"How long did you know about the portals?"

Tristan turned to Elise. Once he and his siblings had been brought to their designated quarters for the night, they'd wasted no time in shooing away their hosts. No disrespect was intended, but there were questions that needed to be answered...privately.

"...Since five years ago."

"That long?!"

Tristan held his arms up defensively. "I saw a portal open up once in a park and spit out a Dilophosaurus. I thought I was seeing things until it killed a coyote that had wandered into the area. After that...I started looking things up on the internet, see if anyone had ever talked about these glowing portals in time."

"Why'd you never tell us?" questioned Sean.

"All the sources I found that might prove my case were...less than reputable. And I mean just short of supporting Alex Jones."

Instantly, Sean eased up. "Point taken."

Michelle cleared her throat. "I suppose you all also want to know when I learned about this secret?"

Everyone nodded.

"Well, it happened right after the end of the Chinle mission - when I was with Tristan, we saw a glowing light swallow up a few animals. Later that day, when we were at one of the exhibits, another light opened up and spit out those same animals - and I checked, they were definitely the same ones we saw the first time. Since Tristan was with me when that happened, he saw no reason to try and keep up the charade any longer."

"...Ok," said Elise in a nonchalant manner.

Tristan nervously scratched his neck. "So, um, what do I need to do to make this up to you guys?"

Tai was the one who answered. "Since this isn't something that could endangered our lives at any point up until now...treat us out to lunch?"

The teens and children all thought for a moment, before nodding - that sounded fair.

"Hey, what about me?"

Elise didn't miss a beat when replying to Michelle. "You pay for out next big friends night."

"...Eh, that works. Oh, and I'm sorry for keeping this a secret from you."

"As am I."

Elise rolled her eyes. "I think we all forgive you. Just don't keep anything else a secret from now on, okay?"

"We understand."

"Good. Now, can we please get ready for dinner?"

XXXXXXXXX

Dinner proved to be very nice, with the group enjoying a mix of roast turkey, potatoes, chili peppers, and other foods. It wasn't a feast, by any means, but it was still a good meal.

Once they had finished, most of the group retired to their designated guest rooms, with the few who did not deciding to take a moment to enjoy the beauty of the setting sun...and the emerging stars.

XXXXXX

Marcus smiled as the stars continued to appear in the sky, watching as each constellation came into view. Nearby, Michelle, Vera, Tristan, and Cassandra had joined him, all eager to see a beauty rarely afforded to city dwellers.

"Beautiful view, isn't it?"

Marcus turned to Cassandra. "Indeed it is. A nice, majestic sky, unobscured by the lights of civilization."

"Indeed it is. I always wondered what the constellations of older times looked like."

"Well, I don't think looking at these ones will help you."

Cassandra quirked an eyebrow. "Why?"

Reaching to his right, Marcus pulled out a sketchbook. Within a matter of moments, one page was on display.

"This is the night sky you should see in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year."

A few flipped pages later, another page was in focus.

"This is what you should see at night in the Southern Hemisphere."

One final flipping of pages revealed a third, somewhat bizarre looking image.

"This...is the sky above us right now."

Everyone huddled around the page, squinting to try and understand what was on it, with Vera being the first to figure that mystery out.

"...That doesn't look like our sky at all."

"I know. I've looked up every night sky that exists right now, but there are no pictures that match mine. Not even on the conspiracy theorist websites."

The oddity of this situation was...extreme. But what was its cause?

Whatever it was, the group realized they weren't going to figure it out sometime tonight. They'd need more time to uncover the truth.

XXXXXXXX

Night turned to day, and soon the group was back in action. After getting up and going through a rushed morning routine, Anne and Hucua had them going through the city streets, trying to avoid hawkers who wanted to sell their wears. Joining the group were Terence, the wooly rhino, Al, and Cynthia, all of whom were equally uncomfortable walking around so many humans, yet also surprisingly well restrained. The only real detour the group had been forced to deal with had been Tristan, of all people, trying to purchase a bagel from a man using a kentrosaur as a food stand of sorts.

How that managed to pass a sanitation test, no-one bothered to ask.

Eventually, they arrived at a research campus, where within one of the labs lay the remains of some of the predator's latest victims...and also, surprisingly enough, a predator cadaver.

Shocked, Michelle turned to Hucua. "You killed it?"

