The second in a series of tales about Fun Planet
[TFs: Dinosaur]

Break

"Yes! The hover train is nearly empty and there's no one in line. I can sit on the outside edge." The vehicle slows to a stop and a few hop off. The teen slides on and to the far edge. The gate closes behind him holding back the no one waiting to get on.

"aaaaAAAALLLLLLL aboard," calls the train conductor looking guy. He waves his arm and hops on the only available spot with a standing pole. A hum grows louder followed by an irregular clacking as the magnets on the fronts and backs of the platforms pull apart and then back together. Once the reattachment is complete, the train picks up a little speed. It's not enough to throw someone off or crash into anything hard but so everyone can see the passing scenery. Of course, the right side or inside is where the good views are so most eyes and bodies turn that way. One, however, is looking the other way.

As the train makes its counter clockwise trip around the park, it enters a tunnel behind Past World. The cave entrance seems to be made of stone but probably isn't. That's okay, the youth thinks, I wonder if it will stay that way.

"Now we are entering a strange portal," says the automated narrator through the speaker beneath him, "A portal that will fly us through history. Our first stop in the Dinosaur Age. After that, who knows where we'll end up, maybe even the Victorian Age. Now is you look to the right, you'll see --"

The teen is no longer listening. The rock wall, to the left, has changed. Instead of fake rock, in the shadows wood framing is almost invisible, illuminated by the light from the display on the other side of the train.

That's when he sees it, a recessed door with a Fun Planet logo on it. "It's a Hidden Planet," he whispers to himself while pointing.

The hum dies and the cars of the train drop to the ground. The boy rolls off and spots survey taking person coming from a different recessed door. "Ladies and Gentlemen," she begins, "we are experiencing a minor glitch in the computer that runs this attraction. Please come this direction and we will make sure you all get out safely and get a Priority Seating Pass to another attraction."

In the chaos of people getting up off the ground, standing, and moving in the direction indicated, he slips over to the two doors. The one the female came out has the usual, "Employees Only. All others will be fundered asunder." message. Whatever that means.

The other is just what he saw, a hidden planet. He checks the knob, and it opens right up to a hall. Behind him the door closes and locks. No going back that way. I hope I'm not in trouble. At the other end of the hall, a man steps out facing him. Oh crap.

Then the man smiles and offers his hand, "Welcome!"

Suspicious, the young man steps forward. "And Congratulations. Not many find this Hidden Planet. "Here at Fun Planet we want people to have fun. We also reward the curious. That's why we devised the game of Hidden Planets." The boy is almost to the man now. "I'm Dr. Fowler, and if you'll enter this door, we can discuss your prize. Dr. Fowler gestures to the open door on his right that he exited from.

"What's my reward," the youth asks with suspicion.

"Unsure of me and the program, completely understandable. I tell you what. Look through the door and if you like what you see you can enter. If not, you can go," he pauses to squint at the boy's name sticker, "Brad."

In the room Brad sees monitors that scan the train tracks. There he sees the hover vehicle flattened on the rails. Ah. That's how they knew that I found it. I pointed at the door. Beyond that, there is an elevator that takes up most of the room and a huge, no, massive tunnel high up. "What is all this?"

"This," he pauses while gesturing to the whole room, "is where we set up the dinosaur display."

"Where are the tools and spare parts?" Buck points to the other door in the room, "In the closet there?"

The man opens the door that leads to a hall. "No, this leads to the other workshops." Stepping out, he gestures to the other doors, "That one is Atlantis. The one after, Pompei. The one after that Victorian England. I'd imagine those that like steam punk will want to go to that one. Your reward is that if you wish, you can be a part of one of our Past World tunnel displays. Choose a door or leave, but please don't tell anyone about this Hidden Planet."

Still taking it all in, Brad tries to process it, "No parts? Be in one of the displays? How?"

