the pterosaur's back. “All right!” He quickly turned his pterosaur avatar around and dove towards the raptor again.
The Guanlong quickly ducked down, making the enormous dinosaur miss it by several inches. “Nice moves.” The user playing as the Guanlong said. “But you will have to do better than that if you want to beat me.”
“Oh don't worry, I will.” Buzz said with confidence.
“By the way, I didn't catch your name. Er..your username I mean.” She said quickly, sounding rather embarrassed. “My username is PreGuan20. That's short for Prehistoric Guanlong..I'm not sure why I added in the 20. Guess I thought it sounded cool. Anyway what's your username?”
“My username...?” Buzz said slowly.
“Don't tell me you aren't allowed to reveal your username.” The voice came teasingly.
“Of course I can! It's Buzzinator.” Buzz said.
“All right, Buzzinator,” It was clear PreGuan20 found this username to be hilarious. “Either pick up the pace or you will end up like that poor creature over there.” She was referring to a skeleton of a large sauropod that Rodger had programed into the game.
“In your dreams, Guan-girl! Time to get serious!” Buzz declared as he concentrated even more on the game, determined to defeat this girl.
* * *
Ms. Moynihan reached the bottom of the steps and approached the remainder of her students. Three of them were seated at the nearby table, looking over their weapons, or Rodger's Toys as Caruso would say. The students sitting down were Caruso, Fiona, and Max. Caruso was of a tall light build, wearing a white shirt and dark blue tie. He wore jeans of a reddish hue. His hair, as blue as his tie, spiked upwards through the use of hair gel.
Next to him sat Max, the jock of the team. He was the only member taller than Caruso. He was more muscular, and had very dark hair. He wear a white shirt with a green jacket and dark blue jeans. And next to him was Fiona, the active female member of the team. She had long red hair and wore a pale beige long-sleeved shirt with a dark brown open top and yellow-orangish pants.
The final member, Rodger, was over at another table, working on fixing one of the Chillers. Fiona had talked about it not shooting properly and Rodger suspected a clog of some sort. He was easily the largest of the team, and the only african-american. He wore a white sports shirt, sleeveless, with baggy black pants. His hair was black and extremely short.
The kids heard Ms. Moynihan's footsteps and turned to face her. Almost immediately, Caruso got up from his chair. “So is it my turn now?” He asked. Moynihan was planning on training the kids alphabetically, with Buzz being first. Caruso was next on the list, then Fiona, then Max, and finally Rodger. “It's been ten minutes already.” The training sessions were to last only ten minutes each.
Ms. Moynihan frowned as she recalled that, and felt a little guilty. “I'm sorry, Caruso, but he wanted to play another round so I let him.”
“What?!” Caruso exclaimed, his mouth open. “But you said this was only going to last ten minutes!”
Moynihan shook her head. “I know...” The woman said apologetically. “I'm sorry.”
“So how much longer do I have to wait now?” Irwin Caruso asked, sitting back down in a pout.
Moynihan shook her head at this behavior. “Twenty minutes.” She said.
“Twenty?! Oh man...” Caruso groaned, leaning back in his chair. “Now I'll never make it to the mall in time for the big sale! And I was so looking forward to that new hair gel too...” He earned a rough nudge from one of his team mates. He winced, and glared at Max. “Hey, what was that for?”
“For once, can't you just go through a training session without thinking about yourself?” Max scolded. “It's not like the world is going to end if you don't get that hair gel of yours in the next minute!” He groaned when Caruso turned his back on him.
“For me it will..” Caruso muttered.
“Come on, Caruso.” Fiona joined in, showing her disapproval. “It's just hair gel. You can get it any day of the week. Perfect hair isn't as important as being ready to save the world. Why can't you ever understand that?”
Caruso whirled around to face her. “I do understand that! How can I not understand it when you guys keep shoving it down my throat every single day?!” He took in a few breaths before continuing. “Any time you guys want to do something for yourselves, everyone is fine with it! But whenever I want to do something for myself, you all scold me, saying how selfish I am!”
