Feathered Dragons

Kyle Taymor sighed.

To speed up the process of getting the park ready for opening to the public, Theodore had decided to hire some temporary workmen. Unfortunately, Percival Richardson, Theodore's nephew, had been put in charge of hiring them all…and he'd gone for 'cheap', rather than 'reliable'. The majority of them of them were surly, taking "coffee breaks" that lasted on average of two hours (under the excuse they wanted to look at the animals) and were often rude. And at this point, progress was grinding to a halt.

At that moment, Kyle was now standing by the Morrison sauropod viewing area as three of said workmen were stuffing crisps into their mouths, lounging on a bench and half-heartedly watching a brachiosaur. Exasperatedly, he said "You're supposed to be working on those new stand-off barriers in the Morrison forest building – and you were supposed to have started two hours ago." The nearest workman, a burly Australian, snorted and said, "Mate, we're on a break. Push off and come back in about three-quarters of an hour or so." At this, Kyle said, in an exasperated tone, "How can you have a break… when you've done sod-all work?" At this, the Australian shrugged, "Mate, we make our own hours – so stop nagging us."

Kyle sighed and stormed off, muttering a string of curses under his breath. Still working to keep his temper in check, Kyle looked in the general direction of the portal site as he continued making his way out of the Morrison Formation zone. As if the surly workmen weren't enough, the team were going on a mission today. What "delights" would that bring? Hopefully something to improve his mood.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, Drew Luczynski was sitting in his office, waiting for his team. And as had been the case for several missions now, he was being kept waiting. Suddenly, a voice said, "What up, fearless leader?". He turned to see Jack and Adrian walking towards him, smiles on their faces. "Where were you?", Drew asked, "You guys were supposed to be here five minutes ago." In response, they rolled their eyes and Adrian replied, "I was training Hayabusa for a test flight, and Jack had to wrap up a training session with the velociraptors." He directed a brief glance towards Jack out the corner of his eye. "Plus, the two of us had a chat about something," to which Jack nodded in acknowledgement, and Adrian immediately directed his full attention back to Drew. "Anyway, what are we going after today?"

Drew smiled and showed them a picture of a small dinosaur. At first glance, it looked like a miniature version of the dromaeosaurs the park already had. However, its legs and arms were covered in long, asymmetrical feathers, like those on a bird's wings. "Microraptor," he responded proudly. Jack raised his eyebrow quizzically and said, "That's the dinosaur with the four wings, isn't it? The one that flew?"

Drew nodded. "Yep. However, 'flew' is pushing it," Drew explained, flicking through pages of the file. "That being said, microraptor was also key to the debate about birds evolving from dinosaurs; it gave us a little hint about how flight evolved. Microraptor and several other feathered dinosaurs have been found in a place in China called the Yixian Formation, which happens to be one of the richest fossil sites in the world." Jack smiled. "Well, fearless leader, what are we waiting for?"

And, so, they headed to the portal site. An employee entered the time period and location and the portal whirred into life. Drew put the remote in his pocket and, after securing it, turned to Adrian, who nodded, and Jack, who gave him a wink and a thumbs-up. Drew nodded at them both and they entered through the portal.

As they left the portal, the first thing that hit the team was the humidity. They looked around to see where they had emerged and the sight was breath-taking. They had emerged on the shore of a lake by a dense forest, dominated by gingkoes, cycads and seed fern trees. From the lake, they could see a dense undergrowth of horsetails, ferns and primitive flowers. In the air, they could hear the calls of pterosaurs and, in the undergrowth, they could hear the squeals and hisses of dinosaurs. In the distance, a large mountain loomed, with a plume of smoke above it. Jack pointed it out and aid to his teammates, "That's a volcano, I presume?" Drew nodded, "This region is very volcanic in nature; that's why the forest is so verdant. Volcanic soil is amongst the most fertile on the planet; if we're lucky, it won't erupt while we're here."

Jack chuckled and went, "'Lucky'. Something we rarely are, eh, fearless leader?", turning to his teammates as he did so, causing them all to chuckle. Jack suddenly shivered. "Mite chilly, isn't it?", he stated to which Adrian responded, "The Yixian Formation had a pretty cool climate – mean annual temperature was about 6 to 10 degrees. Roughly about the same as some parts of Europe."

Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently. All sound in the forest went quiet and a large tree by the lake fell to the ground. After a minute, the tremor ceased. Adrian turned to Drew and said, "You were saying?" Drew looked around; the tremor had been minor but…it wasn't particularly safe to stay here. He turned to his team and said, "We head to higher ground." Jack nodded and said, "Righto, fearless leader." And the team began to head to a higher section of the lake, farther away from the tree line; it never hurt to be prepared. As they hiked the short distance, Drew turned to see a strangely familiar shape flying behind them; however, the shape was moving so fast, it was practically a blur, and it was soon out of his sight entirely. And so he chose not to mention it to Jack and Adrian for the moment.

