Primeval
Another normal day at the ARC, Well as normal as you can get when you work in the Anomaly Research Centre, Professor Nick Cutter, was in his office working on the numerous amount of paperwork that he had been given by their new boss, Hestor. The team had recently come back through an anomaly to find the ARC rebuilt, new security team in place and finding that they had a new boss to contend with; Previously their boss had always been Cutter, so it was quite different now that Cutter had to listen to someone above him. The rest of the team had watched this, smirking every time he and Hestor had an argument.
Steven was attempting to find the security codes that he was told he should have. Hestor apparently set certain areas of the running of the ARC to each team member; his was the security locks for all the doors in the building. But unfortunately considering this was all new to Steven, he did not have a clue where the codes were and the simple task of fixing the outer door had been halted for the whole week that they had been in the 'new' ARC. Raking through filing cabinet after filing cabinet he was wondering whether they even existed.
Abi was trying to take in the size of ARC's zoo. It had creatures from all time periods; from big to small, from cute to plain scary. Her assigned place in the ARC's new system was to take care of the creatures until they could be taken back to their habitats. Abi had worked in a zoo before, albeit not with prehistoric and futuristic creatures, but she knew how to get into a regular feeding routine and knew roughly what she needed to do to care for them. The old ARC had never had room for a zoo, besides they had generally got most of the creatures back through the anomaly, Apart from maybe Rex.
Connor was in the main room fixing the anomaly detector, it had apparently failed in one circuit, although last time they had all seen it, it lay in pieces among the ruins of the ARC. He lay underneath the controls, demanding different tools, which Crystal would promptly hand to him. She would frequently have the right tool in her hand when Connor asked for it. This was half because she knew the procedures in which a circuit was both fixed and taken apart and half because she had this weird connection with Connor that no one could quite understand. Connor's area of expertise, technology, was his allocated place in the ARC. Crystal's allocated place in the ARC was to observe the anomalies and to identify what time period it was, so the team knew what to expect and could return any of the creature's in the ARC's zoo back to their homes. There was a new application on the main anomaly detector that allowed Crystal to do this without much hassle; of course that was when it was working properly!
"Don't suppose that you know where the security codes are, do you?" Steven had given up searching in the filing cabinets and had gone for a stroll, asking about the security codes to anyone who seemed like they might know, along the way.
"Don't suppose you know how to fix this do you?" Connor mumbled from the depths of the wires and other electronic equipment surrounding him. He only waited for a second for an answer.
"Thought not," He retorted. Connor could get rather irritable when something wasn't going his way and Crystal was constantly apologizing for him.
"Ignore him; it's not going too well, where did you last see them?"
"That's the thing; I've never seen them before in my life!" Crystal looked momentarily confused but then as realization took over, her facial expression altered; remembering how most of the team had not a clue what was meant to be done now.
"We'll help you look as soon as we are finished." She indicated towards Connor, who was muttering something that sounded suspiciously like a swear word. Steven nodded, smiling as he turned to go; turned to go into Abi.
Smack! Abi fell into the side of the door, grabbing onto the door handle she saved herself from falling to far but unfortunately Steven fell all the way, banging his head on the concrete floor. Crystal rushed over to help them both up, leaving Connor holding his hand pointlessly out waiting for the screwdriver he had asked for.
"Crystal!" He shouted emerging from his electrical den. Crystal was about to give him a very sarcastic answer, when a considerably loud yell came from Hestor's office, that was unmistakably Cutter.
Steven, Abi and Crystal's head's turned straight up to where the scene was unfolding, Cutter had stormed out the office, Hestor following and Jack was caught in the middle of both of them unsure of whether to interfere or not.
"How the hell am I meant to do all this in two days?" Cutter's voice echoed throughout the ARC's interior.
"You should have completed it weeks ago!" Hestor shouted back.
"How many times have we told you that when we came back through the anomaly things changed, the ARC was in ruins when we entered that anomaly!"
In their hearts everyone agreed with cutter's statement, and wished that Hestor would just take the time to understand what had happened.
Crystal advanced to the mess of the workbench, searching avidly for something. It was paper galore on that bench so there was only a 50% chance that she would actually find what she was looking for, but find it she did. Waving the bit of paper in front of the three completely dazed colleges, she explained that she had found the document in her bedroom and since it had all the dates and times for all the anomaly openings in this month, she had assumed it belonged in the ARC. Now she knew it was meant intentionally for Cutter.
