AN: FINALLY FINISHING THIS CHAPTER! THEN WE GET THE PLOT ROLLING!

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THe bite I have on my line is unlike any that I have ever dealt with before - even my efforts to catch bull sharks feel different compared to this. Whatever is one the line is one of the greatest river monsters I have ever met - and if I am right, this is indeed the ultimate river monster.

Now, though, I need to be extra careful realing thing creature in - if I make one wrong move, the tables could turn in an instant.

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Wrestling with all his might, Jeremy reels in his catch. Slowly, the large shappe in the water takes form, eventually revealing itself as a massive, razor-toothed fish - their quarry, Rhizodus. The fish fights with incredible force, trying with all its might to break free from the line. But it has expended too much energy, and its struggles slowly become weaker, until at last, Nigel and Jeremy managed to pull it in. Hastily immobilizing the creature, the two take a moment to look on in awe at their catch - countershaded and colored like a rainbow trout, this creature truly lives up to the title of river monster.

"I never thought this day would come," spoke Wade. "This is Rhizodus, the animal I've said was the ultimate prehistoric river monster. And now, amazingly, I'm holding one in my arms."

The fish chose that moment to give a powerful thrash, catching Nigel and Jeremy by surprise, but due to its exhaustion, it was unable to break free in that moemnt, and was soon restrained again.

"Wow. That was...well, a shock."

"Indeed it was," intoned Nigel. "Now, normally, keeping a fish out of the water would slowly suffocate it, but not these fish - the group they belong to, the sarcopterygians, are the ancestors of the lungfish, and while this giant doesn't lead to them, it has lungs, just like they do. In fact, in the millions of years to come, that group will give rise to every terestrial vertebrate on Earth, and all bony fish. See, having an air filled sac like a lung is immensely useful for controlling your depth in the water, which is why you can fill your diving equipment with air when you are scuba diving. When bony arise from the sarcopterygians, they'll keep the lungs and turn them into their swim bladders, so that they can control their depth better than the shark and rays."

"Of course," began Jeremy, "this creature won't leave behind any descendents. They're doing well, but as we saw already, they're slowly being displaced. Amphibians are moving to take their role as aquatic predators, and in a few million years, they'll be gone - replaced by giant amphibians like Prionosuchus, which will one day be replaced, in turn, by crocodilians, who seem destined to hold that niche for a long time."

But for this individual, the safety of Prehistoric Park lay in its future.

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After getting the first Rhizodus, Nigel and Jeremy find themselves having no trouble catching several more, alongside other fish and invertebrates - it seems their luck is finally paying out. It only takes half an hour for them to catch enough fish to set up a breeding colony, after which they finally decide it is time to head back to the park. IT seems that their fishing trip is finally at its end, and they have managed to reel in the big one.

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A few hours later, and the park is settling in its new residents quite nicely. The ponds and tanks are seeing their new inhabitants settle in calmly, the existing residents are still doing mostly fine (excluding issues with grooming), and Jeremy is bidding Nigel his farewell.

"You know you can come back anytime, Mr. Wade?"

"I do, but for now, I want to focus on the river monsters still left in the wild."

"I understand perfectly. Good luck!"

"Thanks."

Next time, the Team will be taking a break to take stock of their equipment.

(Shot of the team checking over a warehouse)

New discoveries will be made.

(Shot of the team watching Spear, Fang, and a red faced tyrannosaur)

And the park plans out its finances.

(shot of some staff working on a mess of files).

But for now, all is calm in Prehistoric Park...mostly.

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In an office a few hours after Jeremy had left, Tristan was finishing sealing up a few sets of letters. Every month, the park had to give updates to both his father and its supporters on how things were doing, and that included documents directly addressed to the US and UK governments - with something as important as time travel in this mix, they definitely had an inkling of what happened in this island in the Carribean. Of course, the odds of this mail being stolen was minimal, but lost by a misfile? That was a reasonable risk. So it fell to a member of the staff to be sure that they reached their delivery plane on time, and today, that was Tristan.

As Tristan moved to ship out the letters, he couldn't help but wonder about why they had the addresses they did. The one to the UK he could understand, but the one to the US? He expected it to go to Washington, D.C. Or maybe Langley. But New York City? Really?

THe group in the government that was in charge of them was based in New York City, at 34 Thomas Street?

Were they really prepared to handle this stuff?

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Somewhere beyond time and space, an entity that looked vaguely like a pyramid felt offended.

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Path to Coalescence - Phase One out of ?: Completed.

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Yay, this story lives again!

Wnated to wrap this up, took way to long to get it updated.

And now we have a mystery afoot. But what does it mean?

Figure it out yourselves.

Read, review, do what you want! This is Flameal15k, signing off!