Once they had reached their new spot and set up camp, they looked around for any signs of their targets by the lake. Suddenly, they heard a loud squawk and looked up to see a flock of pterosaurs floating in the lake. They had short, rounded wings and a wingspan of about twelve feet. Their bodies were covered in bluish-black fur, grading to a lighter color on the belly. They had small crests on their heads and incredibly long snouts, with long, needle-like teeth. As they looked closer, they noticed two different crest types in the flock; the ones with the large, yellow-coloured crests were evidently the males, whilst the ones with the smaller, grey crests were the females.

Adrian turned to his compatriots and asked, "Any idea what these guys are?" Drew said, "From the looks of it, I'd say they were boreopterus; a common pterosaur in this region – according to Leon, they forage whilst swimming." Jack asked, "Another question; how are we going to get this lot through the portal?" Drew smiled at him. "Oh, ye of little faith," he chuckled. "I've got a plan." He then pointed towards where several bags he and the team had brought along had been placed. "Jack…get the fish bag."

Following Drew's instructions, Jack grabbed the bait bag in question, already filled with fish from the park kitchens, and emptied some of it onto the lake shore. The pterosaurs sniffed the air, veered towards the pile of fish and began swimming towards the bait. When they had gotten close enough, Drew threw down a portal grenade, swallowing up the pterosaurs and sending them back to the park.

Jack, grinning wildly after seeing the rescue unfold, turned to Drew and asked, "Now, fearless leader, what do we do next?" As Drew was about to speak, he was suddenly cut off by a series of loud, barking caws...coming right from their camp!

. . . . .

John Willoby nodded his head, a smile on his face as he observed the pterosaurs, boreopterus if he remembered correctly, that were now swimming around the freshwater holding pen. At that moment, he was once again serving as acting lead supervisor for the holding pens team due to Nikolai being unavailable. And this wasn't the only pattern…

Aaron chuckled, shaking his head side to side in bemusement as he watched the small flock of pterosaurs confusedly scanning the area. "Three times," he stated. "Now, it's a trend – we aren't handling the biggest, nastiest things in the ecosystem first off.." Carmen chuckled, a grin on her face, "It's official," she stated. "Drew's gone soft on us", as Hugo rolled his eyes. "I knew it would happen eventually," he muttered snarkily.

Several other keepers and guards amongst the holding pens team couldn't help but giggle at this. Even Willoby couldn't help but let a brief smile come on his face. "I appreciate it just as much as the rest of you," he stated, "But first thing's first. Let's get these big fellas transferred to one of the aviary pens here – Drew's going to be bringing back bigger and meaner stuff soon."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, at the veterinary facility, Yolanda was making her rounds around the premises. Her usual smile was on her face as she took stock of the animals currently in the recovery pens. So far, so good – all of them seemed to be doing well.

She sighed – things in the veterinary division hadn't really changed much since Theodore and Percival had visited and ordered preparations for opening be sped up. Fortunately, the temporary workmen Percival had hired hadn't directly injured any of the animals – at least not yet. She shook her head side to side. The workmen were surly and rude – but, hopefully, they'd be gone soon, when the park was ready. She took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. "Right," she said to herself under her breath. "Best get back to work. Today could yet shape up to be a pretty good day."

"Perhaps."

Eyes widening in surprise, Yolanda turned her head to see Colette leaning backwards against the wall of one of the empty recovery pens, a slight smile on her face. "Colette," Yolanda said, pleasantly surprised, "I was expecting you to be at the holding pens." Colette let out a low chuckle. "I'll go there soon," she said before then pointing in the general direction of the Flaming Cliffs zone. "But first, there was something I really wanted to talk with you about. Got a minute?"

Yolanda thought to herself. "Yeah, I've got time," she eventually said, "I'll be done here in a few minutes."

. . . . .

Fifteen minutes later, with Yolanda having finished her rounds, she and Colette had walked to the Flaming Cliffs zone… discussing something rather important. "So it's happening this evening?" Yolanda asked, "Better late than never". Colette nodded. "That's the plan," she responded before turning to face Yolanda. "If you're available… could you come along to mediate? You're friends with all three of us."

