A Triassic Tussle (that failed to take place)
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™.
The morning dawned bright, the rising sun illuminating the sea shore studded with copses of trees while the surface of the bay actually reflected the sun's rays like some sort of an ancient, opaque mirror...
The morning dawned quiet, for most of the insects avoided such coastal areas as this one, and the birds hadn't evolved yet, for it was middle Triassic, over 200 million years ago in the past...
Suddenly, though, there was a loud, crackling sound, and several of the first ever dinosaurs appeared in one of the coastal copses. Though they were still quite small compared to their successors, these reptiles were already around 8 meters in length, and were built like giraffes. They were prosauropods, more ancient cousins of the Jurassic and Cretaceous giants – diplodocus, brachiosaurus, argentinosaurus...
However, the prosauropods differed from their later cousins in other ways as well. While the sauropods were exclusively herbivorous, these dinosaurs not only busily browsed on the branches of the local vegetation, they also consumed any small animals, mostly large invertebrates, which they came across in their paths and grasped in their jaws.
As the prosauropods ate, they were unaware that a pair of eyes was observing them instead. Admittedly, their observer was quite a bit smaller and shorter than they, but its jaws were studded with teeth, and its neck was powerful and sinuous. The observer was a nothosaur, an aquatic Triassic reptile that lived in a local cave and was currently eying the herd of dinosaurs with a clear gastronomic interest.
However, something else was bothering the nothosaur (besides the obvious size discrepancy, of course) – its instinct. It instinctively sensed that later today there was going to be a storm, and equally instinctively it preferred to wait it out in a cave, rather than in the open.
The browsing dinosaurs, have, lacked such instincts. Inhabitants of mainland, their primitive brains weren't hardwired to instinctively recognize signs of an upcoming storm, not to mention that they were already overloaded due to their annual migration, and so-
The manifestation of a time anomaly was neither expected nor particularly welcome, but at first the large reptiles simply ignored it. Considering, though, that the copse wasn't particularly large while they were rather hungry, it was only a matter of time until they noticed it and went through...
"All right people! We have come today to summarize our report for the regular three-month report," James Lester was holding a small in-company meeting of his staff, primarily that of his field agents though several special forces members were present as well. "Miss Maitland, I've decided to go alphabetically, via your first names, therefore, you start."
"The previous incident had nothing to do with me or Connor – and we were busy hunting down the small bear-dogs who almost got caught by the local dogcatcher, if he hadn't recognized Danny from their past encounters, and-"
"Aha!" James crowed triumphantly. "So, let me get sidetracked for the moment. When the time anomaly into whatever time period had opened, Danny Quinn was unable to stop giant prehistoric hyenas from running amok through Piccadilly street, and huge giraffe-rhinos from scratching against the local buildings and almost bringing them down with their weight because he was assisting Daphne and Shaggy in capturing a pair of critters barely bigger than big beagles-"
"You forgot about when he was assisting me and my people at holding at bay the giant prehistoric killer pigs," Becker spoke-up flatly.
"Which brings me to my second question – just how good exactly is that thingamabob of Shaggy's, if it is unable to secure the time anomaly in the middle of London? I believe I remember him proclaiming that it is able to secure and close a time anomaly anywhere-"
"Yes, based on our current financial and energetic resources I can close it without any trouble. To suspend it in the middle of a busy city street without any constant external energy sources – that's another story. In other words, what has happened, the whole break-out from the Oligocene, it was not our fault."
"Of course it wasn't – if it was, I'd probably start to investigate you as potential terrorists or saboteurs!" James exclaimed angrily. "But since, however, you're all merely daft, I'll say it again – why weren't you able to contain it in the first place? That is your primary reason for being employed here, no?"
Before anyone could reply, the sound of the time anomaly alarm went off.
"Go and contain whatever critters will come through this time, would you?" Lester said with an apparent effort. "And if you can't... maybe I'll just sack the whole lot of you and hire some new blood for some different – better – results."
There was a pause as everyone wrapped their minds around the possibility of getting fired.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" James Lester appeared to be barely sympathetic, if any. "People, there's a time anomaly to be closing, so – go!"
Reluctantly, and somewhat slowly, they went.
