The thump, thump, thump of a helicopter descended onto the landing pad. Several individuals got off of the craft before the rotors began to speed up and the craft went back up into the air. The people who had gotten off were women, and one small girl with an unusual hairstyle.
The little girl gave a happy giggle before she excitedly exclaimed, "Wow, this will be really exciting you guys!"
One of her companions, a short, brown haired woman, muttered, "How is this going to be exciting? We're gonna have to listen to nerds going on and on about biology!"
The bespectacled woman standing next to her quickly gained an angry grimace. "This symposium is not going to be boring, you idiot," she hissed, "this will be an excellent opportunity for me—I mean us, to learn about the wonders of the biological world." The woman then gave an irritated sigh as she pushed her glasses up the ridge of her nose.
"I find this interesting," said the black haired woman in the back. Everyone turned to her, slightly shocked. "I am studying animals…." she whispered before looking down in embarrassment. "Besides if you don't like the conference, there is the scenery…."
Indeed the group took a moment to view the breathtaking landscape in front of them. A dense and pristine rainforest seemed to stretch before them until the end of the horizon. Trees, that looked as if they were as tall as the sky, sat no less than five feet away from the front of the landing pad; in fact a gorgeous grove of plant life stood along the pathway that led towards the convention center. Bright flowers made up of oranges, reds, yellows, and purples. Ferns that spread out between the spaces created by the giant trunks overhead. Creepers connected various branches together, some with light blue flowers that were as bright and cheery as the sky above. Colorful birds hopped from branch to branch twittering and chirping sweet notes. Bright blue butterflies would occasionally light on the boughs or trunks and flutter their wings for a moment before they flew into the air.
"Oh yeah," said the girl who had complained about having to listen to the biology symposium. She then grabbed two of her friends by their wrists and ran off with them into the dense undergrowth.
"That Tomo," the cynical girl with glasses mumbled, "she's so reckless."
"Maybe we should go after them," the tallest of the group quietly suggested.
The cynic turned to face the woman. Her face had an almost ridiculous level of irritability engraved within its features. "Just leave those three idiots alone," she then pushed her glasses back up her nose before adding, "they'll just get in the way."
"That's not a very nice thing to say, Yomi," a black haired woman with an unusual haircut that's most notable feature was two long stands that hung down near her chin, told her.
The woman called Yomi thought for a moment. "I guess you're right, Nyamo."
There was a slight growl before the response, "it's Minamo," rose up through the trees.
"Whatever."
The remaining people walked up the pathway towards a large concrete structure that looked like it had been designed to withstand a nuclear blast. The architecture was not left unappreciated by the group.
"You have to wonder what they were thinking in regards to aesthetics," Yomi quipped, "the scenery is amazing but this conference center looks like something straight out of a 1980s cold war movie."
Why didn't I go with Tomo? Minamo thought to herself, I'm not going to find this conference exciting at all! Hearing professors is the last thing I want to do now that I'm out of college. I didn't even want to listen to those sundried gabblers when I was in college! Minamo shook her head from side to side as her footsteps took her through the doors and down the well lit hallway.
"According to this," the tall, dark haired woman said as she read a leaflet, "this facility used to be an important research facility in the early nineties. Then due to a number of 'incidents' it was abandoned by the corporation and then taken over by the government of neighboring…." her quiet voice trailed off as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"No offense but you've read that six times already," said Yomi.
"Sorry," she whispered before looking at the floor, an immense blush strewn across her face.
"It's okay."
They then walked into the main conference room where possibly one hundred others were sitting. A collection of academics, students, and researchers, spread out amongst themselves. The foursome procured an unbroken row of chairs.
"I can't wait for this to start!" said the pink haired girl in excitement.
"Chiyo sure is happy to be here," said Minamo in response to the child's outburst.
"I'm very pleased that you all decided to come with me!" she replied.
Yomi and Sakaki smiled at the young girl.
"Well when you offer to fly us to an exotic location such as this why would we say no?" the cynical woman responded. "It's great to have friends like you Chiyo." The group then focused on a lone figure who had walked over to the podium to announce that the event would soon begin.
"Greetings, I would just like to—"
CRASH
A section of wall located on the far end of the room suddenly and violently exploded into a spray of rebar and cinder block as a massive head and body came into the room. A large head shaped like a crocodile's sat on a thick muscular neck which curved onto the creature's oddly proportioned body. Two spindly arms sat just below the bottom jaw. Powerful haunches shuddered and rippled as its feet carried it further into the convention center. A short, thick tale followed the creature inside of the room. The thing was at least 2.8 meters at the shoulder, maybe even 3.2! The most striking characteristic of the animal however, was a large fan composed of several long vertebrae connected by a flap of skin located on its back. A slitted eye looked down at the crowd of people who sat dangerously close to the long sharp fangs.
For a moment no one did anything. Then screams and the sounds of chairs being pushed and shoved filled the auditorium.
