As they touched the ocean floor, the sand suddenly seemed to erupt as if, by their very touching it, they had incurred the wrath of some monstrous entity. The two explorers quickly swam up to escape the beast they had inadvertently awakened.

"Oh great, we awoke Cthulhu!", Jack said in a mix of anger, surprise, and a bit of sarcasm. Drew rolled his eyes and looked down at the creature, which had now emerged fully from its sandy hideaway. The best way to describe it would be a cross between a scorpion and a lobster. The main difference between it and either of those animals, was that it was titanic; from head to tail, it must have been about the size of a crocodile. The creature looked up and attempted to grab the two creatures that had disturbed it, flailing one massive pincer into the air, inches away from Drew's foot. Seeing that there was no prey of appropriate size, the scorpion then buried itself in the sand from whence it came.

Drew and Jack watched the spectacle open-mouthed; as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Jack turned to Drew and quietly said, "Uh, fearless leader? Do you mind if I ask one teeny tiny question; WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Drew suddenly turned to him and said, in a voice that was barely above a whisper; "Quiet! You might alert it again. From the notes Theodore sent me, I think it's a Pterygotus; the largest of the sea scorpions and the largest arthropod of all time. It was on Theodore's target list; that's why we made two scorpion tanks, so we can have both these and Brontoscorpio at the park."

Right as Drew had finished talking, they noticed that a Brontoscorpio had appeared and had begun walking in the direction of the Pterygotus. Unlike the Cephalaspis, it didn't change course; it was almost as if it was searching for it. The Brontoscorpio abruptly stopped, lifted its pincers and moved forward to grab something. Suddenly, the sand erupted and the Brontoscorpio suddenly froze, realising what a serious mistake it had just made. Before it had any time to react, a giant claw emerged from the sand and grabbed it, holding it in place, as the Pterygotus fully emerged. Using its giant claws, the Pterygotus tore the scorpion apart. As pieces of the killed Brontoscorpio landed on the sand, smaller versions of the giant emerged and began to eat the pieces. Jack and Drew gave a surprised look; the Pterygotus was feeding her young! That was why the Brontoscorpio had approached the Pterygotus in the first place; it was searching for prey. Jack tried to dive closer to the monstrous family and use a dead fish to lure them to the portal, but he was met with a snap from the mother's claw.

He re-joined Drew, "So, fearless leader, how are we going to bring Scorpio-zilla back? Bait won't work; that carcass is going to keep them occupied for quite a while. If you want my opinion, we try the sonar. Maybe it can gather any others that might be hiding as well." "You just read my mind, buddy", Drew said, as he reached into his pocket and grabbed the sonar device. Drew passed Jack the portal remote and pressed down on the sonar device, sending out a sonar wave that caused the giant creatures to move. He pressed it several times, leading both the Pterygotus family (with the young being carried on their mother's back) and several others in the vicinity towards the area where they planned to open the portal. When they'd reached the area, Jack pressed the button to open the portal and Drew herded the giants through, into the present. Once the last giant had gone through, Drew shut off the portal. Jack, awestruck at the spectacle, turned to Drew and smiled, "Our luck's improving! This might be our easiest mission yet!"

At the park, Kyle and Nikolai were looking at the extra Cameroceras Drew and Jack had brought back. The unexpected arrival was feasting on some food in her holding tank, waiting to be transferred to the orthocone tank in the aquarium. Whilst the move from portal site to holding tank had been easy, Kyle was clearly not happy, "Why couldn't he just say that he planned on rescuing another one of those squids and save me yet another headache?" Nikolai sighed and said "Kyle, honestly, given what he and Denham are like, I was expecting much worse. At least we had barely a problem transporting these creatures when Drew first brought them back. Anyway, I suppose Drew thought that we had more than enough room in the tank for another."

Kyle breathed out, "I know, I know, but, honestly, could Drew just bring back something that's not going to give me a heart attack?" Just after Kyle said that, the portal whirred opened and a gigantic Pterygotus swam through, followed by several more of its kind. Within a few minutes, several giant sea scorpions were swimming round the portal site and had settled on the sandy floor. Kyle looked at the new arrivals, openmouthed, for a few seconds, his eye twitching as memories of moving the Megalograptus just five days ago came back to him; he'd been drenched by a creature barely a third these monsters' size. Kyle breathed out and turned to Nikolai. He said, in an exasperated tone, "Koli, could you please call some help? I need a freaking drink." He left while Nikolai, after wincing from his hated nickname being used again, stared at him and muttered briefly "One of these days, Kyle. One of these days", and got out his walkie talkie to contact the nearest keepers for some aid.

Meanwhile, at the aquarium, Leon was ecstatic. He'd done something he'd thought he'd never do; feeding the Megalograptus. He reflected on the past day's events; Yolanda and Mia's help and support had worked in leaps and bounds. Whilst he was still wary of them, he could now go near them without having a panic attack. He'd even lost his fear of Grumpy.

