Phineas and Ferb's Dinosaur Adventure – Chapter 5: Ceratosaurus Returns
A/N: I think the story is going terrific so far! Expect a lot of dinosaur action in this chapter as our friends head deeper into the Jurassic world. As usual, more species of dinosaurs will be introduced into the story and we'll also catch back up with Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Agent P. Meanwhile, Phineas, Ferb and the others will continue to explore the plains and Isabella and the Fireside Girls will make some surprising discoveries in the forest. Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Phineas and Ferb.
Phineas and the others quickly approached a herd of medium-sized ornithopods. They looked a little like the Dryosaurus, but were larger – about 15 feet long – and had a beaked head, robust hind limbs and broad feet. They walked on four legs. The dinosaurs made a braying noise to communicate.
"Alright, let's see," Phineas said. But just before he opened his dinosaur book . . .
"I bet you can't name those dinosaurs without the book, huh Dinnerbell?" he said.
"Let me see . . .," Phineas looked thoughtful, handing the book to Baljeet. "Camptosaurus." He turned to Baljeet. "Am I right?"
Baljeet looked in the book and nodded. "Yes. That is what they are called."
"How'd you know?" Buford asked.
"I research a lot of various topics," Phineas explained. "Dinosaurs included."
"Huh." Buford then whispered to Baljeet, "He thinks he's better then us."
The Camptosaurus were content to graze on the low-growing ferns in the plains. The creatures were quite peaceful and assuming animals.
Vanessa said, "It's kind of nice out here isn't it?"
"Yeah, I have to admit, it is," Candace agreed. "It's kind of nice with the long-necks in the distance, these . . . Campo-something-sauruses feeding over there and the flying reptiles in the sky . . . but I'm not sure what those mounds are." Everyone looked up at the several tall mounds of hardened dirt, many over nine feet tall. The group walked next to one of them. Ferb ran his hand over the mound's rough surface.
"I think these are termite mounds," Vanessa said.
Phineas smiled. "Yeah, now that we're up close, I recognize them now."
"Termite mounds?" Buford asked. "Termites live in the Jurassic?"
"Sure. Just like today, they make these tall mounds to live in . . . well, actually they don't live in the mounds, they live underneath them."
"Then why build the tall mound?"
"The structure of a termite mound is specially constructed with several special shafts that lead down into the nest," explained Baljeet. "The mound naturally maintains heat that's obtained from the sun, but this tall mound is able to help get rid of excess heat and keep the temperature comfortable inside."
"So it's a natural temperature control system," Phineas said. "Cool. And all that without the use of electricity. Hey! I know what we're going to do tomorrow! Ferb, make a note of that."
While Ferb started writing on his notepad, Phineas looked at his GPS and Baljeet took some pictures. Phineas looked back up and said, "I'm kind of wondering where all the predators are. With all these herbivores around, there have got to be some carnivores somewhere."
Buford tapped Phineas' shoulder. "Try looking behind those termite mounds, dude."
Candace moaned. "You just had to ask, didn't you, Phineas?"
The gang looked back at the predator Buford spied hiding behind a pair of termite mounds. They couldn't see much of it because of angle, but they could tell that it was a relatively large predator, and a familiar one based on the presence of several crests on its head.
"I think Ceratosaurus is hunting again," Phineas said.
"Alright, girls," Isabella said, "let's see what we can find in this part of the forest."
"I've found a pine cone," Adyson said.
"There's a lizard beneath this rock," Ginger announced as she lifted a small rock to reveal the little reptile. The lizard sat motionless, not even blinking its eyes. Ginger put the rock back in place.
Gretchen looked around a tree and spotted some club moss plants. "These club mosses like living near the base of this red wood."
"Here's a dung beetle," Katie said.
"It's kind of interesting," Jenny said, "even though we're back in time, a lot of the stuff in this forest is exactly the same as the things we find in forests back at home."
"Including this weird rock," said Holly. The small rock sat beneath a blanket of ferns – it had a rough texture and several nubs pointing out to the sides.. Holly lightly touched the rock and it moved! The "rock" rose into view, revealing that it wasn't actually a rock, but a dinosaur. It was a small creature, about a meter in length, walked on four legs, had a stiff tail, bony armor covering the upper half of its body and a series of knubs running along its sides.