The four females gawked at the sight in front of them like a bunch of scared chickens.
"Chiyo, what is that?"
The girl gulped in distress. "Sp-p-p..." The girl could hear her heart thumping inside of her brain as the creature seemed to grow angry thanks to the noisy people in the room. "Spino-s-s-s…." She couldn't understand why this thing was in the auditorium, and the people who were busy streaming out the door as fast as they could didn't help matters. This creature had been extinct for almost seventy million years! How could it even be possible for an animal from the earlier years of the Planet's history to still be alive? Then Chiyo remembered the stories she had heard her father mention a few years prior. An American company had built a private research facility on an uninhabited, tropical island. The details about their plans had been sketchy but what had been surmised was that whatever their project had been had been a complete and total failure. The company had previously been heavily invested in genetic research and also started to collect a variety of paleontology artifacts. Then some sort of accident had caused their research facility to be shut down and the corporation vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Looking at what stood in front of her; Chiyo had an excellent hypothesis regarding the incident.
"Spinosaurus aegyptiacus!"
"What are we gonna do?" yelled Yomi.
"I don't know!" screamed Minamo, "they barred the exit door from the outside!"
"Oi, don't worry!"
The women turned to see a blond man standing near them.
"I reckon that my mate Wes, I and our team can subdue this thing. All we gotta do is get a top jaw rope on the bloke, then another for safety, a bottom jaw rope, tie up the jaws, and we're good to transport 'im anywhere once we get the animal sedat—"
"Are you out of your mind?" Minamo screamed, "this thing is the size of Optimus Prime!"
"Now, now sheila, this thing is basically a big croc, and if I know anything, it'd be crocs. Sure it's different in a number a different ways, bipedal and all, but I'd bet that all of its jaw strength is for crushing things. So I reckon that if we can tie its mouth good and tight with a strong rope, an' get 'im sedated, he'll be relatively ha'mless till he wakes up."
Minamo's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head as she began to hyperventilate. She quickly hugged her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth on the floor as the man with the strange accent grabbed a rope from his cohort and jumped on the back of the giant dinosaur. Somehow he managed to hang on long enough to tie a knot around its mouth. He was thrown another rope which he quickly wrapped around the creature's mouth, feeling that two ropes would be better than one. A quick dosage of chemicals saw the creature fall to the ground after several minutes of stomping about the room. The man slid off the creature before coming back to Minamo as she lay in a pile on the floor.
"Ya need to have a bit more faith in Steveo," the man told Minamo as he helped her to her feet, "I've been workin' around big animals like this my whole, entire life. I've wrestled with crocodiles, alligators, and handled poisonous snakes. I may have never worked with these kinds of creatures before," he pointed at the animal, "but I know me way around predators, sheila."
"What," Minamo gasped, "did you just call me?"
"Sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"M-inamo," she panted.
"Mee-namo?"
"No, Minamo."
"All right, all right," said the man, "'ey Wes, what're we ready to move this big guy?" The man nodded and the two men walked out the giant hole that the animal had made in the wall.
"Nyamo, let's get back to the chopper!" snapped Yomi, "We need to get out of here before another giant monster like that one shows up!"
"Agreed, but where are Tomo, Kagura and Osaka?"
"Uh…."
"Ah!" Tomo smiled as she stopped in the middle of the jungle, "we're here!"
"Tomo," Kagura groaned, "I think we lost Osaka, and ourselves, in this jungle."
"She'll be fine," Tomo bluntly stated, "now we're all alone in a romantic setting!"
"What? This place is filled with mosquitoes, snakes, and who knows what else?" Then Kagura felt a shiver run down her spine. "What do you mean by romantic?"
Tomo placed a hand on Kagura's chin. She smiled at her friend as she softly brushed her hand against Kagura's cheek.
"Hey you guys, ah jus' realized that we're right next to the— Oh my gawd!" Osaka cried, "I thought you guys were right behind me!"
"Sorry Osaka!" said two voices in the distance, "but, uh, don't come this way for a little bit okay?"
"But ah just sawr a snake!"
"We'll…come to you okay?"
"Ah'll just get back on the path to go find the others," she replied, "this place kinda reminds me of that last movie in that one trilogy about dinosaurs…oh no! We're on Isla Sorna?" The woman began to hyperventilate as her friends crashed through the bushes.
"Isla Sorna?" they cried, "no wonder that helicopter left instantly!"
"What were y'all doin' that ya didn't want me to see?"
"Nothing."
"Okay."
"But we still need to get off this rock!"
"The chopper comes back in ten more minutes," said Osaka, "y'all wanna walk back there?"
"Okay!"
"Oh hey, Yomi, Minamo, Chiyo, Sakaki, what are you doing here?"
"It was so scary," said Minamo as she trembled on the ground, "I never wanna go to a science symposium again!"
"Ah man!" said Tomo, "I left my lunch on the first chopper! Oh hey, the thing's back, let's get off of this horrible place!"