Max gripped the shorter teen by his shoulders and stared at him intently. “You know very well we only scold you if you put your own petty interests ahead of our mission, especially during a mission or training!”
Ms. Moynihan had seen enough. She walked towards the boys, swift for a woman her age, and pushed them apart. “That's enough you two.” She said sternly. “I expect my Dino Squad team to behave better than that.” She wasn't surprised in Caruso's behavior. He may have seemed vain, but he still cared about the team, and wasn't as selfish as he appeared. This was proven when he gave up being famous a couple times for the sake of the team. But she was a little disappointed in Max. She expected him to handle the situation better than that. “You two shouldn't waste your energy on each other.”
“Ms. M is right, yo.” Rodger said, finally looking up from the Chiller. “We should save that fighting energy when taking down Veloci and his goons, not wasting it on personal things, or on each other.”
“Besides, Caruso,” Joanne said gently, “twenty minutes isn't that long of a wait. It will even go by faster if you keep your mind occupied on something.”
Caruso slowly sank back into his chair. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Well, I could tell you about my final battle with Victor Veloci.” Moynihan suggested. It would be an entertaining story indeed, and could easily take twenty minutes, if not longer, to tell. She knew it would peak her students' interest, since she rarely talked about her early battles with the anthropomorphic Velociraptor. “I think you may find it quite entertaining.” She said, smiling.
“Oh?” Caruso looked up.
“All right then, Ms. Moynihan, let's hear it.” Max said. Rodger had set down his tools and came towards the table.
“You've peeked my interest, Ms.” Rodger said, smiling as he sat down in a chair across from Max.
“All right.” Moynihan sat down near the students. They all gave their full attention to her, waiting for her to start telling her story. “Here it goes.” She said as she began her tale.
FLASHBACK:
“Hold still!” Yelled a man holding what appeared to be a gun. But instead of bullets it shot out a blue laser. “I can't neutralize your dinosaur powers if you keep moving around like that!” The man had long black hair with red streaks. He wore a red corporate outfit, looking like an important figure. But looks were deceiving. He was Victor Veloci. He was no friend to mankind. He dreamed of the day humanity was wiped from the face of the earth.
He blasted again, narrowly missing a swift moving green raptor. The raptor leaped over him, and lunged from behind, knocking Victor on the ground. She quickly grabbed the gun from his hand and tossed it away. She changed back. It was Ms. Moynihan, though at this age, she was a bit taller, skinnier, and had dark hair. She picked up the gun and pointed it towards Victor, who glared at her.
“What's the matter, Vic?” Joanne said mockingly. “Can't you fight without your precious toys?”
“How dare you say that, Joanne...” Victor seethed. “You should know me like a book now. I don't need that weapon to fight you.”
“We'll see about that.” Moynihan placed her finger on the trigger. When Victor started making a run towards her, she pulled it, but only heard a click. “What?” She looked at the gun carefully. She noticed the safety lock was on. Her eyes widened. Victor must have turned the safety on before she knocked it from his hands! It was a distraction, meant to preoccupy her long enough so he could...
Moynihan looked up, hoping she could prepare to dodge him, but she did so too late. As soon as she looked up, she felt herself being slammed into the ground. She looked up, and growled. She was now pinned to the ground by her former partner, Victor. “You tricked me.”
Veloci laughed half-heartedly. “I had no choice, dear Joanne...” He leaned in a bit closer. “It was the only way to deal with a traitor like yourself...”
“I am no traitor, Victor.” Moynihan declared, trying to get him off of her.
Victor bared his teeth, now transformed into sharp canine-like protrusions. “Liar! You betrayed me to be with the..the.. HUMANS!” He said the last word with pure hate in his voice. “You betrayed someone of your own species for these inferior monkeys!”