Crystal ran up the staircase, and into Cutter's office. There he sat, head in hands, staring at the paperwork, looking extremely sulky. He perked up a bit when he saw what was on the paper; he could get the paperwork done and handed in by tomorrow, now. He gave Crystal a big cheesy grin and thanked her, stating that he couldn't do it without her.
Cutter watched her leave with a slight bounce in her stepping (an act she did only when she was extremely happy about something) thinking how he quite literally couldn't do without Crystal Mattern, or in fact, any one of his colleagues. They all had special meanings, special jobs, which without, would never be fully the same.
Jack Mattern was feeling an air of excitement as he walked down the steps to inform his sister that he was now officially one of the team. He'd experienced a whole lot of mind-boggling stuff in the past month that he'd taken residence in his sister's and Connor's apartment; anomaly's, prehistoric creatures, stepping into the future, even a mad man with the means to destroy the ARC –which slightly failed as it was already blown to pieces by Helen- and kill the team. Now he was going to have to get used to the ARC's way of life; something everyone seemed to be contending with at the moment.
"Hey" Jack said as he walked into the room. Everyone minus Cutter was there. (Having been already caught up in one of Cutter's arguments earlier on he didn't expect to see him anytime soon.) Connor was putting back the last screw into the anomaly detector screen; Steven was writing something which looked like a load of codes –meaning that he had actually found the security codes somewhere. Abi and Crystal where glued to a laptop screen, Jack, because no one had heard his greeting, sneaking behind them and placing his arms around them both, made them jump.
"Hello my new colleagues, did I frighten you?" Jack asked casually.
"Just a bit," Abi replied.
"Guessing the paperwork is sorted then! Congratulations!" Crystal hugged Jack as a reward.
"At least we won't have the problem of putting the anomaly detector in the bin!" Connor had now joined them. Congratulating Jack in his own way, which meant the receiving of a sarcastic comment which just had bring up a kind of embarrassing moment. The only way to solve this was to throw a sarcastic comment straight back at him.
"Well maybe you will be more careful when you leave it with someone's younger brother next time. That, unfortunately, is what younger brothers do." Crystal always had an answer for Connor tucked away up her sleeve. This was half the reason why she and Connor got on so well.
Crystal gave her brother a big smile to show that she didn't mean the comment to hurt him, only give Connor a light warning. It had worked.
An ear piercingly loud alarm went ringing through the building; it was coming from the newly reinstalled anomaly detector. Connor dashed back to the screen, it was his time to go into business mood. Crystal hastened after him, placing herself so she could see the screen clearly over Connor's shoulder.
"Anomaly is situated in the car park of Tesco's supermarket." Connor changed his whole tone of voice to match his change of mood.
"Fourth storey up, behind the elevator," Crystal added, screwing her eyes up enough to make out this information on the pixelated screen.
"Ah good, Steven get the guns met us in the car, Connor take the laptop, Crystal make sure you've got all the hand held anomaly detectors, Jack you come with me and Abi help Steven, I have a feeling he's gonna have his hands full." Cutter had entered the room, regaining full authority as the team spread out to do his bidding. He liked the authority over people; it made him feel significant, worthwhile and generally important. Which is why he and Hestor where not getting on so well. Both wanted power, both felt it their responsibility and both believed that they had been in charge for as long as the ARC had opened.
"Right, professor Cutter you collect the guns…" Hestor had walked in retaining what he believed to be the only air of authority in the building.
"Steven's doing it," Cutter answered him.
"Well check the hand-held anomaly detectors!"
"Crystal's doing it." Cutter was surprised at himself for being able to keep a calm attitude and a straight face as the argument failed on Hestor's side.
"Well take the laptop!"
"Connor's doing it." Cutter gave Hestor a big smirk which ran right across his face. He had won, no doubt about it.
"I am meant to be giving the orders, it is what I am employed to do, so will you please let me do my job next time!" Hestor left the room in a huff, deprived of his job entitlement.
Cutter turned to his team, which now only consisted of Jack because everyone else had gone to carry out the tasks he had set them, he grinned wishing that the rest of the team had witnessed the last conversation but guessing that Jack would have to do for the time being.