"You don't really think that Lester would really fire us, now do you?" Connor spoke sotto voce to Abby. "I mean, he-"
"Probably not," Becker replied instead of Abby, "but all the same, we might try to smooth things out somewhat, you know?" he paused. "And considering that most of our vehicles are still somewhat damaged from the prehistoric giant pigs and whatnot, getting there might be somewhat problematic."
Connor, upon hearing this, just groaned. "Will nothing else go right today?"
The silence that greeted him was hardly encouraging.
The nothosaur was not the smartest of the reptiles, but it knew its neighbourhood quite well and it knew that the hole that glowed with a strange tinge of white was not supposed to be there – but there it was.
Moreover, the hole was a hole, but a hole that led to someplace else: several terrestrial reptiles had fled through it and didn't re-appear on its other side. Not so much as curious as hungry, the nothosaur followed it, darting through the deteriorating weather.
A burst of light of an unknown tint greeted the reptile's senses, and then-
The building in reality was not truly a building, but more of a small estate, really. The grounds were fenced, and with quite high-tech security gear and the gates looked solid.
"What are we doing here?" Becker asked, surly. The ride here has finished the devastation started by the entelodonts and the indricothere, and now the cars were better suited for a scrap yard than for active duty. "And where is here, anyways?"
Instead of replying, Connor walked over to the Intercom and pressed a button to speak. "Um, Caroline? I know that we've been on the outs ever since Leek's backstabbing, but, uh, could we borrow your cars? Ours, if you would just take a look, have taken some serious hits in the line of duty and are no longer fit for it." He paused and added, less confidently, "and if your cars get damaged in the line of duty, I'm sure that Lester will reimburse you for damages."
For several moments there was just silence, and then the heavy gates creaked open, letting Caroline Steele out. "Those are your cars?" she asked in an honestly confused tone of voice. "Then I guess the TV reports were true – there really had been giant giraffes and hyenas in the very center of London-"
"Not our fault," Becker instinctively replied before anyone else could. "Connor and others had to retrieve a pair of bear-dogs from the pound, and my men and I were besieged by giant killer pigs from the past. We're talking about rhino-sized swine with jaws like giant suitcases-"
"I think I can picture that," Caroline said thoughtfully, seeing massive tooth marks on the front of one of the ARC's basically discarded vehicles. "And what are the chances that my vehicles won't get the same treatment? Not to mention that I breed dogs, not own a car park or whatever: I have only one big van and two smaller ones."
"And that will do fine," Becker responded before Connor could. "These three cars are just what we need to get there." He noticed Caroline's gaze and added, albeit somewhat quickly: "Look, you can either give us your cars or not – we have just enough pride not to beg, really, though Mr. Temple here may apologize for bothering you in vain-"
"Fine, I'll loan you them to you," Caroline agreed after some inner struggle. "But that's the last and only time, you understand?"
"That we can do," Becker nodded thoughtfully, "no doubt about it."
The nothosaur was content. The local climate felt much warmer than back in the middle Triassic, and it was sufficiently content to just relax and enjoy its life in general – but with warmth came hunger and energy to seek its next meal.
Despite the nasty outlook – and a powerful set of teeth – the nothosaur preferred to hunt in the water than on land, therefore it turned around and darted back through the bizarre hole, especially since it could smell the end of the storm on the other end of it.
Ironically, but the prosauropods had followed the other reptile as soon as it was gone. Though herbivores, this place offered not enough vegetation to feed these massive animals and the strange smells made them even more uncomfortable. Therefore, as soon as they saw the carnivorous reptile disappear, they began to depart the same way through which they came – and then behind them the time anomaly snapped shut!
"We're here, and we're... in the clear?" Connor said, sounding somewhat more confused than usual, a short while later, looking over the junkyard that was clearly devoid of time anomalies or any chronologically displaced animals. "Hah, nothing's present - do you think that the time anomaly alarm misfired or something?" he turned to Abby in search of support and responses. What he got in return was something else...
...when the ARC field team returned and James Lester noticed that one of Connor Temple's ears was redder and bigger than the other, he shrugged, demanded to have the report of the latest mission... and re-started the team conference. But that was quite a different story.