Yolanda nodded. "Yeah," she admitted before looking directly towards Colette. "And don't worry," she then stated. "So long as nothing comes up, I should be available. Believe me, I never like it when my friends fight each other." Colette chuckled – she remembered Jack and Leon – and said, "Certainly won't forget that in a hurry," she admitted, before looking to Yolanda again, a rare wistful look now on her face. "How do you do it, Yolanda?", to which Yolanda raised her eyebrow, equal parts confused and worried, "Do what?"

Colette sighed. "Nothing upsets you. No matter what happens, you're always the same – nothing ever gets you down. Sometimes, I envy you." Yolanda sighed, "The same, am I? Little you know…", before shaking her head and placing a hand on Colette's shoulder. "And besides," she said. "People like you – some more than others – just the way you are. You don't need to change." Colette thought to herself, and then nodded. "If you say so."

At the sound of high-pitched squeaking coming from the tarbosaurus paddock, the two girls turned their heads in time to see three of the juvenile tarbosaurus playing around with a 'squeaky exercise ball' while the adults were peacefully taking a drink from the paddock's lake. Yolanda raised her eyebrow. "Well that's certainly not something you see everyday," she said. Chuckling, Colette shook her head in bemusement, "Sometimes the research department comes up with the craziest things." One of the tarbosaurus tightly bit the ball. The ball, designed to be both tough and flexible, let out an incredibly loud squeaking noise. Yolanda briefly winced from the volume. "Certainly an attention grabber," she said.

A loud bellow from elsewhere in the paddock caused the three youngsters to pause and turn to see an aggrieved Red Claw standing nearby the entrance to the tarbosaurus pack's inside area alongside his mate Yellow Teeth. It appeared that they'd just been woken up from a nap. Red Claw bellowed again, his eyes narrowed in equal parts irritation and tiredness as he glared towards his three youngsters that had been playing with the squeaky exercise ball. The adults grunted disinterestedly and resumed their drinking.

Yolanda shook her head in amusement as Red Claw snarled at the three bewildered juveniles, before stalking off. "It's like grandparents complaining about the noise," she stated. "I can see the resemblance," Colette admitted dryly before shaking her head side to side in bemusement and checking her watch. "And on that note, I suppose I should be heading to the holding pens." She then rolled her eyes and sighed irritatedly, "And here's hoping I don't bump into any of the idiots."

Knowing exactly who Collete meant, Yolanda chuckled slightly, "I take it they've been getting on your nerves?" Colette whistled. "Like you wouldn't believe," she responded.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, at the main staff office building, Kyle and Nikolai were having a similar discussion. "So, they've started getting on your nerves too, huh?" Kyle asked as he and Nikolai walked through the hallways of the building, both on the way to the holding pens after the former had dropped by to get supplies after doing his rounds and the latter had to make a status report to Theodore. Nikolai snorted, rolling his eyes in distaste. "Da," he said bitterly, shaking his head. "Honestly? They haven't been doing a very good job." At this, Kyle sighed, "No kidding," before pausing and saying, "I mean, they're just lazy and annoying, so maybe I'm being unkind…" Nikolai whistled. "No, I'd say you're being kinder than some would be."

At that moment, they happened to be walking by the entrance to the main breakroom, where they could now clearly see Kevin Drake, the man who'd been hired to serve as the foreman, sitting lazily at a table with a bored look on his face as he took a sip from a mug of coffee. Nikolai shook his head side to side. "For that matter," he then said, "Part of me honestly wonders if things would perhaps be different if he actually gave a damn." Kyle sighed. Nikolai did have a point – any unit was only as good as its leader - before he shook his head to clear his thoughts. Right now dwelling on issues wasn't any good. "Come on," he stated to Nikolai. "Let's get to the holding pens. Drew and the team have probably already sent something back..."

At that moment, he and Nikolai both turned a corner into the hallway where the rescue team members' offices were located...and came right to a halt, eyes widened at the sight of one of the younger workmen – Cameron, they thought - on his knees and fiddling with a paperclip that he'd placed into the keyhole for the door to Jack's office. For several long minutes, all three gaped silently at each other, before Cameron let go of his paperclip and lifted his hands skyward in surrender, an awkward smile on his face. "I, uh, can explain…" he said.

At the sight, Kyle and Nikolai narrowed their eyes and glowered at the man. This was an interesting new development. "Trust me,", Kyle said. "you'd better hope you can."

Nikolai nodded, and gestured for the workman to get up and follow them. "Get up," he growled. "You're coming with us."

. . . . .

Rushing towards the cawing sound from their camp, the rescue team found that some of their equipment had been torn open. The attack angle looked chaotic, as if it had been done quickly, an attempt to nick some food whilst their backs were turned. The caw must have been an alarm call before it had retreated. Drew looked around the wreckage and said, "Whatever did this must have been looking for food; the meat that was part of our rations. They didn't get anything; those bags we use are near impossible to tear open. They can withstand grizzly bears."