"God I wish the others had heard that! Let's get going, shall we?" Cutter looked at Jack, he looked so young, so naïve and yet in reality he was only one year younger then Connor and Crystal, putting it in that perspective, Cutter apprehended that it wasn't the age deference that made him look young but the fact that to him, everything was relatively new, like a child at a brand new school, just settling in and getting used to the way things worked.
Steven collected five guns, enough for everyone bar Connor. Cutter had refused to let Connor handle a gun since the day that he had shot Abi in the leg. He had deduced that it would be too dangerous to let Connor roam free with a loaded gun when he was absolutely rubbish at shooting the right target. Everyone had been slightly relieved when Cutter had introduced this rule, they had never trusted him with a gun since the first day they got them, he was too childish in his ways to be allowed such a dangerous weapon.
"Are you alright Steven? You seem a little quiet." Abi was always aware when one of her friends where feeling down in the dumps, she seemed to have a sixth sense for it.
"Yeah, it's just all this new stuff, you know, it's been doing my head in and what with Cutter constantly arguing with Hestor and us trying to figure out what's been asked of us, it's just little hard to take in, in one go." Abi smiled at Steven, she knew how he felt, they all did, just some of them where better at hiding it then others.
Connor unplugged the laptop, closed the lid and slid it into the specially designed laptop bag. He slung the strap over his shoulder and went to find Crystal. He found her by the cupboard sorting out the hand-held anomaly detector between the empty shells that Connor was yet to make the electronic wiring for.
"Got them all?" Connor asked, not making himself known before speaking to her.
"Whoa, stop doing that! And when are you going to wire up these extra detectors?" Crystal pointed to the growing pile of black plastic shells.
"We don't need extra detectors, we've got enough!"
"Actually Jack needs one!" Crystal reminded him.
"He can have Cutter's old battered one that he found before we went through the anomaly." Jack had found the detector lying in the rubble of the ARC where the anomaly had opened and opened again. At that point in time Cutter still held his own detector in his hand; a newer and less battered version of the one Jack had found. They had all been a bit confused at that moment in time (apart from Connor, who was in the hospital recovering from a head injury he had got from the impact of rubble falling on top of him as the ARC exploded) but they had understood a few weeks later when Cutter dropped his detector into the anomaly from the other side. Connor had promptly made another one for him and got the battered one to work at a low level.
Crystal agreed because the battered anomaly detector wouldn't work to its full ability and so wouldn't all that much for Jack to handle. She gave Connor his detector before putting the rest, including her own, in a bag.
Connor had made each of the anomaly detector's separately and so had the name of the team member it belonged to, etched onto the back. His own was more advanced than anyone else's' because he kept updating it regularly, adding new aps to it so he could zoom into the location of the anomaly and get the full details before they even arrived. Crystal's detector had an app that allowed her to work out the time period of the anomaly; Abi's had an alphabet of dinosaurs and their qualities, Steven's had a graph showing the right dosage of tranquilizer that will safely tranquilize different sized creatures and Cutter's had a list of excuses to use in different situations when the general public caught sight of the anomaly or one of the creatures.
Crystal followed Connor out into the ARC's car park, where they opened the boot of Connor's car and put their bags, neatly, inside. There wasn't much else in the back of Connor's car, a few electrical tools and a picnic blanket (just in case they decided to stop somewhere for an unexpected sandwich) the rest was completely bare.
Connor pushed the boot door down and they could see Cutter and Jack coming out of the exit, shortly followed by Steven and Abi carrying the five guns which would be put in the back of Cutter's car.
"Right, Jack you go with your sister and Connor in his car and Abi and Steven you can come in mine." Steven was already putting the guns in the back of Cutter's Range-Rover, he knew the drill. Cutter would always make a point of telling them who was going in each car; whatever the situation Steven always went with Cutter.
Crystal had jumped into the front passenger seat before her brother could get there first, (they always seemed to argue about the front seat because they both got travel sickness when traveling in the back,) Connor got into the driver's seat, he, unlike Crystal and Jack, had been driving for six years and it felt extremely natural for him to be behind the wheel. Jack had only passed his test a week or so ago and Crystal hadn't even gone for any driving lessons, she didn't see much point when most of the places she would want to get to where in walking distance or in the same direction that Connor or Jack where going.
Connor put the key into the ignition and started the engine running, turning radio to the right channel while he waited for Cutter to get in his car and drive out of the way.