Yolanda and Mia looked at him with smiles on their faces; they were proud of the progress Leon had made, with their help. Suddenly, Yolanda heard her park communicator go off. Quickly, she picked it up, saying "Yello?". She had a brief conversation with the person on the other side and, once she had hung up, she turned to Leon with a smile on her face. "It was Nikolai. It seems Drew brought back another scorpion species; apparently, they're big ones too. I think it's time for your next lesson." Yolanda and Mia began to walk out before Yolanda paused and turned to Leon, "If you think you can handle it, of course", with a tone of worry and concern noticeable in her voice.

Leon smiled and shook his head, "Oh please, after dealing with these little devils, how hard can these guys possibly be?" Leon soon was forced to eat his words, as he looked down into the tank and saw the biggest arthropods he had even seen. Yolanda and Mia were also watching, dumbstruck at the titans Drew and Jack had brought back, as Nikolai began talking to them.

"Impressive, aren't they? Anyways, thank you for responding so quickly. We need them out of the way, in case Drew decides to rescue more animals; knowing what both he and Denham are like, we'll have to do it quickly. God knows what will take their fancy next." He than turned to Leon and asked. "Given you are the resident animal expert, I assume you might know the species of scorpion these are?"

Leon muttered to himself, "Why didn't I just assume what it was going to be? Of course, of all creatures, Drew and Jack would bring back Pterygotus." He then turned to the others to explain more. "These guys are Pterygotus; some of the Silurian's apex predators. To be honest, this is a positive; no sea scorpions, or arthropods in general, can get bigger than these guys. If Drew and Jack bring anything else back, it'll be smaller than these. And as for moving them… there's one thing I just wanted to ask; how did you move the Megalograptus the first time?"

Mia slowly breathed out and said, "It wasn't easy. We had to literally pick them up, one by one, and move them into the holding tank. Moving one got us all drenched."

"Well, considering their size, picking them up is out of the question.", Leon stopped to think for a bit. "I have an idea. Maybe we should try luring them in with some bait, like what you guys did with the orthocones." A few minutes later, a watching keeper dumped some fish guts into the holding tank, as the connecting door opened. After several minutes, the Pterygotus swam in, one by one, towards the smell of food, with the young being carried on their mother's back. Once the last of the giants had entered, the door closed. The team stared, amazed; this had, surprisingly, gone off without a hitch. Leon's plan had been a success. The team cheered, with Yolanda giving Leon a hug, in response to which he blushed. Nikolai chuckled to himself; Kyle was going to love hearing about this.

Back in the Silurian, Drew and Jack had entered a rocky area of the reef. In comparison to the vibrant location of everywhere seemed strangely quiet, as if everything was avoiding the place. Suddenly, an enormous scorpion emerged and snapped its pincers at them. They looked at each other in awful recognition of where they had found themselves; they had stumbled into Brontoscorpio territory and they definitely weren't welcome. They looked up to find that at least thirty large Brontoscorpio were standing on various areas of the rock, casting intent glares at the humans below them.

Jack's eyes widened and said, "Well, at least I got to put my foot in my mouth. Erm, fearless leader? If you've got a plan you'd like to share with me, then now would be a very good time! Our welcoming committee aren't exactly impressed with us." True to Jack's words, the scorpions all looked at the two intruders and started to advance towards them.

Drew gave him a knowing smile; "O ye of little faith, I do have a plan and it's a cracker. Grab the bait bag and get ready to empty it on my mark." Confused, Jack picked up the bait bag, as the Brontoscorpio began to surround them, still continuing their remorseless advance. When the Brontoscorpio swarm had gotten too close for comfort, Drew activated the portal. The scorpions recoiled at the glowing orb, staring stupefied at it for what seemed like an eternity, until Jack emptied the bait bag's entire contents through the portal. The scorpions, moving like a single entity, dived through the portal after the fish guts,. When the last one had disappeared, Drew turned off the portal. Jack, for once, was silent. After a few minutes, he said "WOW! That was awesome!"

At the park, the crew were currently watching the Pterygotus, with Mia especially intently watching the mother Pterygotus and her young. For once this had been a success; no drawbacks, no accidents, no nothing. Maybe it was luck or maybe it was a sign they were getting better at it; they would be ready for whatever Drew and Jack brought back next. Suddenly, the portal flared again and over thirty giant scorpions poured through, moving as if a single, unified creature. There were so many, they carpeted the bottom of the holding tank. Everyone turned to Leon for an explanation

Leon, having perked up, smiled and said "Brontoscorpio, a smaller type of sea scorpion; actually, it was one of the first creatures to go out of the sea onto dry land. And , before any of you ask, there isn't an Apatoscorpio." Mia groaned at Leon's awful pun, whilst Yolanda, watching from the platform, moved a bit closer to get a better view of the new creatures. This turned out to be a terrible mistake; a particularly large Brontoscorpio, attracted by the vibrations , crawled towards her and struck out with its stinger, landing a blow so powerful it cracked the glass. Yolanda, shocked, took a step back and slipped on the wet platform, freefalling twenty feet into the tank below.

To be continued