The shapes moved closer to the humans, taking a moment to poke their eyes out of the water, so that they could judge the distance. They could afford no mistakes.

Eventually, they reached their target range. Moments later, they struck.

The serpentine shapes burst out of the water, trying to snap at the humans. Unfortunately for the hunters, they had not accounted for the bipeds' reaction times, and soon found themselves beached. Annoyed, the creatures began trying to crawl back into the water, using their flippers to heave themselves forward. Despite not being designed for land movement, the paddle-like limbs carried them far.

Still, being heavily adapted to water living, the reptiles were easily overtaken by the curious hominids, who easily managed to restrain them. With their attackers now immobilized, the team to a quick moment to look them over.

Surprisingly, the attackers were mosasaurs. The reptiles were normally ocean dwellers, but freshwater species were known, even here in Hell Creek. There were two species living here, one a mosasaurine, the other a plioplatecarpine. Both species had attempted to attack the humans, and were now trying to slink back beneath the waves while they could still breath.

The team, however, had other ideas, and swiftly opened up the portal, before shoving the river lizards into the present. On the other side, Ted was already beginning to examine them, even as they tried, unsuccessfully, to eat him.

XXXXXXXX

With one rescue already under their belt for this mission, the team's spirits were high. Advancing forward, they began searching for more rescues.

As the hours dragged on, though, it became apparent that the animals weren't going to make themselves obvious today. It was soon late afternoon, and in spite of all their searching, the team had yet to find another animal. Exhausted, they settled down beneath a tree.

Taking out a thermos, Michelle offered it to Violet, before turning to Tristan. "This the first time you've had a lot of trouble finding animals?"

"Yes, it is. Guess our luck has to run out some time."

Overhead, birds flew by the team, looking for food amidst the drying landscape. Alice and Lucas were busy talking about the Carnufex, while the rest of the team was busy looking for signs of nearby animals. At the moment, though, none were showing up.

"So," asked Tristan, "you enjoy working her?"

"Absolutely. It's fun, a little dangerous, and I get to work with my friends. What's not to love?"

"Though you'd like it here. Now, another question: think we'll find the female rex and her chicks?"

"The odds are unlikely, but we encountered the female Postosuchus and Big Al, so it isn't impossible."

Tristan merely smiled. If they could save those four animals in this mission, he'd say they had done well.

A sudden bellowing caused the team to turn their attention toward a nearby patch of greenery. There, hidden behind some trees, was the unmistakable form of a Torosaurus.

Soon, another appeared, and another, until a small herd was visible. Briefly, a pair displayed frills at each other before one retreated.

Carefully, the team advanced forward, ready to try and catch the herbivores. Another challenger had emerged, ready to fight for dominance. This one was not intimidated by the former victor's frill.

Seeing no other option, the two giants locked horns and began to push. Unnoticed to them, Michelle had borrow Tristan' portal and begun setting it up.

The battle continued on, neither party back down. The older of the two, however, could feel an intense pain forming in his left horn, one that was only continuing to get worse. Desperately, he fought harder, trying to overpower his opponent, but the pain only increased. Panic started to well up within him - if he did not win now, his horn would surely break, and then he would forever lose the right to breed.

Before either dinosaur yielded, a rock flew though the air, impacted on the elder male's frill, bounced onto the younger's, then hit the ground. Perplexed, both animals back off, before turning to the left, relative to the old male.

There, standing on the open ground in front of them, completely exposed, was Michelle. In her hand was a small rock, which she promptly threw at the two horned dinosaurs. It hit the ground long before it reached them.

The two herbivores hared a look with one another. Then they charged.

Exactly as Michelle had planned.

As the horned herbivores approached her, Michelle merely back up a few feet. Moments later, the portal opened in front of her. Only thirty feet away, the herbivores saw the light appear, but were going too fast to stop, and soon hurtled into the present. The rest of the herd stared on at this for a moment, before walking away - the two others were now lost to them.

"Well, that was easy," noted tai. "So what next?"

"...We split up?" offered Vera. "I mean, we have three different destinations to reach, might as well split now."

Thee team really didn't have any arguments there. Carefully, they set the portals and split off.

XXXXXXXXXX

The sound of crashing waves filled the air as the portal opened. Emerging from it were Elise, Sean, Alice, and Lucas. Behind them, the portal closed, leaving them alone on the Ancient Coastline.

Nearby, a second portal opened, and out came the Ancient Mariner. For this rescue, a boat would be necessary.

The scene before them was vaguely similar to what they had seen in Hell Creek, but where there had once been marshlands, now there were coastal plains. Though dinosaurs were still present here, the real targets dwelled beneath the waves.

XXXXXXXX

Back at the park, the staff were busy moving Matilda into a temporary holding pen. The tyrannosaurs were acting up again, but this time, it was Terence who was being aggressive. This morning, he had begun acting strangely, among other things hissing at his parents and sister, whilst also taking various bones and enrichment objects in his exhibit and stringing them up in odd places. Unsure what to do, the staff had herded away his relatives whilst drawing up plans to deal with him. They were lucky that they had managed to finish expanding the rex exhibit before he had started acting so oddly, lest he compromise the construction crew and bring harm unto them.

He was not the only dinosaur to act odd. Theo had also been unusually aggressive, as had Big Al and one of the Coelophysis. Even some of the sauropods were starting to act weird.

The staff was concerned by this, and wanted answers to two questions: why were the animasl act like this, and what was going through their heads?!

XXXXXX

*At T rex Hill, Terence's POV*

Turtle shell goes here, whale vertebrae goes there. Cow femur goes under this tree, nodosaur armor goes here.

..GO away, small mammals! EVERYTHING MUST BE PERFECT!

XXXXXXX

Oblivious to the problems of the park, Tristan stepped out of the portal, followed by Michelle, Vera, and Aiden. Neither of those three got far before slamming into Tiberius' heir, who had gone rigid. The minute the team saw what he was staring at, they also froze up.

It was not the scenery that caused the team to freeze up, though that was rather beautiful. Araucaria trees dotted the fern flood plains, while flowers bloomed all around, making for a spectacular seen. The presence of a few brightly colored nodosaurs eating the plants only added to the beauty.

It was not the animals that had made them stop in their tracks, though they could not help but admit that there were a lot of fantastic specimens, among them sauropods, hadrosaurs and oviraptorids. Overhead, several Quetzalcoatlus soared, searching for animals to eat.

No, the reason the team had frozen up was the fact that before them, mere meters away, there was a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Oh, and she was looking right at them...

XXXXXXX

AN:

1. No, I am not cloning Rexy.

2. I will not be rescuing the animals from the Last Day of the Dinosaurs in this chapter. Well, except for the Quetzcoatlus and mabye the rexes. The rest will be rescued later.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!