The entelodont trotted through the forest, carefully followed by the team. The predator was only mildly annoyed by their presence, occasionally growl at them to get them to keep their distance. Still, the team refused to let it out of their sight. This was their only lead on where the mystery predator had gone.
Eventually, they found what they were looking for. As they crested a hill, the team found themselves staring at a brilliant light, which soon came into focus as a mass of what appeared to be glass shards, all orbiting around a brilliant glowing orb. Occasionally, a screech, howl, bellow, or growl would emerge from the light, the call of an unknown creature, often answered by another cry. Meanwhile, several creatures milled about around the glowing object, browsing in some nearby bushes. All of them scattered as the entelodont arrived, though, and remained hidden until the beast had charged into the light, disappearing without a trace.
The team took in all of this in utter silence...at least until Madeline turned toward Wyatt.
"...Guess I owe you an apology."
"You won't get an I told you so...well, except that one."
Madeline decided to let that comment slide. "Fair enough. Just to ask, these screw with anything susceptible to magnetism, right?"
"Bingo."
"Thought so. Do you mind if I call in the cavalry?"
"No objection."
"Alright," she responded, before pulling out a specially marked radio. "Search team, I've located a secondary target. Head to my position ASAP. Bring Animal Control Teams and K-9 units with you. Be advised, the secondary target is giving off magnetic interference, so expect your instruments to start going on the fritz when you get here. And if any of you get your cellphones fried from bringing them here, I ain't paying for replacements!"
"Copy that, ma'am. ETA, five minutes. Recon drone should arrive in ten seconds."
"Good. Over and out."
As Madeline finished her broadcast, she was herself staring at a very surprised looking Stephanie. "what?"
"Isn't a force that large overkill for this kind of mission?"
"Better safe then sorry. Now can you wait until they arrive before you decide to start exploring what's on the other side of that...time portal?"
"What?! Why do you assume that I would-"
"Because you are a reporter and would not be able to pass up an opportunity like this, and also because you are just that curious. The same goes for Colt. Wyatt is the one who talked me into this, but I assume he has the restraint to wait for backup."
"...Oh."
"Though, if you'd like, you can start taking pictures of the time portal, the animals that came through it, and the tracks around it."
"...Thank you!"
Within moments, Stephanie had joined her husband in taking pictures of the newly arrived creatures, whilst Madeline turned her attention to Wyatt, who was busy examining the footprints. "Any ideas what we're dealing with?"
"Well, those little creatures are oreodonts, so this narrows down the potential places this is opening to as somewhere in North America. The footprints here, though, narrow it down to just one place - The White River Badlands."
"Which one told you that?"
"Come and have a look."
Obliging, Madeline approached the tracks and looked at the one her friend was gesturing to. As she looked it over, her expression changed from one of curiosity to confusion.
Before her were a mishmash of obviously mammalian tracks, but the ones Wyatt was gesturing to were bird tracks.
Very big bird tracks.
"...There were terror birds this far North?"
"Close, but not quite. These tracks belong to bathorornids - basically North American Terror Birds. First showed up in the Eocene, they died out at the beginning of the Miocene - prey got too big and tough for them to hunt. Before that, though, they did well in fighting off the mammalian predators they had to share their homes with. Size of these tracks would suggest it belongs to the biggest genus, Paracrax."
"So, in addition to an indeterminate saber-toothed cat, we also have to deal with a man-sized, flightless, carnivorous bird?"
Probably not, since the bird tracks all head back to the portal. And it's not a saber-toothed cat - these are false saber-tooths, if the time is correct. I'd say either Nimravus or Hoplophoneus, more likely the latter, since its bigger."
"Just perfect….do these portal's stay open forever, or do they close after a while?"
"Staying open forever would require them to have an indefinite source of power, so I'd say no. For the sake of keeping time normal, I think we should try and herd these critters back into the portal before it closes."
"Do you mind if we call this an anomaly instead?"
"...Why such a specific name?"
"Because so far, you're the only scientist I know who knows about them, and I'd like to assume time portal can be controlled by people."
"Ok, fine, have it your way."
"Good."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Eventually, the containment team arrived, and once they did, the team decided to venture into the past.
They found themselves on the union of a grassland and a forest. Some distance away, a waterhole was present, currently being frequented by a variety of mammals. A trio of alligators fought over the carcass of an aquatic rhino, whilst a hyaenodont hastily tore into a piece of the corpse it had stolen when the crocodilians had been too busy fighting each other to notice. Early horses grazed on the grasses, whilst camel ancestors browsed on the trees, with oreodonts and rhinos feeding in the bushes where the two biomes met. In the distance, a fairly large bird was tearing into the remains of an early horse, occasionally hissing at a Dinictis to stay away from its kill.