Suddenly, their trains of thought were interrupted by a very familiar squawk. Standing on a log nearby, they found Hayabusa, preening herself atop Adrian's tent. The caracara gave them a puzzled look, as if to say "Why are you all so surprised?" Adrian looked, flabbergasted, "Hayabusa?! How did you get here?" Jack chuckled fondly. "The jammy little sod must've snuck through the portal," he stated in a matter of fact tone. Hayabusa squawked and hopped towards Adrian. Drew rolled his eyes, raised his communicator and went, "Hi, Linda. If anyone's looking for Hayabusa, she snuck through the portal; she's with us...and she might have torn up our camp in search of food."

Jack turned to Drew and went, "Umm, Drew, one small correction; Hayabusa didn't do this." Adrian turned to him and said sarcastically, "What gave it away? The angles of the damage indicating there were multiple attackers? The tears indicating that these things had sharp teeth and large well-developed claws? Or the fact that the call we heard before we headed back to camp was clearly not Hayabusa's?" Drew looked around, furtively, and said "Yeah, there's all that, Adrian, obviously, but I think what convinced Jack – and me for that matter – is the series of dromaeosaur footprints leading off into the forest." Jack gestured to a series of three-toed prints walking away from the camp and into the undergrowth. Adrian bent down to look at them; they looked like the droma prints back at the park…but there was something...off...about them.

Drew looked up and smiled. "Right, well, we know where we're headed," he stated, placing his hands on his hips. Adrian gave him a quizzical look. "A bunch of dromaeosaurs just attacked camp and you want to find them?", he stated, equal measures amused and incredulous. Drew shrugged and said, "Well, yeah. You're seriously surprised? You should know me better than that." Jack gestured towards Hayabusa and asked, "One last thing, fearless leader; what are we going to do with her? Send her back?" Drew sighed and said, "We'd best take her along. In case we need her." Adrian shrugged. "I suppose there's no harm there," he stated as he got to his feet and extended his right arm, after putting on his falconry glove. With a low squawk, the young La Brea caracara flew over and perched on the glove. Drew chuckled. "Right then," he said. "Onward we go D-bags!"

. . . . .

"I take it you have a good idea why you're here right now?" Kyle asked.

At that moment, he and Nikolai were confronting Kevin Drake at his table in the staff breakroom, which they were using a makeshift 'interrogation room'. And at that moment, Cameron, having thrown his nominal superior under the bus, was standing awkwardly nearby the tables and chairs that had been moved into position to form a ring around Drake, Kyle and Nikolai. At the moment though, Drake seemed almost bored – like this was just an everyday occurrence for him. "Just get it over with," he grumbled, brushing a hand through his dark hair in boredom as he did so. "I've got enough shit to do right now as is."

Nikolai raised an eyebrow. "Firstly, your tone is not something we appreciate – in addition, we find that difficult to believe." At this, Kevin glowered at Nikolai, flipping the big Russian security chief the finger in the process. Cameron winced at the sight of this - this was not a good start. Kyle rolled his eyes. "Well since you seem to be quite quick to get this over with, I won't waste your time," he spat before pointing towards Cameron, who squirmed. "Mr. Isaacs over here said that you'd given him orders to break into Jack Denham's office. Care to explain why that might be the case?" At this, Kevin turned his head to face Isaacs, an expression of disgust on his face. "So, you fucked that up", he grumbled, clear derision in his voice. "And here I am surprised."

"So he was doing it under your orders?" Kyle asked. Kevin glowered at the two chiefs of staff. "I suppose it would only make sense…"

Nikolai groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation. "Please do not be rude with us, Drake," he grumbled. "Be honest with us – did he act under your orders or not?" Kevin rolled his eyes. "Well if it's honesty you want, then no. He wasn't acting under my orders." He then thought to himself. "Or at least, not directly anyway.

Kyle raised his eyebrow. "Clarify," he stated. Kevin sighed. "Ok, technically, I did tell him to do it… but I was just relaying word from up on high." Nikolai raised his own eyebrow. "And who might that be?", he asked. Kevin rolled his eyes. "I'll give you a clue", he spat. "If you could punch any man on Earth in the face, who would it be?" At this, Kyle and Nikolai looked at each other and back at Kevin. "Percival?" Kyle asked. "And, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner," Kevin said, sarcastically, as Nikolai glowered at him. Cameron winced once again. "This can't end well," he thought to himself.

