"I thank ya for coming along with this," William Tarr commented to the man beside him as they walked along through Dino City's Horizon office.
Just as with the other buildings in the new colony city, its size and scale was enough to make both men feel rather small, but then the larger Dinotopians were big enough to make things built for larger Animalians based on modern animals look small and thus the increase in scale to suit that, particularly for those who were there to become Dinotopians. Some of the pictures and artwork that hung in the halls as decoration also reflected some of the things that Dino City was also building toward. There were images of what mundane dinosaurs were expected to look like and there were a few photographs of Dinotopians as well. One that actually made William Tarr smile was a photograph of Dino City's opening.
He was never the greatest fan of Animalia before Dino City. From the media he followed, he saw the city of anthropomorphic Animals as one that spent too much of its time looking for ways to have sex and too little time doing real work. He also didn't like that Animalians generally tended to be critical of the present US government over its policies and had been fearful that when Animalia and Glen Rose began talking about establishing what would become Dino City, he feared that he'd lose his home to make room for the newest group of Animalians. The fact that Horizon, which seemed to be footing much of the bill for the new colony city, was willing to help negotiate out a deal that would let him and others keep their homes, leading to "Little Mammalia" was something of a surprise. Then came some of the first meetings with the Dinotopians as they moved in and finding that while some of his private concerns had some validity, they weren't anywhere near as big as the media he watched made them out to be.
In fact he found Dr. Rex Ramos quite intelligent and dedicated to paleontological study in a way that William Tarr could never expect. It made for some interesting discussions on how Dinotopians would help shape some of the scientific field in demonstrating how mundane dinosaurs would actually look rather than just guessing based on the bones. Some of the terms went over William Tarr's head but it actually helped build some support to the point where by Halloween and Thanksgiving, William had practically pulled a complete 180 with regard to his specific positions on Animalia and the Dinotopians in particular. And some things like the IAC even brought in enough tourists to show working success, for at least the summer. But there were still things to do.
"Well... I never had anything against dinosaurs," the man walking beside him commented, "Though I was always partial to Allosaurus. Can't go wrong with someone named Al, if you ask me."
William gave a contained chuckle as he looked to the man, an Albert Slash. He stood half an inch taller than William with graying hair and dark eyes. He'd known the man for years, and he'd served within the local county sheriff's office as well. Before that, so far as William knew, Albert Slash had served as an MP sergeant during the Vietnam War before returning to serve in law enforcement. As Dino City got started, William had offered inquiries into whether or not Albert would have any interest in serving as Dino City's police commissioner. Glen Rose had been happy to loan some officers from their own force for basic patrols and so on, and this was helped along by the fact that despite Heather Green's reputation, the worst thing they'd really had to deal with was some noise complaints over someone's romantic adventures being a little loud or an occasional drunken tourist. That wasn't too bad, but Dino City would need to have its own officers to pick up the slack as well, and thus the offer to Albert Slash.
"Dr. Ramos tells me that Giganotosaurus was bigger... bigger than Tyrannosaurus, in fact," William commented, "and could be very loosely described as a more "derived" form of Allosaur."
"What does derived mean?" Albert asked.
"Don't know," William answered.
"Loosely, it would mean a more advanced form," came a new voice to show Jeremy coming out of one of the lab doors that was in front of them to the right, "more advanced from earlier forms of the same type of animal. Tyrannosaurus would be more advanced than from earlier forms of its particular group, like say Albertasaurus or Daspletosaurus. Giganotosaurus would be more advanced than Allosaurus."
"Then why don't they say advanced?" Albert asked as he looked up to Jeremy.
"Probably give non-scientists trouble," Jeremy gave a smirk.
"I knew they was punking us!" Albert answered, "Well... that don't matter. Giganotosaurus doesn't sound too bad."
"And you'd likely gain more respect among those Dinotopians that are already here and instant respect in dealing with any outside crooks... including one guy presently in the hospital dealing with an ecstasy overdose," William answered.
"A Dinotopian took ecstasy?" Albert asked.
"Technically he's still human," Jeremy answered, "and the paperwork that the hospital got would indicate that he's not from the state... but stumbled in looking to recover and detox, as it were. And the hospital has even reported that conversion might be the way he was looking for it. Mr. Tarr thinks you could help convince him to go along with any community service option related to having been involved with the drugs, which would allow the conversion to go easier."
"Like I threaten to eat him or something?" Albert asked William with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing quite THAT far," William answered, "Just something that will get him to pay attention. He doesn't have to convert if he doesn't want to... but getting some discipline to detox would at least be a start. It wouldn't be too different from what you've done as Dino City's top cop so far."
"And that is something different from what I've done in the past," Albert admitted, "but okay... I'll talk with this guy... you will have clothing for me, right?"
"We do have things in stock," Jeremy answered, "Your police uniforms and such are on special order."