"Alright, listen up - you nerds get twenty minutes to explore here!" declared Madeline, unwilling to let her friends take unnecessary risks. "First and foremost, figure out if whatever attacked those teens is still in our time. If not, then you can explore a little more...AND STICK TOGETHER!"
"YES SIR!"
"Good. Well then, GET TO WORK!"
The scientist and reporters did not need any further prodding. Instantly, they were examining the tracks and footprints, trying to determine whether or not the cat had been wandered back home. A sudden growling in the distance, however, turned their attention toward a small pocket of trees, which hid the sight of two false saber-teeth fighting.
Stranger still, however, was the trio of bipeds watching them in the distance. Ones that looked all too familiar...
XXXXXXXXXXX
"See anything yet, Jonah?"
"That's a negative, Eli."
"I thought I told you to call me Liz?"
"Yeah, but I've been told that by three other Elizabeth's I know, and I want to remember which one is my sister in arms and which ones can be...something else."
"...How far have you gotten with these other Elizabeths?"
"Have stolen a single base yet."
"Hey, would you two lovebirds shut up! We're supposed to be looking for that mystery cat! And making sure nothing else comes out of this portal except for our Superior and her experts."
"Myers, lighten up a bit!"
As the trio continued to bicker, the rest of the team tried to herd the oreodonts into the anomaly, whilst watching for the mystery cat that had attacked the teens earlier. Unknown to them, however, the cat was already stalking them, waiting for the moment when one would drop their guard and become an easy kill.
That time was growing very close.
Suddenly, the portal began to start flashing. Instantly, the team was on alert, whilst the oreodonts quickly sought shelter in the tent the team had set up.
"Aw hell, what's going on?"
"IF I'd have to guess," answered Jonah "it's starting to close."
"Well, then what do we do?" shouted another soldier, this one named Alan.
Before the question could be answered, a group of rhinos suddenly charged through the portal, followed by an entelodont, a hyaenodont, and the quartet that had gone through the portal...as well as something else. Something BIG.
XXXXXXXXX
Five minutes earlier
The quartet could only stare on as the dueling cat-relatives were suddenly pinned down by what appeared to be...well, humans, who swiftly knocked them unconscious, then began to drag them away. The eldest one stopped this for a moment, though, when they turned around and saw the team.
For a moment, no one spoke. And when speaking finally happened, the distance was too great to make out what was being said. In fact, it was so great that neither party could make out the details of the other, only that both groups were compromised of Homo sapiens.
Eventually, though, the other group seemed to lose their nerve, and hastily vanished into the grass, taking their cats with them.
"...What the hell are those guys doing?" questioned Stephanie. "Trying to get a pet prehistoric cat?"
"I don't know," replied Wyatt, honestly surprised. He'd never expected to see other humans in a time before man, at least not with these portals. Not until there was a bigger accident involving an anomaly.
Despite this, he might have had an inkling as to what they were seeing. But he still wasn't entirely sure.
A hiss turned the group's attention away from the vanishing bipeds and towards the entelodont they had been following. THe beast was now engaged in battle with a hyaenodont over a carcass, and so far, the hog from hell was winning. Nearby, rhinos feasted, uncaring of the battle.
Yet what Wyatt saw made him incredibly nervous - hidden behind the rhinos, something large and feathery was beginning to make its approach. It was big, it was hungry, and right now, it seemed to have zeroed in on its target.
With barely a sound, the Paracrax charged. Instantly, the rhinos fled, followed by the carnivorous mammals, whose conflict had been forgotten. The meal, however, had not, as the hell pig was carrying the carcass in its mouth. The quickly breezed past the stunned humans, who needed a moment to process what was happening. Once they finally came to understand the situation, though, they beat a hasty retreat toward the now pulsing anomaly.
XXXXXXXXXX
Whilst the rhinos mostly scattered as they exited the anomaly, the clashing carnivores ended up colliding with a tree, whilst the team ended up tripping and falling into the mud...as did the charging bird. As the security team prepared to sedate it, though, a furry form slammed into one of the soldiers, pinning him to the ground. As the rest of the soldiers moved to help him, the predatory bird recovered, and unnoticed to all, the anomaly sealed...
XXXXXXXXXX
AN: I am back! Also Cliffhanger!
Also, a little announcement: I'm wrapping up this story in two chapters - the next 'episode' will be published as a special story. SInce I couldn't fit it all into the FFN title, the name of this chapter is 'Welcome to the New World'.
Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!