“If you would just open your eyes, you would see the humans are not as bad as you...” Moynihan tried to explain. She was stopped short when Veloci slapped her across the face, causing her to yelp, and look up at him in shock. He had never done that to her before.
Victor showed no remorse for what he's done. “I'm sick and tired of you saying that everything will work out! Don't you get it, you fool?! Nothing will work out until the humans are gone!”
“Why shouldn't we share the planet with them?” Joanne said cautiously. “After all, they didn't become dominant overnight. It was no fluke, don't you know. Why can't you see they were meant to rule the planet? If they weren't, they would have died out a long time ago.”
“They were just lucky!” Victor spat out. “That's all there is to it. They got lucky! They should have died in the Ice Age! The world rightfully belongs to the dinosaurs.” His eyes started to glow. “And I'm furious that one of my own BLOOD does not see that.”
“The time of the dinosaurs is gone, Vic! Can't you see that? They are never coming back! Your mutant DNA will never be able to bring back the dinosaurs!” Joanne transformed her legs and kicked Victor in the stomach. The Velociraptor man fell to the ground. She slowly rose to her feet, and looked at Victor with determination. “And if you are going to continue to try to defy nature, I will continue to fight you. I will stop you!”
“Such foolishness coming from a once proud dinosaur.” Victor said. “It seems these filthy humans have gotten to you. Look what happened to you. You've become just like THEM! All right then, if you're going to act like a human, then you will be treated like a human...” An orange symbol on the form of a Velociraptor, positioned on the left side of his chest, glowed a bright orange. He grew taller, his teeth grew sharper, his mouth grew longer. His clothes disappeared, replaced with scales. Now in Velociraptor form he licked his chops. 'I always thought humans tasted like chicken...'
Joanne took a fighting stance. “Bring it!” An orange symbol on her left shoulder, another Velociraptor, glowed, and she too changed form. Her clothes melted into green scales, a purple crest appeared on her head, and her hands and feet sharped into claws.
Now two Velociraptors stood on either end of the rocky and messy battle field. A green Velociraptor with purple stripes and white underside and a red Velociraptor with black stripes and a pale beige underside. They began to circle each other, their glowing eyes never leaving the other's. They growled and snarled, flexing their muscles. But neither made a move. They instead studied each other, trying to calculate the other's strength.
'Just because I've institutionalized myself with the humans, don't think I've grown weak.' Moynihan stated, her lips curling back to reveal her gums and razor sharp teeth.
Victor opened up his jaws in a dinosaur-style laugh. 'You've grown too soft... You don't have your primal advantage anymore...'
'Oh we'll see about that...' Moynihan held out her arms in a manner a human would if they wanted to hug someone. But to a Velociraptor, it was an invitation to battle, and a threatening posture. Victor accepted the challenge and ran towards her. His maw opened up, saliva spilling out the sides of his reptilian lips as he snapped his jaws at his opponent. Moynihan made a dodge to the left, and struck Victor with her hand, and managed to knock him to the ground.
The red raptor shook his head as he got back to his feet, and slammed against the green raptor's side, knocked her down. He quickly stepped on her and bent down. He tried to bite her, but she pushed his snout away with a clawed hand. She kicked him in the stomach again with her feet. But when she tried to get up, Victor managed to grab onto her back. She screeched as she felt his sharp talons dig into her skin as she fell back down with him.
She desperately kicked away at him, but because he was now on her back, she couldn't reach him with her feet. Struggling onto two legs, she turned her head around and tried to snap at Victor's head. She didn't quite managed to reach him, but managed to land a hit on one of his hands. His eyes snapped open as he let out a screech of pain.
RAAAAAAAAAAA!!
He quickly let go of her and backed up a few steps. This gave Joanne the opportunity to head butt Victor in the chest, causing him to stumble backwards, but he did not fall down. Victor looked at his hand. It was a bit shredded, and blood was pouring out. He glared at Moynihan hatefully. He snarled as he gave her his next message, one that nearly sent chills down her spine.