William watched as Albert nodded and followed along. He breathed one sigh of relief that Albert had seemed to be joking when he said "threaten to eat him" line. That had been one of the things that when the report of Heather Green's rampage in Lyre had reached him had really turned him off. Given what Animalia had tried to sell with regard to how converted humans adapted to some of the base animal instincts that carried over, the claim that Heather Green had simply been overwhelmed by predatory instincts didn't fully cut it for William and that she had to have been quite conscious of her actions and decision making at the time. But since she did adapt and reform, William kept some hope that the positive result always remained possible.
They walked along until they came to one of the transformation rooms. William waited outside as an assistant arrived with a large looking syringe, though the odd thing was that the needle looked to be about the same size as normal needles. It was like the rest of the syringe was enlarged, though that probably made sense given Jeremy's hands.
"He will need new clothing... probably something in Mr. M's size," Jeremy instructed, given that Giganotosaurus was known to be bigger than Tyrannosaurus Rex, jus as the larger Carcharodontosaurus skeletons were. And since both theropods were considered closely related it was not expected that there would be that much that was needed, and thus why Rex hadn't come.
"Of course, sir," the assistant nodded and was soon off.
William stood by quietly while Jeremy lead Albert in. It wasn't too much longer before Jeremy came back out, shut the door behind him and stood along side William. The male Syntixisaurus Rex told William that it would take a little while and the pair slowly waited.
"So... you don't really think he'd eat someone... would he?" William asked to Jeremy, remembering what Albert had last said.
"Given that he's had more preparation... no," Jeremy answered, "from what I've read... while there is the potential for "instincts" to be a "problem" that's more the case with converted Animalians who aren't prepared for them, and thus they're overwhelmed. This is often cases where they don't expect those instincts or anything like that... or as was Heather's case, dealing with animals that were long extinct and thus there was nothing to go on with exactly what their instincts were. Uplifted Animalians often have similar "confusion" over suddenly gaining knowledge and abilities they didn't have before."
"If you say so..." William said slowly and then paused to wait.
They didn't have to wait too long, and the assistant returned while they were waiting to hand some clothes to Jeremy who held them while they waited. William remained quiet while waiting. The only sound that alerted him was a knock at the door, but that only lasted long enough for Jeremy to turn and hand the clothes that had been brought out through the door and give some instruction on telling the fly from the specialized "hole" to allow the tail through. William ignored that and then waited until the door opened a few moments after that and Albert came out, and the difference was clear.
Albert now stood taller than Rex, and possibly even taller than Mr. M, but not as heavily muscled as the later. Of course, that made some degree of sense given that Mr. M had a past as a body builder. Albert was never in bad shape, but William knew of no soldier or cop that was ever doubling as a bodybuilder. Like Mr. M, Albert's scaly muzzle was narrower and likely only had limited binocular vision and had a sort of gradual rise from his nostrils up toward a pair of horny ridges before his eyes. There were a series of ridges that ran along the top edges of Albert's muzzle up to the small horns... which were much smaller than Jeremy's.
"I feel quite strong like this," Albert commented, tapping his toes for the moment while lifting up one and flexing the three fingers and his thumb, "though... the finger loss is... odd..."
"That's something we can't fully explain," Jeremy commented, "Particularly with theropods... the Dinotopian will keep their thumb, but with the other digits, they will match the total digits the actual animal had. Thus... Rex Ramos only has two fingers and a thumb and you and Mr. M have three fingers and a thumb."
"You have five digits," Albert commented pointing to Jeremy.
"Well... Syntixisaurus is a hybrid with Carnotaurus being one of the component parts of its genome," Jeremy answered, "and Carnotaurus had four fingers, thus four fingers and a thumb."
Albert shrugged at that and then nodded his head, letting William get a look at his coloration. The ridge along the top of his muzzle was a reddish brown color with some scales on the sides of his muzzle that had the same coloration and almost looked like freckles. Most of the rest of his coloration was a tannish gray, with the exception of his neck and the lower side of his tail that was a creamish-gray color. William also noticed a few large reddish brown spots that ran along Albert's tail.
"And you both think this will help that punk rocker detox?" Albert asked.
"As said earlier, statements from the hospital would indicate he was already willing to convert," Jeremy commented, "and we have gotten the Amargasaurus fossils to build the specific strain..."
"But he will need to do some community service, at the least to essentially pay his debt for being involved with the drugs in the first place," William spoke, "and he's seen Dr. Green, here, and Dr. Ramos as week scientists. He sees me as "the man" unwilling to convert... and thus won't actually accept some of that at my request. And while Amargasaurus is apparently a Sauropod... he might be willing to accept the responsibility for community service from you... the only Vietnam vet that I know who got along with hippies."
Albert looked back at William with a small but still friendly smile, "Well... I suppose I could try... Though it will need to wait until I can resupply my closet and get my uniforms that fit my new size..."
"Of course," William answered.