"Whoa, cool!" Stacy said. She took a picture.
When the flash went off, the dinosaur blinked its eyes rapidly and crouched back into the ferns.
"It's OK, little guy," Ginger cooed. She continued patting the creature on the forehead, to calm it down. The dinosaur seemed to like it. "I wonder what it's called."
At the given moment, Gretchen was holding the field guide, so she flipped through the book and . . . she didn't know where to find the dinosaur. "What type of dinosaur do you think it is?"
"You have the book," Adyson said.
"No, not the species, the order or family or suborder or something like that. I wasn't sure whether I should look in the armored dinosaur section or the ornithopod section."
"Try armored dinosaur," Milly offered.
Gretchen continued searching the pages until she found the desired section. "Yep, it's an armored dinosaur, also known as an ankylosaur. But I don't see one that matches the size of this little guy."
"What dinosaurs are in there?" Isabella asked.
"Gargoyleosaurus and Mymoorapelta. Both are well over fifteen feet long, and this guy's only about three feet long."
"Think he could be a baby?" Ginger asked.
"He's definitely cute enough," Stacy said. She bent down next to her little sister. "Who's my cutey little dinosaur? Who's my cutey little dinosaur?"
The ankylosaur yelped and started walking away.
Ginger glared at Stacy. "See what you did? You scared him! We were just starting to be friends."
"Mom's never going to let you keep him, Ginger."
Isabella started walking after the baby dinosaur. "Let's see where it's going."
"Yeah!" the Fireside Girls chimed and they all took off after the dinosaur. Despite its relatively squat legs, it could move fast beneath the ferns. The girls followed it until the dinosaur ran toward a larger armored dinosaur. The girls stopped dead in their tracks.
The larger dinosaur looked much like the baby, but it was around 10 feet from nose to tail and stood three feet tall from the top of its shoulder. And where nubs were present on the baby, the adult had large spikes. The adult animal lowered its head to the baby's level and she gently nuzzled her young one. Apparently, this animal was the mother.
"Aha!" Gretchen exclaimed. "It's a Gargoyleosaurus!"
The Gargoyleosaurus suddenly looked in the direction of the girls. She narrowed her eyes and bellowed loudly.
"I don't think she's happy," Jenny said.
The mother dinosaur quickly got her young one behind her and stood between the baby and the Fireside Girls. She wasn't very happy at the arrival of these guests from the 21st century. She bellowed again as she thumped her heavy tail on the ground.
"Who's it looking at," Vanessa asked nervously. "Us or the other dinosaurs?"
"I wish I knew," Candace said.
"Well, we could just start running," Buford suggested, "then we'd know for sure. Worst case scenario: it might actually be stalking us." Everyone glared at Buford. "What? I'm just sayin'"
The Ceratosaurus broke cover and suddenly darted toward them. As Phineas and the others were between the predator and the Camptosaurus herd, there was no way of knowing who it was after.
"Start running!" Phineas said. Everyone took off.
The Camptosaurus herd saw the threat and began to yelp in fear; they took off running in the opposite direction on their hind legs. Despite their size, these herbivores were quite agile and were as graceful as gazelles. Unfortunately, Ceratosaurus was fast for his size too. Like a giant bird, his legs carried him quickly over the plains, toward Phineas and the others!
The kids ran as fast as they could, but the Camptosaurus were getting widening the gap, while Ceratosaurus was closing in on his. Phineas took a moment to look back at their pursuer. It was possibly one of the most ferocious carnivores to ever to roam the Jurassic, he thought. The dinosaur ran with its jaws agape and its hand claws ready to seize prey. With every step the Ceratosaurus took, the closer and closer it came.
"We are not going to be able to outrun him!" Phineas exclaimed.
"Thanks for pointing that out!" Candace said. "Surely you can think of something!"
"There's not much we can do now, Candace."
"Just build some weapons or something."
"We're kind of on the run here."
"Build a platform that runs by itself that you can–"
"We can't build anything on the run, Candace. We're just going to have to outsmart this guy."
Candace looked ahead at the fleeing Camptosaurus; they seemed to be heading towards the herd of Apatosaurus. The gentle giants were still grazing on ferns. "I think they're heading toward those dinosaurs."