"One - those who killed this beast last night said that there were two. I pray that the other is the only survivor of its kind here."

"Have you autopsied it yet?" inquired Sean.

Anne nodded in the affirmative. "Not personally, but others have. So far, I cannot tell its positions in the animal kingdom aside from it being a mammal of some sort, and not a carnivoran. Blood testing might clarify that further, but as is, all we know is that it walks on four legs, eats meat, has no eyes...and appears to hunt by echolocation."

Tristan stared at the partially dissected corpse. "That hole in the center of its face...is that an ear?"

"Got it in one. Apparently that is its echolocation receptor."

"Interesting."

The sudden sound of something electrical sparking alerted the group to another oddity within the lab - on another, larger research table in a nearby room was some sort of machine, in a rather minor state of disassembly. Despite this, it still seemed to be online, somehow.

Cassandra glanced at Anne. "Care to explain?"

"This machine showed up a few days ago when it was spit out by a portal. Apparently, it comes from the same place as the bear machine you encountered earlier, alongside several other machines. There are two major types of machines that have been coming from the portals so far, differentiated by a combination of color and design scheme - most are white with blue lighting and resemble animals, while the rest are black with red lighting and look more like military robots. That one that you are looking at, though, doesn't match up with any of them."

"I see."

"Good."

As soon as the word left her mouth, Anne seemed to be a little off balance. Her eyes darted from the machine to Cassandra, her hands fidgeted with one another, and her expression became tinged with what the group felt was guilt.

Luckily for everyone, Cassandra took the hint. "Do you want to ask me if these machines come from my time, or at least some point between my time and yours?"

"Eh...yes."

"Then just be forward about it. And, to answer your question...I have never seen a machine that looks like this. Not at all."

Anne deflated at that statement. "Oh. Oh well, back to the drawing board."

Without warning, a screen suddenly flickered to life, showing a picture of an albino dragon...well, wyvern would actually be more appropriate.

"Oops. Forgot about that."

The group quirked their eyebrows at her.

"In addition to the corpse eaters, we have also been forced to deal with another unknown carnivore - some kind of troglodytic wyvern, according to those on the outskirts of this city."

Examining the image, Sean's eyes widened in shock, something Anne easily picked up on.

"Notice something, young man?"

"Well, um, it's just that...the creatures look like it came out of a video game I've played."

"If you are referring to the Witcher series, you're in the company of a fan. And yes, I have noticed the resemble this creature has to a dracolizard. I don't know why - maybe there's a timeline where the Witcher world exists and ours is fiction, maybe its just a lucky case of someone accidentally guessing an unknown creature's new form, I don't know and I don't have the time to care."

"I see. How much of a problem has this thing been?"

"A very big problem. It has developed a taste for livestock, or rather, already had one. When it first showed up, it seemed to be solely interested in eating cows and horses and sheep, despite other prey being in the same area. I have no idea why this is, but I really would like to know."

"Well, maybe-"

Without warning, an alarm suddenly went off within the facility, with the image of the reptile replaced by a map of the city and its surroundings. One area was highlighted, and next to it was live camera footage of something charging through a forest after several people.

Tristan almost broke out in a cold sweat when he saw what was chasing the humans. "Is that the predator?"

Stifling a curse, Anne turned to look at the boy. "It is. We've set up motion trackers to monitor the area outside this city to see if we can find the beast. The ones it triggered are in a forest relatively close by."

"How long do we need to get there."

"About-"

The sound of shattering glass interrupted Anne's statement. Turning toward it, the group stared on in shock as the seemingly inactive machine had reactivated and reassembled itself, and was now smashing its way through the walls to freedom.

Anne just stared on in shock. "What the fucking hell?! Why did that thing suddenly come online?!"

A new alarm promptly blared to life, as a warning appeared on the screen: 'Warning: Anomaly Detected."

The sound that came out of Anne's mouth was one of barely concealed rage.

Tristan cleared his throat. "How far do we need to go to get to the forest?"

Anne didn't even glance at him. "It's a twenty minute walk due east of here. Now I suggest you and your security team get moving. Now!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Another infodump, but hey, things are what they are.

Next chapter will probably be up on Saturday night - I'm going to be watching Tennocon, and I need to get a new chapter up for Conquest in the Name of Advancement (known here as Annihilation Through Unity) up.

So, Read, Review, and Check out my Discord! This is Flameal15k, signing off!