Putting the car in park, Kalista wasted no time in exiting the vehicle, going to the trunk, and retrieving her gear. Pausing only to pass Ai a taser pistol, she was soon making her way to the shore of the lake. Already, personnel were occupying the area, making sure that no one was getting into the water just yet.

"Talk to me," she said to the nearest man. "What's happened so far?"

"Interviewed the few people we found around the lake when we got here, wanted to see if we could get an idea of what we were dealing with, ma'am."

"Good. Any luck?"

"Yes, actually - local fisherman said he had just caught a catfish when a larger fish jumped out of the water and tore it in half. Couldn't give us too many details other than that it had large teeth. Fortunately, he thought it was an escaped exotic animal, so we didn't need to engage in much misdirection."

The Slavic woman couldn't help smiling at that. "Good. Saves us the trouble of coming up with a cover story. Where is he now?"

"Getting some water. We're planning to send him home soon - the less he sees of cleanup, the better."

"Excellent. Carry on."

"Yes, ma'am."

As the conversation ended, the man walked off to assist a coworker, leaving Kalista alone with Ai. Silence reigned for a moment, until the former decided to speak up. "You hear all that?"

"I did. Not that it does much to narrow down our list of suspects - there are a lot of freshwater fish with large teeth."

"Figures. So, what's Wyatt doing?"

"Getting some ROVs ready to search the lake with - no reason to risk people looking for a river monster."

"No argument there. At least this anomaly was easy to find."

The faintly glowing spot on the lake did make their lives easier in that regard.

Said spot was already surrounded by a trio of boats, which were busy setting their own drones into the water. If need be, they could claim that someone had dumped narcotics into the lake, but with the exotic fish story the fisherman had provided them, it could be just as easy to claim that there was a dangerous bottom-feeder that they needed to find before they could let anyone back into the lake. At least they didn't have to to clear the shoreline too much - no others had decided to go fishing today, and the last of the boats had been cleared after the circumstances had been made plain.

"So, uh, you mind answering me a question?"

Ai glanced at her friend. "Like what?"

"What are we going to do with all the animals we don't send back to the past in the long term?"

"...You mean where are we going to house them?"

"Seeing how killing them might ruin time, yes. I mean, you need to store them all somewhere, and they need to be fed every so often. So how do you address that?"

"We're working on it - we have some personal estates to act as temporary holding, but getting something long term will require negotiation."

'Not really,' noted Ai, 'but we can keep that lie going on for a little longer.'

"Good to know you have a plan," spoke Kalista. "I was starting to worry we were winging this."

"Bad experiences with people handling things on the fly?"

"I had to fucking clean up a colossal mess in Pripyat when I was a teenager, which was not exactly well planned."

"...Oh."

"Yeah. News has been bringing up bad memories."

"I can guess. Anyone still living in-"

"My family in Russia left when the Berlin Wall fell. Those in Ukraine left in 2015 or moved close to the western border. So far, none are in the line of fire."

"Peace of mind for you, it seems."

"So it seems."

"Yeah. Anything else you want to know?"

"You gonna use any of these creatures we find for medical purposes?"

"...Seriously?"

"Heh, people in the movies and on tv like to do things for science. I just want to get a measure of what you and your husband would do."

Ai rolled her eyes. "Do you believe everything that television tells you?"

"No - I get my vaccines and actually read. But my question stands."

Ai couldn't suppress a smile at that last remark. "Funny. Since you asked, though, no, neither of us intend to exploit extinct animals for profit - it isn't ethical, and if you refuse to believe in a moral answer, there is still a pragmatic one."

Kalista raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"

"Too few samples. We can't clone these creatures and there wouldn't be enough to synthesize breakthroughs. I have entertained the idea of using extinct plants for business ventures, though - those are easier to synthesize. So yo we're close, but still off the mark."

"Heh. Wish I'd made it a bet-"

At that moment, the water suddenly parted as a huge, bulbous form began crawling out of the lake. Both women let out a surprised yelp as the armored creature started waddling toward them, nearby personnel hastily moving to get tranquilizer weapons. Said weaponry proved less than useful, though, as darts failed to pierce the armored skin. Unperturbed by the hail of projectiles, the creature continued to waddle toward the two woman.

Ai was already trying to find something to defend herself with, but Kalista had a much simpler solution - when the armored animal got too close to her, she kicked it. Hard. The force of the strike, alongside the shock of actually facing a strong attack, pushed the creature back a few feet, though it began its offensive anew. Groaning, Kalista threw a second kick at it. Then a third. Then she started punching it.

Ai and the rest of the guards observed this is silence for a moment, after which Ai noticed a par nearby. Grabbing, she whistled at Kalista and gestured for the woman to stop. Surprised, she did just that, just barely keeping ahead of her armored foe.

Before the creature had time to change targets, Ai walked up to it and used the oar to flip it over. Then she whacked it around where its solar plexus would be, causing it to fruitlessly start waving its legs, trying to get away.

Ai turned to look at her friend. "Biggest lobster you ever caught?"

"I've caught bigger."

"Really?"

"...No."

XXXXX

AN: Took awhile, but I have returned! Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!