Kevin, to his credit, took it in stride, merely glaring briefly at Nikolai before looking back to Kyle and continuing. "Mr. Cheapskate didn't just hire the cheap people because he was cheap – some of us were meant to spy on you and report back to him." He rolled his eyes. "He wanted updates on EVERYTHING – nobody was to so much as breathe without him being aware of it." At this, Nikolai and Kyle looked to Cameron, who winced and gritted his teeth before eventually nodding his head. "It's true," he eventually said, "He wanted as much info as he could." He pointed in the direction of Jack's office. "When you caught me? I was attempting to gather information on the Denham dude's dromaeosaur studies – I have no idea what Percival wanted them for."

Kyle groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, "And here was I thinking the idiot'd leave us be." Nikolai shook his head side to side. "I'll admit the fact he made such a pig's ear of espionage is somewhat disappointing," he stated before looking back to Kevin. "But at the same time," he admitted. "I can't say I'm surprised either." Kevin nodded his head. "Well," he stated bluntly. "Here we are. We've admitted to our crimes. Can you report him to Theodore so his uncle'll get mad at him? Would give me some satisfaction."

Kyle and Nikolai, however, already had other ideas in mind. "I take it you have no real love for Percival?" Kyle stated. Kevin let out a slight laugh of incredulity. "You kidding me? I could care less what an asshole like him wants." He then pointed at Kyle, a glower on his face, "He may be paying me, but that doesn't mean I have to like him – he's a penny-pinching whiner with a major inferiority complex." Cameron, grinning, nodded enthusiastically at the statement. Kevin then rolled his eyes. "And don't even get me started on the shit wages Percival's giving us."

"Then why did you agree to getting hired for all this in the first place?" Nikolai asked. "Or for that matter, why didn't you try to report any of this to Theodore?" "Because I still needed the money," Kevin responded. "And hey, peanuts is better than nothing." He took a brief sip from his coffee mug, sighing in relief afterwards. "And I haven't had a better deal… as of yet." Cameron nodded, and said, "However… that might change. The foreman has been talking to me – and some of the others – about negotiating something."

"I see," Nikolai stated – already he was starting to get an idea of what they were inferring. "Well then, we are open to negotiations," he then said as he placed both hands on the table and turned to the disgruntled foreman. "Name your terms." Kevin raised his eyebrow, a smirk on his face. "Here's the deal… I can get everyone shipshape – help you crack the whip, get them in line and speed the work up. They'll fall into line – bit of grumbling, maybe, but they'll all fall into line – if the statement comes from me. Consider it an olive branch – however… one little thing..." At this, Nikolai narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "And what might that be?" Kevin shrugged. "Oh nothing too big," he stated. "Just that it'll cost ya – a couple thousand extra up front. And that's a discount 'cos it's been good negotiating with ya." Kyle shrugged. "We'll discuss that with Drew – however, you have my word that you will receive that money", he stated. Kevin nodded, before continuing, "Additionally, we want some sort of pay rise – however, I think we can negotiate that at a later date.," he stated.

After briefly thinking it through, Nikolai relaxed and said, "Sounds reasonable enough". "Yeah," said Kyle, before pointing to Kevin. "We can arrange a discussion with Theodore about the pay rise – and the couple thousand up front will be with you in the next few days." Kevin nodded. "Sounds fair," he stated. "Pleasure negotiating with you." He smirked. "So it's a deal?" Kyle asked. Kevin chuckled, and then extended his hand, offering a handshake. "Deal," he stated. And at that, he proceeded to shake hands with first Kyle, and then Nikolai. And at that, the foreman stood up from his seat, a smirk on his face, "Right then, let's get cleaning up this operation." He chuckled, "Cameron, go on ahead and spread the word… everyone better be shipshape."

. . . . .

Walking along the shore of the lake, the team came upon a small flock consisting of three species of pterosaurs, roughly flamingo-sized, wading through the swamp. One of the species had blackish grey coloured fuzz coating their bodies and wings and light tannish grey heads and necks. The second species had black fuzz covering their tails and backs as well as the backs of their heads and necks while the remainder of their bodies were a snowy white. The third species, meanwhile, had minty green fuzz covering the backs of their heads and necks, greyish white fuzz covering the remainder of their faces and necks, dark steely grey fuzz covering the majority of their bodies, and entirely black coloured hands, feet, wing tips, tails, and beaks, with white-striped black crests. Adrian said, under his breath, "Ctenochasmatids – I can see beipiaopterus, gegepterus and eosipterus in there. These guys are like flamingos – they're filter-feeders." Jack nodded. "Can't say I'm surprised. This is a swamp habitat after all, so it only stands to reason there'd be a lot of wading pterosaurs." Drew let his trademark grin return to his face. "And they're in prime position to be brought back to the park," he stated confidently, already reaching into a bag containing just the bait he now had in mind.

