The Silver Elite

"Am I doing it right?" Xarxazeroth asked, peeking up from her hard work.

"Perfect, thanks," Gryph replied, staring down at her in admiration. His claws had never looked so well-polished before. He could see his face in them. "This will do just fine. Now, the other ones!" Gryph readjusted.

Malvagio popped in.

"Anything else, Gryph?" Malvagio asked. "I finished the bathroom."

"Hmmm, let me think," Gryph pondered for a bit.

"Hey, Gryph?" Malvagio interrupted.

"Yes?"

"...Gryph?"

"What is it, Mal?"

"Gryph!" Malvagio shoved Gryph, trying to wake him up.

**PERIMETER BREACH**

Gryph's eyes popped open and his ears stood at attention. "...What?? What's going on??" He crawled out of bed and stared at Mal.

**PERIMETER BREACH**

An alarm continued to sound, apparently not loud enough for some of us.

"Gryph! We've got to go NOW!" Mal instructed, wing-shoving Gryph the rest of the way out of bed.

"Mal, what's going on!?" Gryph's heart raced, trying to wake up much faster than he'd prefer.

"Dinosaurs, Gryph!"

"What?"

**PERIMETER BREACH**

"We need to go, dude!"

Mal and Gryph ran out of Gryph's room and down the hall to see Sikal. He was in the lab, as usual, and turned as the other gryphons ran in.

"Alright, don't panic, but there's dinosaurs," Sikal said, turning to the hologram in the center of the lab. It was a hologram of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The lab's virtual A.I., Jim, appeared in place of the T-Rex and began speaking to the gryphons.

"Friends, don't panic, but there's a T-Rex outside," Jim mentioned.

"Outside, where?" Gryph asked.

**PERIMETER BREACH**

"Somebody shut that thing up!" Malvagio exclaimed.

**Click**

"Target last spotted 69 seconds ago, 19855 meters northwest traveling southeast at 2 meters per second. I suspect it will reach our location within the next 3 or 4 hours," Jim explained.

"Is it coming HERE, or just in our general direction?" Sikal asked.

"Unclear. I do know it was air-dropped in the plateau less than 20 minutes ago," Jim answered.

"Air-dropped??" Malvagio asked, assuming he misheard.

"Correct. Satellite evidence is very clear," Jim assured.

"So what do we do?" Gryph asked, extremely unsure of the team's protocol regarding dinosaurs.

"We have several options," Jim started, "We can kill it or move it. Either way, we have to hide it. When we signed the treaty for citizenship here, part of the agreement was not to commit conspiracy against the United States or its allies. If the President finds out we're harboring dinosaurs, ASSUMING he doesn't already know by now, it will be very difficult to explain."

"But I thought the United States got rid of all the dinosaurs? Sent them to China, right?" Gryph asked, tipping his head.

"Well, Gryph, China sent them back," Sikal sighed and shook his head. "I don't have time for this. What is the animal's survivability rate if we teleported it to the shadow realm?"

"The animal won't go willingly," Jim commented.

"OBVIOUSLY, JIM," Sikal rubbed his forehead, annoyed.

"I calculate a 98% survival rate if we pulled it in by force, but only if Malvagio and Gryph do it together," Jim assured.

"98% sounds fantastic," Malvagio commented.

"I would have been fine with 1%," Sikal admitted. "Get rid of this thing now. I don't care how you do it."

"How long is it staying in the shadow realm?" Gryph asked, feeling bad for the T-Rex.

"That's a problem for another day, Gryph. Get rid of it now," Sikal instructed. "And I shouldn't have to say this, but watch out for the teeth!"

"Yes, sir!" Gryph saluted and ran out of the lab with Malvagio. Moments later, they were flying northwest at a brisk 36 meters per second. Eight minutes later, they spotted the dinosaur. It was enormous.

"Wow, I've never seen one before," Gryph admitted.

"Stay on top of it, Gryph," Sikal chimed in, from inside Gryph's ear.

"I'll take the left," Malvagio called dibs and began flanking the target. Gryph moved in from the right.

The T-Rex spotted the gryphons right away and turned to face them. Gryph was flying directly at its face now. Not good.

"Gryph!"

"Gryph!"

"Gryph!!" Malvagio shoved Gryph, trying to wake him up.

"Huh?" Gryph woke up face to face with Malvagio.

"What do you want for breakfast?"