In Pliocene South America, the team were in a race against time. In mere minutes, the bushfire had intensified to the point where the vegetation around the cliff was in flames; the fire was moving closer and closer, to the point where the team and the animals were trapped. The surrounding area was almost blackened by smoke, almost blocking out the sun. There was no way out.

However, it wasn't the fire that was the most dangerous thing; it was the smoke. The animals were all beginning to cough and wheeze as the smoke pumped into the overhang. The team were beginning to feel woozy as well. Coughing over the smoke, Drew yelled to his team, "We brought breathing apparatus for this! Get them on!" Alice and Adrian nodded obediently, grabbed their breathing apparatus and put them around their faces, in order to protect them from the smoke.

Muffled underneath his mask, Drew yelled "Adrian, you handle the terror birds! Alice, you handle the sabre-tooths. I'll bring the herbivores through myself." "OK!", they both replied, almost in unison, before each running off to handle their respective creatures.

Approaching the terror birds, Adrian lifted the horn and began blaring it at them. The six birds, already terrified by the fire, began to hiss and snap at him. As they moved closer, he walked backwards, making sure to keep them and himself away from the fire. Once they had gotten close enough, Adrian lifted his portal remote, activating the portal, and turned to run towards it. The terror birds, their chase instincts activated, tore towards the portal after him, into the present.

Meanwhile, Alice calmly approached the Smilodon pride and immediately began to speak, her voice soft, soothing, "It's alright... it's alright now... I'm going to send you somewhere away from the fire..." The broken-toothed alpha male snarled and swiped his paw at this strange new creature, shrouded by the smoke and the flames. Drew gave her a look and mouthed "Are you crazy?" What on Earth was she doing?

Alice, not changing her tone, said, "I know it sounds crazy ... but this works with lions... sometimes..." She grabbed the bait bag and the male began to move closer, attracted by the smell of meat. Alice began to walk backwards, as the pride moved closer, not changing her soft, soothing tone, "There we go, you're heading towards me now... I'm just going to activate the portal and-" She pressed the button on her remote, and the portal whirred into life. The instant that happened, she chucked the bait bag through the portal and dived out of the way, as the pride followed the meat bag into the present.

That was the sabre-tooths and terror birds accounted for; now, all that was left was the herbivores. As the smoke pumped into the overhang, nearly rendering the surrounding environment as black as night, Drew turned to Alice, shouting over the herbivore's bellows and the roaring of the fire, "Get back to the park. I'll handle the herbivores". Alice paused, before nodding bediently and going back through the portal.

After they left, Drew turned to the herbivores and began blaring his horn at them. The herd began to bellow and stamp on him, already terrified from the fire and the smoke. He began walking backwards, continuing to blare the horn, before lifting the remote and activating the portal. Suddenly, he turned and ran towards it, still blaring the horn. The already panicked herbivores charged towards Drew and through the portal, moving as if a single entity.

When he got through the portal, to the park, Drew dived out of the way of the stampede, to avoid getting trampled by the oncoming herd. Once the last one had gotten through, he closed the portal. He looked up to see Leon, Jack, Kyle, Nikolai and Collete watching him from the walkway, with expressions of both surprise and confusion.

After all that, it was time for everything to be wrapped up. All the mission animals were moved into a new area called South American Savannah. After being treated for smoke inhalation, the Megatherium, Doedicurus, Macrauchenia and Toxodon had all been given a single, grassy paddock, with patches of palm trees for the Megatherium. They were all either resting in the sun, grazing or wallowing in the lake.

The eight Phorusrhacos had been kept in a large paddock near to the herbivores. After having the squabbles over territory, the four pairs had formed some sort of pecking order. They were all either having dust baths, patrolling their new territory, or lying in the sun, waiting to be fed.

The Smilodon pride had been given an enclosure next to that of the Phorusrhacos. The enormous, broken-toothed male was standing on a large rock, roaring a pronouncement to non-existent competitors that this was his turf.

All was back to normal.

However…

That night, Leon watched as the adolescent male Drew's team had brought back stood, sniffing hesitantly, as the large male Smilodon Leon had rescued on his solo trip – who he had called Diego – paced up and down the side of the vet pen curiously, sniffing the smaller male intently. Diego's mate, Shira, lay down some distance away, grooming herself. The younger male tried to make himself look as submissive as possible in the face of this greater male.

It was Leon who had had the idea, as soon as he had found out about the young male. The established pride – and their dominant male Broken Fang – likely wouldn't tolerate him. However, with Diego's "pride" consisting of a single female, with no cubs, maybe Diego would form a coalition with the young male – similar things happened in lions.

He smiled – things seemed to be going well. He was so deep in thought he didn't notice the guard coming towards him. Almost colliding with the short, thin-looking man, Leon briefly raised his hands in apology and said, "Sorry, sorry... didn't see you there." Leon didn't know the guard's name - Duncan or Darren or someone; one of the staff who'd come in with the Novum board. The guard looked, eyes darting awkwardly, and muttered, "It's okay; I was just heading off somewhere. Have a good night." Mumbling another apology, he turned and left, as fast as his legs could carry him.