'All right then, fool... I was considering in letting you live, but after this...' Victor held up his shredded paw. 'I will make sure you don't live to see your next birthday! I will make sure you don't leave this place.. alive! You will die at my feet!'
'Wait!' Joanne cried. 'It doesn't have to be this way!' She suddenly regretted attacking him like that. When Victor really gets angry, he only becomes stronger. And when he declares something, he means it, and won't stop until he's fulfilled that statement. She quickly sidestepped when Victor tried to tackle her.
'I'm sorry. But this is the way it has to be. This is what I must do..' Victor said calmly. 'It is what I must do...' He managed to tackle her this time, pushing her against the rocky earth. 'I'm not being cruel, Joanne. I'm just being reasonable.'
'If you're being reasonable, then you'd let me go!' Joanne said angrily.
Victor ignored her. He lowered his head towards her neck, intending on snapping it with his jaws. He opened up his mouth and set his jaws around her neck and began to apply pressure slowly. He could feel Moynihan struggling in his grasp, trying so hard to knock him off. He responded by sinking his teeth into her faster. He was getting close now. His grip was sturdy. All he needed to do was give one quick twist, and it was all over. But something..something just didn't feel right about it. Could he really go through with killing one of his own kind?
He felt like he had to. She did betray him. No, not only him, but all of dinokind. He would never be able to bring back the glorious dinosaur rule with this traitorous raptor around. She knew him too well. She could warn the humans about him. She knows too much. She had to be disposed off... But then again, she couldn't possibly reveal his secret identity without revealing her own. And what if he did something to her..something that if she were to explain would expose her secret? Victor knew how paranoid the human race was. He could get them to turn on Joanne, make her go back to him. He smiled. He liked that idea better.
Victor released his grip on her neck. 'I've got a better idea.. Why should I end your life when I can make you come over to me?' He lifted up his eyes, and started to find a more suitable target. He decided to go for a leg. A leg would do nicely.
'And how are you going to do that?' Joanne asked, her glowing eyes trying to see what he was about to do.
'I'll give you something to remember me by.' Victor sneered, then snapping his jaws on her left leg, at the ankle, at full force. Joanne roared as she felt the white hot pain in her leg. Victor worked his teeth deep into her leg, feeling and tasting the blood as it seeped from the female raptor's leg and into his mouth and along his lips. Once he had a good grip, he gave a sharp twist.
CRUNCH!
The sickening sound of bone snapping filled his head. A pain filled cry of agony escaped Joanne's mouth as Victor got off of her. Moynihan quickly changed back into her human form and pulled her leg towards her. Despite the transformation, her injury remained the same. Her left foot now faced an odd angle. She couldn't even touch it without crying out in pain. She looked up at Victor as tears of pain flowed down her face.
Victor changed back, and looked at her, his eyes narrowed unsympathetically. “Don't look at me like that. I had no choice..Maybe this will teach you a lesson...”
“You monster...” Moynihan managed to say through her pain. “You..you think this will stop me?”
Victor only chuckled in response. It was clear who won this battle today. Joanne hung her head in defeat, shivering from the intense pain she was in. Victor just stood victoriously, smiling down at her in satisfaction...
END FLASHBACK:
Ms. Moynihan finished her story. It was clear, from the look on her face, that this was a really hard story for her to tell. Even though it's been a few decades, the memory of it still haunts her, still pains her. She could still feel the pain of Veloci's jaws on her leg. This is why she carried out a cane. While it had healed, and she gained most use of it back, it still hurts sometimes when she walked, and now has to, sometimes, rely on the cane to help her.
The kids stared at her in awe, their mouths and eyes wide open. Moynihan was right. The story was entertaining. But it was also sad. In the end, the bad guy had won, despite Moynihan's determination. And she still had the scars of that battle.
Caruso opened up his mouth to say something, but only managed out one word. “...whoa...” Suddenly, hair gel and the computer game was no longer on his mind.
