Part 2:

Jack, his hands clamped on the rod and his feet rooted to the spot, reeled in his catch with all his strength, as the fish vigorously pulled on the line. These fish may have been small, but Jack was learning something very important; size means nothing when it comes to fishing. After several minutes of struggling, a small, armoured fish was finally reeled in and placed in a tank with several others of its kind. " Whilst this was happening, Leon was currently observing the fish trying to identify the species, as well as trying to deal with Jack's incessant chatter, "Well, that's the last of them. Y'know for little things, they sure are heavy; whatever they are, they weigh more than a chum box being pulled by a Cameroceras!", the exhausted Jack said, as he collapsed into a chair.

Leon gave him a small glare before he took a deep breath and explained, "These are Bothriolepis. They're placoderms; they belong to the same family as Dunkleosteus. And, to be honest, it's a positive; if we find large amounts of prey, it's almost certain there'll be a predator nearby ."

Jack rolled his eyes and grinned smugly at Leon, "Yes, Leon. I know all about the placoderms; I read the info-packs, actually."

Leon gave him a mocking smirk, "Oh, really. Tell me about the placoderms, then." Jack gave him an arrogant smirk in response, "They were a highly successful group of fish in the Devonian period, characterised by extensive armour plating on their bodies. They were only around for 50 million years before becoming extinct in the end-Devonian extinction. See, I know this stuff too, smartypants", before giving an arrogant smirk in response. Leon gave him a vicious glare, "What's with you, Jack? You prattle and you chat and you talk – God knows, you talk – and it's really getting on my nerves."

Jack facepalmed and said in an exasperated tone, "What's with you, Leon? First you get rammed by an Anomalocaris, then you get dogpiled by Megalograptus, and now, you didn't even get off your lazy arse and help me with the fish! How did you even land this gig in the first place? Me, Yolanda, Kyle – we were all selected; Theodore thought we were the best for the job. Not you… we were just told you were coming along! You're a hanger-on, Leon; a tourist!"

Leon gave Jack a shocked glare, the anger he was feeling visible in the scowl on his face. Jack breathed out and said, "Wait, wait, I'm sorry. I just snapped. We've had a long and rather disappointing day, we're both tired and things just… got out of hand. Maybe we should both turn in." Leon didn't feel like bothering him, so he let Jack leave.

Just as he was leaving, Drew appeared. "What's with Jack, today? He seems way more angry then he usually is. And, you need to lay off too. Tempers have been running short lately; and I need you two to co-operate on this mission.", Leon shrugged in response; he didn't know (or, for that matter, care) the reason for Jack's behaviour change. Drew changed the focus to their catches. "Anyway, I just sent a message to prepare for more fish; how about we send these guys through?"

Leon breathed out, "Might want to hold that thought. It seems Jack also caught a dead one, somehow." As he said this, he reached into the tank and pulled out one that was completely motionless. Drew looked at it grimly before the germs of an idea began to enter his mind. After sending the small placoderms through, he went to the bottom of the ship to see if the radar was picking up anything. Unfortunately, it had failed to pick up anything of substantial size; there were a few small blots on the radar that were probably more Bothriolepis or primitive sharks or… something, but that was about it. He looked to the sun that was beginning to set and sighed; better do this the old fashioned way. He waited for his teammates to fall asleep, before he grabbed some diving equipment and dove into the ocean bellow.

Adrian and Alice were in a bad situation; the large fish, using its massive pectoral fins, was currently getting closer and closer to them. The two stood, paralysed by fear, as the creature continued its remorseless advance. They were surprised when the predator stopped and even more so when it suddenly lunged at them, with a speed belying its massive bulk, missing Adrian's leg by inches. Then it did something surprising; it retreated. It didn't have enough energy to continue chasing them and it was getting too far from the water. The prey had won this round. The massive fish continued to crawl back into the river and then it dived back in, to the murky depths from whence it came. The two explorers looked at each other in silence, collected themselves and went back to their camp. Once they arrived, Alice opened the food packets and began using the camping stove, whilst Adrian was looking through the notes. Alice turned to him and asked, "Any luck discovering what the killer fish was?"

Adrian looked intently at the book as he nosed through it, "Not yet, but I'm sure that it's somewhere in this-AHA found it!" He walked over to where she was and showed her a picture of a large fish that looked exactly like the one that attacked them. Adrian began to read what the page said, "Hyneria; a large predatory fish that was thought to have preyed on any creatures that it could catch. This was a top predator. They were thought to be highly territorial and may have had the ability to move on land for short periods of time, in order to catch their prey." Alice sat, waiting for the food to heat up, and listened very closely. Once Adrian had finished reading, he closed the book, sighed and said, with a resigned tone, "Forget the salamanders, this right here will take us forever!"

Alice looked at him like he'd gone mad and said, "What the hell you talking about?" Adrian turned to her and said, "What I mean is that, with them being so territorial, it could take forever to find a mate for that one."

Alice stared open-mouthed at him, "Why would we need to find it a mate?", to which Adrian looked at her, confused and said "Because, how else can the species continue once we rescue them?"

Alice's eyes widened and she said, basically screaming at him, "Woah woah woah! I am not going near that thing again! What possessed you into thinking that we should save that thing?!" Unbeknownst to either of them, a brief flash of silver could be seen in the water in the distance.

Adrian turned to her and said, "Remember what Drew said during the very first mission? 'No Species Left Behind'. That, out there", he gestured to the water, "is an extinct species that may die out in the near future and you're suggesting we do nothing!" In response to this, Alice stared at him for a few minutes, trying to find something to say. In the end, she gave up, sighed and said, "Fine, but we save the Hynerpeton first!" Adrian breathed out and nodded in agreement, "Seems like a plan", before they went back to their dinner.

Meanwhile, Drew was currently swimming through the reef. It was the perfect way to escape the chaos on the boat; he'd never been one for confrontations and hated to be involved in a fight. This late night dive should be a great way to escape the issue. However, it was still preying on his mind and he began to think. It wasn't just today; tempers had been running short between Jack and Leon for quite a while now. They seemed to be engaged in a little feud, each trying to outdo the other. He could see why Leon felt inadequate; Jack was very smart and he was clearly trying to get in Drew's good books and had been ever since the Silurian mission. Leon saw this as a challenge; he'd always been painfully aware of his inadequacies. Previously. they'd managed to be professional, but since they'd arrived, they'd practically been at each other's throats.

He attempted to take his mind off it by looking at the world around him; the seas seemed to change at night. It was something he'd noticed in the Ordovician; the ocean seemed to transform into an alien world at night, where everything was rendered invisible in the inky gloom. Drew kept his guard up not wanting to be attacked by something by accident. Soon he felt something swim under him. He quickly looked and saw a bizarre looking shark swimming in the direction he was headed. It didn't take long for Drew to identify the shark species.

"Stethacanthus", he said to himself, "That dorsal fin is an immediate giveaway". And he was right the shark had a disproportionately large, anvil-shaped dorsal fin. Aside from that, it was near indistinguishable from a modern shark; sharks hadn't changed much in 350 million years. 'Wonder what got him in such a panic.'

Right when he finished that, the shark suddenly disappeared into the gloom; it had been grabbed by something. Something huge. Drew shined his headtorch at the approximate location of the predator. He gave a small gasp as a gigantic fish swam into the light. It was an imposing looking animal; its front half was covered in thick armour, making its head look substantially bigger than its body. The creature opened its fearsome gape and revealed a vast mouth filled with what looked like massive shearing teeth. Drew knew instantly what it was. He had found a Dunkleosteus; actually, it had found him. The predator remorselessly advanced upon this new prey item.

To be continued