Leon looked at the leaving man; that was odd. However, he put the encounter to the back of his mind as he walked along the walkway. He'd had a long day and needed some sleep. As he walked past the nursery, he suddenly heard Alice Denham's voice, "And nothing unusual to report so far-". As Leon heard this, he paused; what did she mean by nothing unusual?

Peeking through the door, he saw Alice holding a walkie-talkie, running her fingers through a sleeping Raksha's fur, quaking like a tree in a windstorm. Muttering, she said, "And no, no-one's noticed anything. Nobody's suspicious about what's going on." Leon briefly looked alarmed, before leaving; what on Earth was she talking about?

Watching this, Duncan Kent slipped away. His mind wracked with worry; Leon bumping into him at the portal might have been a coincidence... or it might have meant that someone was getting suspicious. As soon as he got to a secluded area, he lifted a satellite phone; this was important. He had to inform his boss about these developments.

Next time on Prehistoric Earth

The team go back to the Ice Age

(Drew and Leon stand by a herd of mammoths)

To bring back some of the most famous extinct mammals

(Jack, Alice and Will look into a cave)

Meanwhile, enemies move in for the kill...

(A man smiles ominously at the contents of a large crate)

All next time on Prehistoric Earth: Full Fathom Five!

However…

At Novum HQ, overlooking the blaring city of San Francisco, Percival von Grimm sat, tapping his feet expectantly. He was sitting in the Novum clean room, waiting for information from his contact. He was alone in the building; even the night watchmen were packing up. All the better…

Eventually, the satellite phone rang and Percival picked it up. "Ah, Duncan, I was expecting you… any updates?" Over the phone, Duncan's voice hissed into the room, "No issues to report, so far. However... Leon was hanging around me at the portal site. I think Drew might know what's going on..." Percival snorted, "Duncan, your worries have been duly noted. However, I believe they're unfounded – Drew isn't the kind to notice anything; too bull-headed. If it isn't anything to do with his missions, he's not interested."

After a pause, Duncan said, awkwardly, "Yes, but still; I think we need to tell Frank to be careful. I'm close to succeeding in our primary objective and the last thing we need is him being sloppy." Percival rolled his eyes, "After that breakout, do you want to give that idiot reason to carry out another suicidal plan? Tell him to step things up, but that's it." There was a brief pause, and Duncan responded, "Fine; however, I don't want to see him screwing everything up." Percival snorted, "Why would it matter? We're too close to success. Contact him and tell him he's got a deadline; we need the first batch off that island in two weeks." Duncan paused, "Understood." The call ended.

Meanwhile, in a secluded area of the Prehistoric Earth island, there was a dock with several large warehouses surrounding it. The dock was a hotbed of activity; Jeeps containing crates with various animals in them drove into the warehouses, two men forcibly wrangled an Ornithomimus from a building into a cage, whilst a desperately thin Postosuchus being transported by a truck snapped and hissed at everything around it.

Supervising it all was a large, bald, bearded man, wearing a leather jacket and black jeans. Rather noticeably, he had a necklace made of teeth from various dinosaurs around his neck. He scanned the scene with a glower, before being interrupted by one of his subordinates, "Frank, the boss wants to talk to you!" His glower intensified; yelling, in a thick Cockney accent, "I'll be there in a minute!"

As he walked down the hall, he passed various animals – including a young female T-rex, two Smilodon and several juvenile Triceratops – all in small pens, and a room full of parts from various prehistoric animals, including Triceratops horns, Smilodon pelts and Hyneria fins, before entering an office. Lifting his satellite phone, he answered, "Frank speaking... Duncan?!" There was a pause, before he yelled, "I want to hear from the boss, you mug! Not you!" At Duncan's response, his eye twitched angrily, before he snarled, "Of course I can get everything ready in the next two weeks – so long as you provide what you were s'posed to almost a year ago!"

Frank put down the satellite phone and looked over at a jury-rigged time portal – more ramshackle than Prehistoric Earth's - and barely concealed a scowl. He muttered, "Smug bastard.", under his breath, opened his office door and walked out into the hall.

As he walked down the hall, he seethed at what had just happened. Duncan had tried to use him as a scapegoat for the fact that they were behind schedule. It was all Duncan and Mr. Grimm's fault – they had given him this portal made from inferior materials and had promised that Duncan would steal the dino-huggers' one soon enough. It had been over eighteen months and that hadn't happened. And that bastard had the nerve…

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a baby Triceratops' mewling. Annoyed, he grabbed the taser and struck it against the side of the dinosaur's cage, creating a shower of sparks. Quietened, the little creature recoiled. Frank smiled.

That was better.

Rescue tally:

Smilodon populator: 13 (4 males, 9 females)

Phorusrhacos longissimus: 8 (4 males, 4 females)

Macrauchenia patachonica: 15 (5 males, 10 females)

Megatherium americanum: 6 (2 males, 4 females)

Doedicurus clavicaudatus: 9 (2 males, 7 females)

Toxodon platensis: 30 (10 males, 20 females)