"Well, in this room," he says gesturing back into the room they first entered, "I would give you a shot," he points to a cabinet in the wall. "And then you would start to change into a dinosaur and then you would ride the elevator to the tunnel and cross over to the dinosaur display."

Brad stands there watching the imaginary process, mouth agape. The man continues, "Then after a time, you come back and another shot reverts you back to yourself."

"Then. Then I can be a dinosaur?"

"Absolutely."

"Any dinosaur?"

"We'd prefer not to have duplicates, but yes."

Brad pulls up his shoulders with eyes wide, "That is sooooo cool!" Make me a dinosaur."

"Sure. Peaceful display or end of the world display?"

"End of the world? Where they are dying?" The man nods. "Peaceful, please."

"Which dinosaur," the man asks as he opens the medicine cabinet to reveal various syringes filled with colorful liquids and ones that are empty as well. He pulls an empty and heads back to Brad.

"Stegosaurus."

"Sorry. Derek took that one."

"Tyrannosaurus?" The man takes a little of Brad's blood as he asks.

"In the End of the World display."

"What's left?"

"Lots. But you look like a Triceratops to me."

"Sure. Yeah." The man grabs the syringe and heads back.

Plunging it into the other arm, the "doctor" says, "I'd hurry to the display as fast as you can. Your form and changes will slow you down in no time." And then somehow, the guy is on the other side of the room pushing a button.

The majority of the floor crawls upward. Brad feels things expanding but not in a bloated way. "You might want to use those stronger muscles to pull yourself up," the doctor guy calls up, "That way we can 'fix' the train faster." The way he says fix makes Brad realize that they stopped it on purpose for him.

Taking the man's advice, Brad grabs the edge that is just within reach and tugs. He almost flies into the air. He holds on and lands on his belly in the tunnel. But it doesn't hurt. Brad tries to stand up and finds his belly is larger locking him to four legged movement.

It doesn't bother Brad too much as excitement takes over, and he plunges ahead using his arms and legs. He doesn't notice most of the rest of the changes until he is almost to the other side where his gait slows to a lumber and then stops at the edge.

Something depresses under his front right leg. He hears a faint whirring on mechanical parts moving. Assured something is going to save him from this ledge, he takes stock of himself or at least the parts he can feel. You'd think there would be more light up here so we could see where we are going. But then the light might shine down on the tracks.

Hands and feet? Check, although they are round and I don't have any fingers or toes. Legs and arms? He notes that they aren't as flexible or mobile. More like tree trunks. Body? It feels kind of like a football shape but with organs inside. Tail! I have a tail. He wiggles the short, little thing in glee.

Brad's forehead itches and if he could scratch it, he would. Another giant elevator comes into view and stops. He steps on and it goes back down. His face starts the familiar feeling that the rest of his body has, being pumped up a pump at a time.

With nothing to do but wait, he wonders why the elevator is so expansive. He doesn't have long to wonder about that as the air gets pumped into him faster again. His face swells in ways he is not sure about. He feels something like thumbs pushing from the inside of his forehead. He figures those are his horns.

"I wish I could see myself." And as he says that, the elevator stops. Right in front of him is a mirror. What he sees is an inflated triceratops balloon. The pump in his back pumps again. It is too much for his overinflated body. POP!

He clenches his eyes shut expecting to be scattered all over the area, but when the feeling doesn't come, he peeks. What looks back at him is a true dinosaur with sharp horns and leathery skin. He is the spitting image of the thunder lizards in his history book.

Turning his head to the side, he spots a well lit area beyond an arch. Faint voices drift to his ears from that direction. Curious, Brad heads that way. Stepping through the arch is a bit of sensory overload. He feels transported to the age of the dinosaur. Well, almost. A stegosaurus and the long neck and head of a brontosaurus are surrounding a pond. The rest of the brontosaurus is painted on the wall where neck comes out.

"So, gonna see the newest flick tonight after work," asks the brontosaurus.

"Nah, my DnD group meets tonight. Have I told you about the campaign?"

