#spectersaur

Meet the Spectersaur! This monster of few words appeared where Sheriff Rex’s partner, Deputy Nole, vanished. This immaterial phantasm’s wispy touch fouls machinery and nervous systems alike. This ghostly revenant is as speechless and inscrutable to the Fossil Ghouls as to the DynoGuard, but so long as Yorik can control the Spectersaur, Extinxion tolerates his presence.

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The shadow-form’s hand raked through Sheriff Horne’s arm. The pulsing blue energy shield extended in front of her left hand would have stopped a charging Tricerotops, but the the creature moved through it as though it were air.

Horne cried out as the creature’s limb passed through her own. Where the creature touched the metal of her aegis arcs of purple electricity surged outward, Despite the pain, she managed to leap back, sliding as close to the wall as she could. 

The creature paused for a moment, as though it were inspecting her. 

“Force shield won’t work, that means the sword won’t either.” Horne said to herself, keeping her eyes on the creature. “Hello... can you hear me?” 

The creature moved closer. 

“Okay... that could be a response.” She looked at it. When it stood still its form seemed to solidify. Old stories bubbled in the back of her mind. Tales her father had told her about flapper-ghasts and Brineteeth and things beyond death. “I am Cora. Um. How to put this... your body lays cold, it breathed you out and you got lost.”

She paused. The specter hadn’t moved, save to track her own movements as she inched along the wall. “I don’t know who you were. I can’t remind you.” 

The creature kept staring.

“You could be anyone. Everyone... something bad happened and-” She stopped. “Nole... Oh Zaur... Nole, if that’s you, I’m sorry, Recognize your name and move on.”

The specter’s sparking purple eyes narrowed to thin slits. It roared, the sound seeming to come from everywhere at once, and flew forward in another attack. Sheriff Horne dove out of the way, barely escaping the creature’s lunge. It struck the wall behind her, splashing against it like a drop of ink hitting the pavement.  

“Not Nole, then.” Sheriff Horne said. 

The drop stopped, in mid-splash and reformed into the shadowy wraith. Once again, arcs of electrical energy surged through the creature’s form, only this time the electric light was a natural blue rather than purple. The creature howled in rage and pain, flopping forward toward the floor, only to slide partway into it before rising, shaking its vague head in confusion.

After a moment the creature turned its gaze back on Horne. She had backed her way halfway to to the stair well, but she froze when she saw the creature’s expression. Where before it had seemed merely angry, now it was enraged.  One of the flares lay near its feet, casting it in a hellish red glow. It braced itself for another charge, and Sheriff Horne fell into a defensive stance, not knowing what else to do. It flew forward, that inhuman shriek rising from behind glowing purple fangs. She knew before she hurtled herself to the ground she didn’t have time to get out of the way.

The there was light.

The garage came back to full view as every light along the ceilings snapped to full brightness. The creature lurched in mid-flight, careening into the opposite wall, once again becoming engulfed in electricity. 

Cora rose to her feet, watching the shadowy mass scream from one wall to the next, each contact exploding with energy, sending it blindly careening into another barrier as it tried to escape painful shocks and the light. She began to feel sorry for the creature just a few moments before it wriggled, screaming and howling like a wounded beast, through the gap in the outer stone wall and into the night beyond.

“Doesn’t like the light.” Horne stood and walked to the walls, the places where the creature had been shocked were coated with a thin grit of the chronal crystal Zara had talked about. “Or the time crystals. Interesting. System, connect to Science Tower One priority communications.”

There was a chirp. “No signal found.” the armor whispered into her mind. 

Cora had made the call out of habit. It dawned on her that the satellites and transmission towers were gone. Despite being in Science Tower One she could not reach the others even with power restored. 

“At least I can ride the lift up.” She said, walking to the elevator bay near the stairwell. After pressing the button she waited, flexing and un-flexing her arm where the creature had touched her. The muscles still ached enough that it took her two minutes of waiting to notice the sign slapped haphazardly across the lift doors. 

Dr. Cerebrotops & Spectersaur

A color concept revision of Dr. Cerebrotops as a Diablocerotops instead of a common Trike. His uppermost horns act as a Jacob’s Ladder.