"Perfect. I bet they can fend off the Ceratosaurus," Phineas said. "Let's see if we can reach them before the Ceratosaurus reaches us."
"Yeah we'd better make it, Dinnerbell," Buford said.
The herd of large dinosaurs was no more than 30 feet from where they were, but the Ceratosaurus was closing in. It emitted a high-pitched roar. Just then, Phineas remembered the Dryosaurus they saw earlier, and how they were able to escape. "Everyone split up!" Phineas exclaimed.
The others obeyed and they forked off in different directions (except Baljeet, as he was snatched up by Buford). The Ceratosaurus snapped its jaws angrily and came to a stop, trying to figure out which one it should pursue. It looked from the right and to the left and the right again. It was temporarily confused.
Now far enough away, Phineas and the others began running diagonally toward each other and toward the herd of herbivorous dinosaurs. Unfortunately, not too long before they all should have reformed, Vanessa stumbled over a rock and fell to the ground. A raspy roar escaped the Ceratosaurus' jaws as he bounded toward Vanessa.
"Great, we're all together," Phineas said.
"Where is Vanessa?" Baljeet asked.
The others looked back and saw her struggling to get off the ground quickly enough to escape the predator. "Help me!" Vanessa cried.
Ferb, the only person who could have realistically saved Vanessa, narrowed his eyebrows and darted toward Vanessa. The Ceratosaurus roared, racing to reach Vanessa before Ferb did. Unfortunately for him, the Ferb reached Vanessa first.
"Thanks, Ferb," Vanessa said as she helped him to her feet. Ferb gave a thumbs up. That's when they noticed the Ceratosaurus was slowly approaching the pair.
Not too far away, Baljeet asked, "Shouldn't we help them?"
Phineas shook his head. "No, Ferb knows what he's doing. Any sudden movements could trigger the dinosaur to attack."
"But we all run up to it together, shouldn't we be able to scare if off?"
"Who knows. Besides, we're too far away. By the time we reach them, whatever's going to happen will have already taken place."
"Well what's it doin' now?" Candace asked, nervously.
"The Ceratosaurus? Oh he's stalking; predators sometimes get confused when prey they're unfamiliar with doesn't run away."
Ferb stood firm in front of Vanessa, determined to protect her; meanwhile the Ceratosaurus stood no more than 15 feet away and struggled to try and figure out why the prey wasn't running away. The prey it normally hunted either ran away or stood firm to fight back, so Ceratosaurus wasn't sure whether this prey had some secret weapon he didn't know about. He was being cautious. In an attempt to frighten the prey, Ceratosaurus roared, blowing Ferb and Vanessa's hair. He snorted, sending puffs air out his nostrils.
Just then, Ferb reached into his pocket and pulled out a metal stick ruler. Candace groaned.
"Seriously, Ferb? A ruler?"
"Hold on a sec," Phineas cautioned, "he knows what he's doing."
Ferb held the ruler up to the sun, allowing the light to produce a bright glint off the metal. But the dinosaur wasn't deterred. He roared again. Ferb went into action; he lunged the ruler like a frisbe and it went whirling through the air. The edge of the ruler hit the inside of Ceratosaurus open mouth, right in the gums, causing the dinosaur to growl in pain. He shook his head rapidly, as the ruler fell to the ground. Ferb grabbed Vanessa's hand and yanked her away from the scene. The two met up with the others.
"For a sec there, I was worried," Candace said.
"Well, thanks to Ferb, I'm alright now," Vanessa announced.
"That was too close," Baljeet said.
"Um, hate to break up the moment, but we might want to get a move on," Buford uttered, gesturing toward the Ceratosaurus. The dinosaur had recovered, though suffered a minor wound in the gums, and was stalking toward Phineas' group.
"The Apatosaurus are too far away for us to reach in time," Phineas said, disappointed.
Ferb tapped his shoulder and brought his attention to a pair of elephant-sized dinosaurs – one slightly larger than the other – walking nearby. They had small heads and plates running along an alternating row on the back and tail. The end of the tail was endowed with four spikes; this spiked tail is called a thagomizer. Fortunately, these dinosaurs were herbivores.