Leaving a trail of small crustaceans, they managed to lead the combined flock of pterosaurs through the portal. After the last one went through, Jack said, "Strange choice of bait." Drew shrugged.

Walking further down the trail, they found another flock consisting of three species of pterosaur, with long, low skulls, with one species, a black fuzzed and red spotted creature with a wingspan of eleven feet, noticeably larger than the other two, who both had seven-foot wingspans. One of the latter two species vaguely reminded the team of marabou storks with their light grey fuzz covered bodies and wing tips, blue skinned feet, and fleshy coloured necks, legs, wings, and crests. Some pterosaurs had black faces with dark midnight blue crests. The other species, meanwhile, possessed jet black faces, yellow crests with black stripes, snowy white necks, and light orange coloured bodies, wings, legs, and tails. They were also all accompanied by a group of quail-sized birds coloured like oystercatchers. Adrian said, quietly, "Moganopterines – the marabou storkesque ones are feilongus and the orange bodied ones are moganopterus. I don't recognise the gnathosaurine, but the birds are longirostravis." Drew nodded his head. "Good job identifying them," he said before he and Jack then started reaching into the fish bag. "Now, let's get 'em through the portal." And at this, Drew and Jack each drew out a handful of fish, planning to leave a trail to use as bait to entice the pterosaurs through the portal...

But then Adrian raised a hand to indicate for them to stop. Confused, Drew and Jack looked to their Malaysian American teammate. "What's going on?" Jack asked. "Why are you telling us to stop?" Drew asked. Adrian quietly gestured back towards the combined flock of pterosaurs. "I just saw another pterosaur species amongst the flock," he whispered. Curiosity piqued, but not wishing to risk startling the pterosaurs, Jack and Drew looked to where Adrian was pointing. Sure enough, they could now see two non-ctenochasmatids amongst the flock searching for food. Each had a wingspan of roughly eight feet, with short necks, long beaks and a half-moon-shaped crest on the underside. One was slightly smaller than the other and was covered in silvery grey pycnofibers with gold markings around its eyes and a black beak with gold markings, whilst the larger one had black pycnofibers, blue markings around its eyes and blue markings on its beak.

"Ikrandraco," Adrian whispered. Jack's eyes widened. "The one named after the things from Avatar?" Adrian nodded. "A lonchodectine," he then whispered. "They're tactile foragers." At Jack and Drew's confusion, he rolled his eyes and explained, "They wade through shallow water, stick their beaks in and use touch to catch fish and small invertebrates." Jack's eyes widened in understanding, before he took another look at the two pterosaurs. "Why are they different colours?", he then asked. "Sexual dimorphism?" Adrian nodded. "Yeah," he said, "The smaller one is probably either a male or a female." Drew rolled his eyes, "We can find out which is which at the park later – right now, we need to get these guys through the portal." Adrian nodded. "Understood," he said. He then reached into the fish bag, drawing out a handful of fish. "Here," he whispered. "Let me help you." And so, with all three of the young rescue team members working together, the combined flock of waders was eventually led through the portal using a trail of fish.

After the last of the birds and pterosaurs had gone through, Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa turned to Drew, as if asking him what to do next. Drew sighed and opened his mouth, before a low, ankylosaur-like grunt echoed through the swamp. He smiled. "We'll go ahead and set some small animal traps for the smaller water stuff around here– choristoderes, turtle, amphibians, fish…and then, we'll find those ankylosaurs."

. . . . .

Back at the park, Yolanda found herself once again hanging out with one of her friends over the course of a break - this time, it was Alice by the cave hyena paddock at Ice Age Mount. However, they were discussing the same subject. "We still up for tonight?", Yolanda asked. Alice nodded her head, a determined look on her face. "You bet I am," she said before nodding her head. "The sooner we get this under the bridge, the better."

"Well that's certainly nice to hear."

Eyes widened, Alice and Yolanda turned their heads in time to see Cynthia standing nearby. At the sight of the other two girls looking her way, Cynthia nodded, "Adrian mentioned it to me," she stated before directing an approving look towards Alice. "And I hope things go well."

Alice gritted her teeth. "Glad to hear that," she said, quietly, whilst Yolanda stayed silent. They remembered the earlier days – whilst things had calmed down, there was still a bit of ice. At this, Cynthia chuckled, an awkward half smile on her face. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you're still not too keen on me," she admitted before sighing, "And for what it's worth, I really am sorry."

