Alice woke up from her sleep and gave out a yawn. She'd slept surprisingly well; the night had been rather quiet, aside from the occasional movement outside the tent. She suddenly got the bizarre feeling that something was in there with her; that there was something in there. It was probably just a large millipede or something; those existed at that time. She rubbed her eyes before her vision cleared, and a large salamander-like creature was standing right in front of her, staring at her like a curious dog. Shocked, she gave out a small scream and backed away from the creature. However, the amphibian was paying little attention to her, instead choosing to snuffle around the tent in search of food. She calmed down; evidently the creature wasn't going to attack her. In fact, it appeared more bemused by her presence. She briefly smiled; it was kind of cute, actually.
Meanwhile, Adrian's slumber was rudely awoken by both Alice's scream and several loud, throaty bellows from outside. He looked around the camp urgently to see what had startled his teammate. He was worried that the Hyneria had decided to attempt another attack; he had no idea how far it could go on land, but the first one had pursued them a considerable distance. However, he didn't see a giant predatory fish tearing through the tent. Instead, he saw over thirty giant amphibians, dotting the land around the tent. Several of them were now inside the tent; they seemed to be attracted to the leftovers from last night's dinner, which was on a table out of their reach. Adrian quickly grabbed the notebook and tried to identify the intruders. They looked like salamanders, only much larger; the largest of them was about five feet long. The only amphibians that big today were the Asian giant salamanders, which he had heard from Jack (who'd worked with them on a previous Novum project) grew up to six feet in length. For such large creatures, they were surprisingly brightly coloured; their bodies were adorned in bright patterns of yellow and black. They looked, for all in the world, like a Halloween decoration. Adrian quickly flipped through the notes and found the mystery animal. He turned to the correct page and whooped in delight, attracting the attention of two of the amphibians, "Here it is; Hynerpeton!". He than checked on Alice, who was staring at the giant amphibian that had so rudely awoken her, "You alright?" She chuckled, "Yeah, I'm fine. He just gave me kind of a rude awakening. It's OK though, I don't think they're predatory; otherwise we'd be dead by now." Adrian smiled and said, "Your unexpected visitor didn't kiss you on the lips, did it?"
Alice chuckled and raised an eyebrow. "What are you thinking that it wanted me to star in the Devonian remake of The Princess and The Frog?" Adrian gave her a brief stare, "I'm being serious, actually. These guys are brightly coloured; which means they could be poisonous. I'm thinking we grab some rubber gloves and move these guys into the portal."
After they put on their protective gloves (it never hurt to be prepared), they began to shepherd the Hynerpeton into the portal, using the leftovers as bait. It was a surprisingly easy task; the creatures were all eager to follow the singular lure. They could now notice that there were two distinct size differences amongst the throng; some Hynerpeton were slightly larger and more brightly coloured than others in the throng.
However, interactions between the creatures were not harmonious; individuals would occasionally snap at either each other or Adrian and Alice. Soon, all the Hynerpeton at the camp were through the portal and they could focus on their next target. Hyneria.
On the Ancient Mariner. Drew and Co. were currently preparing the shark cage to rescue the Stethacanthus. As the cage was slowly lowered into the water, Leon was talking to Drew over the communicator, "Drew, buddy? These guys were thought to be highly territorial so make sure you take this chance; we might only happen once. Of course I know you'll listen; we take missions more seriously than Captain Fisherman over here!" Jack turned to him with a glare. "Oh, I'm sorry, Leon. I didn't realize that you somehow envied the ability to have useful talents other than being a walking talking textbook on animals!"
Drew saw where this was going and quickly dove in, taking the dead Bothriolepis with him. As he swam slowly into the cage, he noted feelings of trepidation. The only time he'd been nervous diving was actually going into the water; afterwards, he'd been as relaxed as he'd ever been. He entered the cage and waited. After about two minutes, the sharks began to notice the dead placoderm and began to approach the cage, moving as if a single entity. Drew waited as the advancing shoal swam closer and closer, until they close enough to the cage for Drew to open the portal and throw the dead Bothriolepis through it. The sharks all followed the bait, like dogs after a tennis ball, and disappeared through the portal into the present.
Adrian and Alice were currently in a canoe paddling through the lake in search for a Hyneria. Adrian was scouting out the lake, whilst Alice checked on the current status at the park. "OK, they just received the Hynerpeton. Apparently, Drew, Jack and Leon also brought back some small sharks; the ones with the anvil-shaped fins, apparently.", she confirmed.
Adrian muttered "At least that means Drew is keeping himself together", before turning to her and saying, "Stethacanthus? I saw a couple of them in the water today. I guess that means they can live in both salt and freshwater." Just as he said that, the shadow of a shark appeared under the boat. Adrian wasn't worried. Despite its unusual and fearsome appearance, Stethacanthus wasn't all that big; it'd pose little danger to them. Here, there were bigger fish in the water; ones that made even great white sharks look like small fry. "That's not all." Alice said. "Drew apparently managed to save a male Dunkleosteus. Apparently ,it took them forever to find out the damn thing's gender. I wonder how they did it".
The two kept looking, eventually capturing a particularly persistent Stethacanthus, so they could find the Hyneria easier; it, and other Stethacanthus, had been responsible for a number of false alarms. Their search was ended when they saw a shallow part of the lake, near the shoreline, covered in blood. Their suspicions as to what it could attract were confirmed when they saw an enormous fin, like a great white shark, swimming towards the shore. Thinking the same thing, they turned the canoe towards the direction the fin was heading and followed it; here went nothing.
On the Ancient Mariner, Leon and Jack were currently watching the radar. Their job was to alert Drew if anything big came around. Right now, however, they were watching the Stethacanthus swam through the portal. "Another success! It looks like our fearless leader has saved another species. Maybe you should take some lessons." Jack declared, as the last shark disappeared through the portal, "If you were down there now, they'd be dogpiling you. At least when you're up here, me and Drew don't have to get you out of trouble."
Leon gave Jack a venomous glare and rebutted, the anger barely hidden in his voice, "Oh yeah? Remind me; who was it that saved Yolanda from the Brontoscorpio that time?Uh, yeah me!" Jack chuckled, "Funny, I don't remember you being called Hepetet. Then again… I'm sure Yolanda would totally fall for her if she swung that way. I said it before, Leon and I'll say it again; you're a hanger-on", he finished with an arrogant smirk. Leon, enraged, shouted "YOU ARE SUCH A-". However, their argument had blinded them to a rather large blip appearing on the radar and swimming directly towards Drew.
Drew, meanwhile, was currently about to call the crew to lift him back up. However, his joy was short-lived as an enormous creature emerged from the gloom and rammed the shark cage. It didn't take Drew long to recognize the attacker. It seems that whilst he wasn't very good at finding Dunkleosteus, Dunkleosteus were very, very good at finding him.