"Great spying, Ferb," Phineas exclaimed. "Guys, head over by those dudes over there."
Phineas and the others took off running; it was now that Ceratosaurus chased after its prey with great ferocity. Its tail swung back and forth as it ran. As the time-travelers neared the herbivores, the two dinosaurs – perhaps a male and a female – looked up and bellowed. These animals were simply massive up close! These were some of the most iconic dinosaurs; even Vanessa knew what they were.
"Stegosaurus, right?" Vanessa asked. Ferb nodded.
"Let's stay out of the way," Phineas suggested. The others agreed and moved out of the way of the majestic herbivores. The dinosaurs now paid no attention to Phineas and the others, because the much more dangerous Ceratosaurus was now coming into view.
The Ceratosaurus slowed its pace forward as it neared the Stegosaurus. It roared once again, but the Stegosaurus were not impressed. The larger individual walked in front of the other one and made a low guttural bellow; it stomped one of its back feet on the ground. But the Ceratosaurus didn't back down. It clicked its claws together, thinking about its next course of action.
"What are they doing?" Candace asked.
"I think the Stegosaurus are putting on a dominance display," Baljeet explained. "Oh! Look!"
The larger Stegosaurus turned to its side, showing off its great size and the row of plates on its back. The plates were diamond-shaped and stretched from its neck, where they were very small, all the way down its back, where they were largest, and down to the tail, where the spikes were. There were 17 plates in all. The Stegosaurus bellowed again as his plates began to turn bright red as they rapidly became filled with blood. The tail swung slowly from side to side, prepared to strike the hungry predator should it attack.
"Man, he's gonna get it the hard way," Buford commented.
The Stegosaurus never took its beady eyes off the predator; it was determined to protect its mate. You couldn't really be sure what was going on inside of the brain of a Stegosaurus, but you could be positive that it knew when the perfect moment to strike would be. Ceratosaurus roared, flashing its pearly white teeth, hoping to scare Stegosaurus into fleeing and making it possible to attack. Unfortunately, there wasn't an appropriate moment to do so. Confused and intimidated by the stegosaurs' display, Ceratosaurus began to slowly back away.
"Great, he's leaving!" Candace said.
Ceratosaurus turned and after taking a final glance back at the Stegosaurus pair, he began walking calmly away to find more suitable prey.
Phineas and Ferb have each other a high five. "That was awesome!" Phineas exclaimed.
"You kidding me? 'Awesome' wouldn't be the word I'd use," Candace said.
The mother Gargoyleosaurus bellowed quietly, standing in front of its baby. Isabella stood in front of the Fireside Girls.
"She doesn't look too happy," Jenny said.
"Hold on," Isabella said. She slowly approached the mother dinosaur.
"I can't look!" Adyson cried.
Isabella bravely took ripped some fern fronds off the nearest fern and held them out to the Gargoyleosaurus. At this, the mother seemed to change her attitude. She approached Isabella and sniffed the ferns. "It's OK," Isabella whispered, "we're not going to hurt you."
Then Gargoyleosaurus opened her mouth and engulfed the ferns. Isabella giggled. "It's alright, girls. She's OK." The other girls approached the dinosaur slowly. "She was probably just nervous before."
Despite her appearance, the Gargoyleosaurus was actually a rather friendly animal, it turned out; it only was aggressive when scared. "So these guys only eat plants?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah, they'd be too slow to catch much of anything anyway."
Ginger fed the baby dinosaur, who seemed fond of the younger ferns. "He's so cute!"
Adyson snapped her fingers. "Hey, I've got an idea!"
"That's strange, this should be working by now," Doofenshmirtz said as he checked the control panel right next to him. He and Perry had been cooped up in the time machine for some time now, waiting for it to boot up. "OK, something's up. Maybe there's a screw I didn't screw all the way or–"
The machine suddenly fired up and began vibrating around wildly.
"Ha, ha! It's working!" he exclaimed. "Here we go, Perry the platypus!"
The machine started spinning around and around in circles until it finally disappeared.
"Ahhh!" Doofenshmirtz cried. "Getting . . . dizzy!"
The machine swirled and swirled through space and time.