Alice raised her eyebrow. "What for?" Cynthia sighed. "I'm sure you already know why – I really got off on the wrong foot with the both of you last year." She extended her hand towards Alice. "However, I really am sorry about how I acted back then. I was getting worried and trying to prove myself… and I screwed up." She sighed "So as long as the both of you are willing, I'm willing to start over on a clean slate."

Alice and Yolanda looked to each other, both of them silently considering Cynthia's offer. "Well she seems to have calmed down," Yolanda stated, whilst Alice nodded, "True, and it'd be a tad hypocritical if we didn't – considering what you came to talk to me about."

At this, Alice and Yolanda looked to Cynthia and nodded their heads. "Guess today's your lucky day Cynthia," Yolanda stated, her usual smile back on her face. "We're willing to give you another chance." Alice pointed her finger at Cynthia. "Just be careful though," she stated. "We're not giving you this new opportunity lightly. Get on our bad side again, and you'll have to put in some serious effort to get us willing to trust you again." Cynthia nodded her head, a relieved smile on her face. "Works for me," she then said before looking aroudn, "Hanging by the cave hyenas I see."

Alice raised her eyebrow in amusement. "Taking a real interest in them huh? Interesting timing." Cynthia chuckled. "Well what can I say? If we're to fix our relationship, I might as well at least make an effort." Alice shrugged. "I suppose that's true," she then said before gesturing for Yolanda and Cynthia to join her at the viewing area. The two blondes did so, and Alice pointed over towards where Shenzi was currently resting on a large stone and said, "That's Shenzi – she's the alpha."

Yolanda chuckled. Perhaps the good luck would last.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back in the Cretaceous period jungle, the rescue team proceeded to start following the direction of the grunting immediately after they'd finished setting the small water animal traps near the lake's edge. And after several minutes of trekking around the lake, they reached a lakeside clearing where a small herd of ankylosaurs were leisurely drinking. They bore a subtle resemblance to the dracopelta and gargoyleosaurus back at the park, only slightly larger, with the largest being almost eighteen feet long, coloured, a dark earthy green with brown spots. Several small, murky brown hatchlings accompanied the herd. And as they observed the ankylosaurs, the team soon noticed something odd.

Whilst the adults browsed on the plants by the lakeside, the hatchlings seemed to be almost entirely keeping to the water – occasionally, a hatchling would come up with a fish or a small invertebrate in its mouth, whilst some were nibbling on water plants. "Check out what the hatchlings are doing," Jack said, "I think we're seeing ontogenetic niche partitioning – the hatchlings and juveniles are aquatic and omnivorous, and become more terrestrial and vegetarian as they get older. That's why they come to the lakeside – to nest." Drew smiled, "I think we can get them all through the portal…using the old 'parental instincts' game."

Before Jack or Adrian could ask what he was talking about, Drew yanked his handheld device out of his pocket and played a recording of one of Tyrannor's hunting bellows at full volume. In a flash, all the adults amongst the ankylosaur herd lifted their heads, grunting in alarm. The youngsters, equally alarmed, let out high-pitched squeaks of alarm as they instinctively hurried towards their parents. Drew chuckled. "Leon was right," he chuckled, "This strategy works like a charm." He then played the Tyrannor recording a second time, at which point one of the females bellowed before charging in the rescue team's direction, with the rest following close behind her. And from there, Drew waited until the mother ankylosaurs were just feet away before summoning the portal, at which point the ankylosaurs all went barrelling straight through. The hatchlings, suddenly left without the protection of their mothers, scampered through the portal after them. Once they were all through, Drew closed the portal and looked to Adrian and Jack. "Well then," he stated, trademark grin still on his face. "Shall we be off?"

His two teammates didn't answer, and he could now clearly notice that they appeared to be deep in thought. He raised his eyebrow in half annoyance and half curiosity. "Is something wrong?" Jack shook his head. "Not quite," he responded. "Adrian and I were just pondering something ." Adrian nodded his head in agreement. "I remember Leon mentioning that it used to be thought that liaoningosaurus was a very small species of ankylosaur – however, it's suspected that liaoningosaurus was just a juvenile of another kind of ankylosaur called chuanqilong. It seems that that's true."

Drew shrugged noncommittally and nodded, pondering what his teammates had said. "Technically," he stated , "Liaoningosaurus takes priority, 'cos it was named first, so technically chuanqilong is an adult liaoningosaurus." "Well spotted, fearless leader," said Jack. "Glad you agree," said Drew before he nodded his head and gestured back the way they'd come. "And with that little discussion out of the way. What do you say we head back the way we came and see if those traps we left caught anything."

. . . . .

