Raptor Rescue

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A short while later, the spies were tightly bound back-to-back by rope and dumped against the wall in a corner of the room as work progressed fast on the completion of the tractor beam

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A short while later, the spies were tightly bound back-to-back by rope and dumped against the wall in a corner of the room as work progressed fast on the completion of the tractor beam. As the trussed-up girls watched on helplessly, a number of technicians wheeled in a trolley upon which was what looked like a large satellite dish, connected by a series of cables and wires to a miniaturized targeting computer, which the brainwashed Grant proceeded to examine and program.

"Okay, we've faced a lot of crazy baddies over the years, but never one bent on suicide!" remarked Alex as Grant finished his work on the computer and the technicians began lifting the apparatus via a crane in order to place the device on top of DAN. As soon as the dish was in place, various scientists began connecting the device directly to the large spherical computer as though it were a crown being placed on a king's head.

"ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONING PERFECTLY," reported DAN once the last connection was made. "TRACTOR BEAM IS NOW FULLY OPERATIONAL. ACTIVATION IN 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0."

A beam of glowing blood-orange light shot out from the satellite dish and travelled up through a now-open hatchway in the ceiling, along a long passageway and out of the top of the mountain, zooming right into the evening sky. The beam soared through the atmosphere and into space, cruising past the various planets of the solar system before finding its target: A large asteroid right on the edge of the system, which the beam engulfed and began dragging right towards Earth.

"TARGET ACQUIRED," reported DAN. "THE ASTEROID IS IN THE GRIP OF OUR TRACTOR BEAM AND IS BEING REDIRECTED TOWARDS THE EARTH. COLLISION WILL OCCUR IN 15 MINUTES."

The girls listened to all this in dismay. "Oh, this is bad," bemoaned Clover. "We've got to do something!"

Sam scanned the room, searching for anything that could give them an advantage. She noticed a computer bank next to DAN with an aerial placed on top. A pulsing red light on the top of the aerial kept blinking on-and-off and Sam suddenly realised that it was blinking in sequence with the inbuilt lights of the earpieces controlling DAN's unwilling workers.

"Say, I wonder if that's the device that DAN's using to handle the mind-control earpieces," she whispered. "If we could take that out, we might be able to break his hypnotic control over everyone here."

"Sounds worth a shot," said Alex. "But we've got to get free ourselves first. Can't you use the Buzzsaw Wristwatch again, Clover?"

"No chance," said Clover as she struggled against their bonds. "These ropes are so tight that I can't reach it. Any other ideas?"

As if on cue, the ventilator grill next to them suddenly peeled back and the girls were surprised to see a reptilian head poke out, wagging its tongue enthusiastically.

As if on cue, the ventilator grill next to them suddenly peeled back and the girls were surprised to see a reptilian head poke out, wagging its tongue enthusiastically

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"Hey, it's Toothy!" realised Clover as the dog-brained Raptor crawled out of the vent and began chewing through the ropes binding the girls together. Within a matter of seconds, they were free.

"Nice going, Toothy," said Alex as she patted the cheery dinosaur on the head. "That was really smart, finding an air-vent to get in here. Who's a clever doggy?"

"A girl patting a dinosaur. That's something you don't see everyday," commented Clover, finding the whole thing weird.

"Enough with the petting, guys," said Sam. "Right now, we've got a suicidal computer to stop!"

Luckily, the brainwashed workers had not realised that their prisoners were now on the loose, so the girls and Toothy quietly crept along towards what they hoped was the mind-control machine. It took a tense couple of minutes to avoid being seen, using the different computer-banks as cover, but they finally managed to reach the machine.

"Okay, so what now?" asked Alex.

"Easy. We pull the plug out," said Sam. She grabbed hold of the main power cable in order to wrench it out, only to jerk it back as a charge of electricity zapped her hand.

"Ow! It's booby-trapped!" she said as she rubbed her stinging fingers.

Alarm bells suddenly started blaring and the girls looked up to see the security guards charging towards them. As they got nearer, Toothy leapt forward and growled menacingly at them, forcing the brainwashed henchmen to keep their distance.

"Okay, we're so running out of options. What do we do now?" asked Clover frantically as the guards carefully began to circle past Toothy, trying to avoid getting ripped apart by the Raptor's sharp talons.

"We'll just have to go for a less subtle approach," said Sam as she and Alex grabbed a couple of nearby desk stools and began whacking the machine with it. Smoke began to billow out as the girls kept on with their relentless assault and as the guards finally managed to get past Toothy, the whole computer burst into flames, the light on the top of its aerial abruptly went off. All at once, the earpieces all switched off and everyone in the room, except for the girls, blinked and yawned as if coming out of a trance.

"Not exactly shrewd, but what the heck?" grinned Alex.

"What's happening?" asked Simon Hammond, scratching his head in bewilderment. "Has DAN been shut down yet? Who are all these people?"

DAN began spinning back and forth on its base in alarm as it realised that its entire workforce was no longer under its control. "ALERT! ALERT! SECURITY IS COMPROMISED! REINFORCEMENTS REQUIRED!"

As the crazed computer became more and more frenzied, the girls quickly explained to everyone what was going on.

"So we have like seven minutes before that meteor smashes in the Earth. Anyone here have any ideas on how we stop it?" asked Clover.

"Well if we reverse the beam settings, the asteroid should zoom away from Earth instead of colliding with it," said Dr. Dearing as she dashed over to a computer terminal and began tapping into the keyboard, trying to access the Tractor Beam settings. However, all she managed to get on the screen was a message reading 'ACCESS DENIED' in big red letters.

"YOU FORGET THAT I AM WIRED INTO THE TRACTOR BEAM," intoned DAN defiantly. "SO LONG AS I REMAIN OPERATIONAL, YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OF THE BEAM."

"DAN, please stop this!" implored Hammond. "You were built to entertain tourists, not to destroy the world!"

"MY PURPOSE IS TO RECREATE HISTORY," corrected DAN, "AND THAT INCLUDES RECREATING THE EXTINCTION OF THE DINOSAURS. IT IS WHAT I WAS PROGRAMMED TO DO."

"No, it's not!" yelled Hammond. "I didn't have you constructed for that! You were simply meant to guide the dinosaurs here. This is a theme park for heaven's sake!"

"Forget it, pal," said Sam soothingly. "Your wacko computer has totally gone off the deep end. Is there any chance we can just switch this thing off?"

"NEGATIVE," stated DAN. "YOU WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO SHUT ME DOWN. YOU MAY HAVE LIBERATED MY WORKFORCE, BUT NOT THE CREATURES THAT I WAS BUILT TO CONTROL."

No sooner did DAN finish speaking, a large metal door set in one side of the room began to slide open and a T-Rex burst through the opening and into the chamber!

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