Carefully, the team set up the portal, occasionally taking a glance at the rhomaleosaurs to make sure they had not finished their meal and vanished into the sea. Being sure that they would not be attacked was also a valid concern. Fortunately, the predators did not seem to notice them, allowing them to set up the portal unmolested. Once it was armed, the group promptly began throwing chum into the ocean, hoping to get the plesiosaurs' attention.

The plesiosaurs ignored them. Even as the chum floated near them, they were too busy tearing apart the remains of the ichthyosaur to care. Granted, it was a large ichthyosaur.

Needless to say, the team was amused at all.

"...Do we need to use someone as live bait?" asked Tai, view hesitantly focused on his brother, who immediately seemed to catch on to what his younger sibling was implying.

"...I guess so."

Aileen merely handed him a fishing spear for self defense, while sighing in annoyance. How could such large animals be so transfixed on an animal that much smaller than them?

XXXXXXX

Back at the park, Lucas is above the waves once more, and busy speaking to Ted.

"So, let me get this straight," asked the aquatic animal keeper. "You think that Bruce might be ready to mate and want to try and shack him up with one of the females?"

"Yes."

"But you don't know how to get them to breed, and are asking me for help, right?"

"You or Elise."

"Am I not good enough for you?"

"NO, No, no!" backpedaled the wildlife photographer, "she just happened to be the one who had me getting photos in his exhibit."

"I see. Why do you need help?"

"Well, I don't know how megalodon breed, or how their closest relatives, great whites, do, but I assumed you might know those habits and be able to, well, tell me?"

Ted stared at Lucas for a moment, a quizzical look on his face. Then, he sighed.

"Okay, I'll help. But I'll need to talk to Bob first."

"Why?"

"Need to ask him to see if there are any recently dead whales near the park."

"...Wait, what?"

"Look, people really have no idea on how great white sharks mate, or how they find each other. The modern assumption is that they might meet each other at whale carcasses. Assuming that Bruce's species acts the same, we'll need a whale carcass to get him and any potential mates to act friendly to each other, because there is no way we could practically provide enough meat at one time to act as a substitute."

A look of comprehension finally appeared on Lucas' face. "Oh. I see." Then he frowned. "But what if we don't find one?"

"Then the park broadens the search to any dead whales in the Carribean. Then we start looking for dying whales to herd toward here, and I do not want to consider anything else."(1)

"...Okay. I'm gonna get back to taking photos."

"Just keep them away from your friends," replied Ted. "...Unless you can find a way to avoid being caught."

"Yah. See you round."

XXXXXXX

Within her exhibit, Plesi watched as Strong returned to the trees. Her daughter seemed...different than before. Her brashness had been dialed back, and she no longer charged blindly without thinking. Now, when she hopped between trees and branches, she took the time to judge the distance, to attempt to plan where she would land. By no means was she perfect - she misjudged twice and found herself falling through the flora once, but progress was progress.

Dimly, she wondered what the strange bipeds had done to make her daughter like this. How they had made her listen to her instinctual abilities, instead of simply acting however she chose. How they had neutered the effects of one instinct to focus on another.

The pondering soon faded, Plesi's mind unable to focus. Most mammals weren't capable of long, complex thought. Complex emotions, yes, but not complex thought. Only the hominids had mastered that art.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Back in the past, Tristan is trying to bait in the rhomaleosaurs….with himself as the bait.

As Tristan approached the predators, he noticed that they had made a mistake earlier when looking at the carcass they were feeding on. What had appeared to be one was actually two different corpses - one a plesiosaur, the other an ichthyosaur, as they had already noticed. This might have explained why they were more interested in feeding on the bodies instead of the chum.

Of course, the presence of a live target could change that in a heartbeat.

As soon as they sensed him, the predators turned their attention toward the human. Hunger was what colored their eyes, though - that was caution. To them, this new strange creature was not yet prey, but a possible competitor, who only wanted to steal their food. For now, they would only stare at him. If he tried to take their food, though, conflict would be unavoidable.

Which was exactly what Tristan wanted. If they chased him, they could easily be herded into the portal. Thus, with only minor concern for his own safety, he charged toward the carnivores and harpooned the ichthyosaur carcass.

For a moment, all was calm. Then the plesiosaurs charged him. They overshot the tiny human, though, and hurtled themselves into the present. Tristan threw the harpooned corpse into the portal behind them, before the rift closed.

Turning his attention downward, he set about to retrieve the plesiosaur carcass for future use as bait...only for streamlined shape to dart past him and snap it up. Taking a closer look, he realized it looked a lot like the park's Metriorhynchus.

It looked like the team had found their carcass.

Yet before the crocodilian could enjoy its meal, the ground next to it seemed to shatter. Confused, both human and hunter turned to stare at the rubble...and the red, aquamarine, and lime green arthropod standing amid it.

XXXXXXX

It had seen the carcass fall and had tried to capture it, only to find its meal stolen by a sea crocodile. Enraged, it had shattered the rock in front of it, trying to surprise the sea reptile and, in doing so, make an opening to steal the corpse.

Already, it could sense others of its kind heading toward it, hoping to get a piece of the meat. It could also see more shapes converging toward them, most likely more crocodiles. This was their territory, after all.

Undeterred, the arthropod merely clicked its clubs together, ready to fight.

Its kind were newcomers to the Jurassic scene, having evolved in the aftermath of the Extinction that separated this period from the Triassic. With many niches open, new species had evolved to claim them. Marine reptiles had taken some of these niches, but others had remained vacant. Among those to try and fill them were the arthropods, hoping to regain some of the roles they had lost following the Permian extinction event. In many ways, this creature was comparable to a eurypterid, being a large arthropod with well developed forelimbs. Yet while more eurypterids used those limbs to grasp or sieve through sand, this one used them to crush and shatter.

Though this species was impressive, and endure for some time, its lineage of giant, armor breaking arthropods would not last forever, meeting their end when the dinosaurs did, victims of forces beyond their control. Yet its smaller cousins would survive, and retain their bone shattering exoskeletal clubs, used not to kill large marine reptiles and fish, but clams, snails, and other small arthropods. For these hoplocarids, evolution would be kind.

Scientists would call them stomatopods. Fishermen would name them thumb splitters. Aquarium owners would fear them as tank breakers. Some would even make a meme about their destructive power, counting to three before death ensued. Yet all of this did not matter to the carnivores. All that mattered was taking the kill.

Clubs raised, the giant mantis shrimp prepared to strike.

XXXXXXXXX

AN: Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?

As for the note above:

1. Scientists really don't know how great white sharks mate. It is assumed that they meet up during breeding season when looking for whale carcasses. Ted is extrapolating that onto Megalodon, since he doesn't know how they breed. Thus, he assumes the park would need to use a whale carcass to get Bruce and any potential mates to be friendly with each other. As for him not wanting to think about alternatives, its mostly because any way of obtaining a whale carcass in order to make the megs receptive to breeding would be sketchy and could potentially go against all the park stands for.

Also, he doesn't realize that the park could just use the time portal to pull a dead prehistoric whale into the present to use for shark breeding, which is EXACTLY what I intend to do in the future.

As for the giant mantis shrimps, stomatopoda is known from the Jurassic, I just don't know which point. As nature has seen the extinction of so many species, most without any fossils ever being left behind, I think it is fine for me to make up one or two creatures for this story.

So, read and review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!