The Defenders

Chapter 7: The Plan

DIPPY'S POV

After flying for several hours through the skies of Ora, the Elite base came into view. It was a heavily guarded, white-colored fortress, with walls as tall as a skyscraper. Elites were positioned along the wall, watching for any threats that even dared go near the hidden base. Thunder was smart when he built this fortress: he built it on top of a large mountain in Kante, a region known for its cold temperatures that dropped below zero and its unstable terrain. Well, to the Watcher's eyes that is. And, if the structure wasn't hidden enough, the mountain was so tall that it concealed the fortress in a flurry of clouds.

Because the Elite guards on the tower could recognize Mac, they were let into the fortress pretty easily. There was a landing port that was specified for flying beings. Mac dropped Dippy at the port and both of them entered the fortress.

After wandering through several hallways and two flights of giant stairs, they entered the main room of the Elite base. This was where the Elites hosted several meetings, trying to find out the Watcher's plans and making ways to stop them.

It seems as if the Elites were in one of those meetings when Dippy and Mac entered the room, as the Elites were surrounding the large, circular table that sat in the middle of the room. As Tank was talking to the assembled Elites, he looked right at Dippy, just as a small glance. Upon locking eyes with the sauropod, Tank's eyes lit up.

"Dippy..." he muttered. Hearing their master's joyful whisper, they turned to look at Dippy as well. And their expression was very similar to that of Tank's.

"Dippy!" Tank hollered, running towards Dippy to greet him properly, "You're alive!"

"Indeed!" Dippy cried. As Tank ran at Dippy, Dippy stood up on his hind legs, ready to embrace Tank. But Tank ran right into him, knocking the long-necked dinosaur onto his back. If you couldn't already tell, Dippy and Tank were good friends.

As they rolled around the ground playfully, Tank snorted, "When I heard the camp was destroyed, I thought you were a goner, my friend. Especially after what happened to Thunder that night, may he rest in peace..."

"Nah, bro!" Dippy bellowed playfully, batting Tank in the nose with his manus, "They didn't do much to me except starve me, give me no water, and this nasty scar on my neck!"

"That still sounds awful!" Tank growled. He got off of Dippy and went back to the table, turning his head to add, "We got food and drink at the table if you want to help yourself."

"Thanks," Dippy said. At this point, Mac had joined the others at the table, not wanting to be caught up in the tackle game that Dippy and Tank were doing earlier. Dippy joined the table and started eating the food and drink that was brought to him.

"So," Dippy asked, "What are you guys talking about?"

Tank looked at Dippy with a very worried expression. Uh-oh. That was never good.

"The Watchers have triumphed over us again, it seems," Tank explained, "Well... sort of. They have the Chosen One in their hands. But that means that the Allosaurus over there successfully deciphered the Code by bringing it to Rascar."

"Allosaurus?" Dippy asked. He looked over and found an orange Allosaurus with black markings sitting on the opposite side of the table. Laying at his feet was a behemoth, who was sleeping peacefully.

"How does he know about the Code?" Dippy asked.

"He was with Char and the Chosen One," Tank continued.

"But was there with anyone else with them?" Dippy asked again, his voice getting very frantic, "Like... say, a Velociraptor."

The Elites looked at each other like he was crazy. Poison, who was a purple Velociraptor with green markings around his eye, looked at Dippy and hissed, "Well, we did find that Velociraptor in the lobster pit..."