(Back in Time – Huey Lewis)
Then it finally came to an abrupt stop, causing Doofenshmirtz to hit his head on the wall.
"Ouch, my nose. No matter, we're here!"
Doofenshmirtz opened the door of the time machine to find he saw the time machine had landed in what looked like a large arena with a crowd of people cheering from the sidelines. Several Roman guards stood at various areas around the place.
"Well this can't be right," Doofenshmirtz said. Suddenly, chains began to rattle as a large gate door was lifted open, revealing two yellow-glowing eyes inside. "Oh dear." Unfortunately, Dr. Doofenshmirtz' time machine had landed him and Perry in the Roman Colosseum.
Doofenshmirtz and Perry watched a large Bengal tiger strode out of its confinement. Its eyes were fierce and its pearly white teeth glinted in the sunlight above. This tiger wasn't very friendly . . . and it was free! Roaring, the tiger bounded for the time machine's occupants.
"Got to get out of here!" Doofenshmirtz exclaimed.
He slammed the door shut, pressed some buttons and just as the tiger was about to leap onto the machine, it swirled rapidly and vanished. The machine spun around wildly, and Doofenshmirtz struggled to stay in one spot. Perhaps he should have installed some sort of mechanism to keep occupants inside the machine from getting dizzy.
The machine came to a stop again, Doofenshmirtz grinned. "Alright, this time, I'm sure we're here!"
He opened the door . . . and saw that he'd landed in a large crude runway for airplanes. This definitely wasn't Jurassic Danville either.
Doofenshmirtz rubbed his chin. "Hm, you know, I'd better recheck my calculations." After he finished his statement, a loud sound resembling a motor came from over head. "I wonder what that could be from." Looking up and behind him, he gasped – a biplane, the Wright Flyer to be precise, was coming in for a landing on the very runway Doofenshmirtz time machine was sitting on! "Alright, time to go!"
Doofenshmirtz pressed the button and the machine took off again, narrowly avoiding getting run over by the very first working airplane.
(End of Song)
Doofenshmirtz opened the door once more, he'd begun to loose count of how many times he'd arrived at the wrong time period: in this afternoon alone, he and Perry had seen the eruption of Pompeii, the Revolutionary and Civil War, two knights in the middle of a joust in Medieval times, almost got trampled by a herd of stampeding bison in the pioneer days and finally saw when Doofenshmirtz was just a boy and forced to stand outside all of the time as a garden gnome.
As the time machine stopped once more, Doofenshmirtz held his forehead. "Man, I've got to install some sort of anti-dizzying device," Doofenshmirtz told himself. "Are you dizzy, Perry the platypus?" When he looked at Perry, the platypus still had his normal glaring facial expression. That was when Doofenshmirtz realized that he had some sort of helmet underneath his fedora. "Oh, so you've got an anti-dizziness helmet? That's just not fair. Anyway, this has to be the right stop. I can't take any more of this spinning."
Hoping he wasn't about to get into the wrong time period again, he opened the door to his time machine and stumbled out into a primordial forest. There were large red wood trees towering above him and ferns littered the forest floor. The sounds of strange animals could be heard from all around and there was much fog in this part of the woodlands, giving the place a rather eerie appearance. I can't believe it . . . Doofenshmirtz thought. "I've made it! Now I'm going to be supreme and rightful ruler of the entire . . . TRI-. . .STATE . . . AREA!"
Perry chattered.
"Now, Perry the Platypus, watch as I begin my evil scheme."
Doofenshmirtz picked up Perry's T. rex skull cage and the Time-Alteration-inator, closed the door to the time machine and started moving deeper into the forest. "Now we've got to find some dinosaurs," Doofenshmirtz said. Needless to say, Perry definitely had his work cut out for him this time!
A/N: In this story, I've tried to create a healthy balance of dinosaur facts and the fun, thrill and humor we all love from the Phineas and Ferb show. Do you think I've succeeded so far? What's your favorite dinosaur to appear in the story so far? I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. Anyway, that's it for this week. Please be sure to favorite, follow and review on this story and please check out my other fanfic, "Take 2 With Phineas and Ferb – Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar", because I can't continue it without questions from reviewers (you can check it out for more information). Until next time, r&r!