"No. What happened this week?"

"Well, you know we were just outside the village that our rogue explored and we discovered it was full of elves, right?"

"Right."

"Well, we decided to see what was going on and our barbarian rolled a one and tripped breaking down one of the village huts. The villagers were --"

"Derek. We have a visitor," interrupts the brontosaurus noticing Brad.

"Really," asks the stegosaurus named Derek. "Welcome to the dinosaur display. I'm Derek as you may have heard."

The brontosaurus speaks up, "I'm Adam."

"My name is Larry," says the spinosaurus.

Derek, the stegosaurus, continues the introductions, "And in the volcano and world ending dinosaur ending scene, we have Jerry the Velociraptor beating up Steve the Tyrannosaurus Rex."

"He is not," comes from the other side of the wall, "I could totally take him down if I had some arms."

"Yeah, yeah. You keep telling yourself that, Big Boy. My ninja moves will put the hurt on you. You wouldn't even see me coming."

"You're nothing without your pack, Jerry. That's why you'll always end up in the volcano."

"But only because I'm the one of us who can climb back out."

"Can we get back to my DnD game?"

"Sure," answers the spinosaurus and the rest agree.

"Okay. So, he trips and knocks over an entire house. Luckily no one was inside. And the whole village comes to see what the noise was including the village chief and boy was he steamed--"

"Train coming," calls the stegosaurus.

Brad looks around for the signal. "Drink from the pond," whispers the brontosaurus as he lowers his head toward the water. He's kinda surprised that he wandered over to join them as they spoke.

Brad bends down and pretends to drink. After what seems like forever, the Tyrannosaurus calls out, "All clear."

Before the story of the adventure can continue, Brad speaks up, "Ummmm, how do we change back to normal?"

"Change back? We stay this way."

"WHAT?!" They all nod, letting him sweat.

"Just kidding. Once you get back to the other side, they pop you and you become yourself again."

"Pop?"

They all laugh. "Just kidding. Another shot switches us back. Didn't Tim tell you tell you?" The blank expression tells him all he needs. "I mean, Dr. Fowler?"

Brad's memory returns, "Oh, right! He did say something like that."

Time passes and the campaign somehow manages to get finished despite all the interruptions. An alarm sounds. "That's all folks."

"You guys mind if I go first," asks the brontosaurus, "I'd like to try to catch the early show."

"Brad? You mind," asks one of the others.

Still taking this environment in, he shakes his head. "Go ahead, 'Tiny'." The wall below the neck hole separates and slides to the sides making the painted foreshortened body split in two. Adam lumbers forth.

About the same time, a wall on the far side opens and a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Raptor walk through. Brad makes his way past them to look into the other scene. Fire and explosions look funny from this angle, but Brad is sure that from the train, it looks real enough. His eyes look down at the giant volcano top that encompasses most of the room and the crater inside it for the dinosaur to fall into.

"Hey Brad, you coming?" Somehow he had gotten lost in his awe of the displays. Turning around, he sees that they are all gone but the spinosaurus who's headed toward the lift.

He heads back across and reaches the elevator just as it returns for him. It lifts him and as he crosses the tunnel he looks down. There he sees light from the display spilling onto the tracks. They flicker and go out. He smiles and continues on.

"Ready," asks the scientist employee.

"Sure." Brad feels the needle insert through his skin, not that it hurt, and he finds his body shrinking and shriveling up until he finishes on hands and knees back to himself.

"I hope you enjoyed yourself."

"I did!"

"Then as your second reward for finding this place, I offer you this free day token. Present this at the gate and you will be admitted into the park. However, if you find your way here again, another will not be issued, because we'll take it as a 'I want to be here' message. And, please, don't tell anyone of this location. Let them find it on their own."

"Okay." Brad takes the token and leaves the park with a spring in his step. Maybe he'll go back tomorrow and hear about that movie from that brontosaurus.