Willoby raised his eyebrow at the sight of the small herd of ankylosaurs that had just come out of the portal and into the park. "Intriguing," he said. "Khatin told me that liaoningosaurus was a juvenile of another species… or the other species was its adult." Colette, having arrived at the holding pens, looked to the first officer of the park security division and said, "Turns out he was correct. Interesting". Willoby shrugged. "The main issue here is the mothers might get aggressive if they think we're a threat... so tread carefully."

Maria and Carmen seemed in especially strong awe as they observed the smaller ankylosaurs amongst the herd. "They're almost like turtles," Carmen cooed as she kept her gaze focused on the little ankylosaurs, a warm smile on her face. "Can't say I disagree," Maria stated, nodding, as she watched the hatchlings scuttling about on the ground with their mothers surrounding them. Aaron chuckled. "Let's hope Basil and Toby don't hear about this," he chuckled. "Wouldn't want them to get jealous." Carmen promptly gave him a light smack on the back of his head, which only made him chuckle again. "Ok, break it up now," Hugo stated. "We've got work to do."

"Hugo's right everyone," Willoby stated before he clapped his hands. "Let's get to work everyone! The sooner we have these ankylosaurs out of the way for when Drew starts sending the carnivores, the better!"

. . . . .

Meanwhile, at the Hell Creek formation exhibit zone, Kyle, Nikolai, and Kevin were so far still getting everyone shipshape - whilst most had grumbled about it, they'd all begrudgingly come into line. It was almost miraculous just how big of a turnaround was being achieved. "I'm still surprised you were able to get them moving so quickly," Kyle stated bitterly, to which Kevin let out an arrogant little chuckle, "Percival gave me authority" he stated. "They'll listen to me". He nodded his head. "And, also, moolah talks – the instant I talked about cash they shut up and..."

"Oh, you must think I'm a real bag of money!"

Kevin and the two chiefs of staff paused, eyebrows raised in clear confusion at what they'd just heard. "What the hell?" Kyle asked, as Horace's voice replied "No, you are not a bag of money, as, unlike you, a bag of money would actually be useful." At this, Nikolai's eyes narrowed. "It's coming from the main exterior staff gate," he stated as he pointed his finger towards the Hell Creek herbivore paddock. "Good thing we're not too far away then," Kyle stated. "Agreed," said Kevin. And in a flash, the foreman, head keeper, and chief of security hurried over towards the direction of the Hell Creek main herbivore paddock's exterior staff entrance. And within minutes, they'd reached the area just in time to see Horace and Cass facing off against one of the workmen, with ticked-off expressions on their faces.

"Oh, what mood did you wake up in this morning?", the irritated workman spat, clear disgust on his face as he glared at Horace and Cass. "Don't you realize we've got enough to deal with as is?" Cass narrowed her eyes, "A problem you don't seem to be proactive in solving…" The angry workman narrowed his eyes further at this. "Oh, like you'd know anything about the kind of work we have to do, you little cunt..."

Horace slapped the workman in the face at this statement. "Uncalled for," he snarled. "For the record, we do more work than you! And you started the argument, not us!" In that instant, the temporary workman opened his mouth to retort when Kevin rushed over alongside Kyle and Nikolai to put a stop to the whole tableau. "That's enough," Kevin snarled, loud enough for the three to turn their heads in his direction. "What happened here?" Kyle asked. The angry workman moved as if about to answer, but Horace was quicker to the punch. "Well, the moron over there was making rude comments about Cass," he yelled, pointing his finger accusingly at the workmen. Cass nodded. "I was working with Abrams and that idiot said out loud 'They've got a girl working with that thing... this oughta be good!"

At this, Nikolai winced and then directed an awkward side glance towards Kyle. "Ok," he grumbled. "That crossed some lines." "You don't say," Kyle muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing theatrically in exasperation. "Oh God." The workman glowered once more at Horace and Cass. "Well, it's not our fault your little girlfriend didn't have a sense of humour." Horace glowered at the workman. "You call that a joke? You were being disrespectful to my… friend. And I asked you to take it back – and you refused." The workman snorted. "Oh, like I really have to..."

"I said that's enough."

All looked back to Kevin, who shook his head side to side. "Look," he grumbled. "We're not gonna get anything done by arguing like this – and you aren't doing us any good" The workman said, "Wha...what do you mean?" Kevin glared. "What do you think I mean, dipshit? You're making us look bad… and that might be counterproductive."

At this, Horace, Cass, and the workman gaped in surprise at the foreman, with the latter saying, "What do you mean? Is it word from the boss?," the workman said, awkwardly, as Kevin narrowed his eyes, and said "The boss is an arse-head", to which the workman replied with, "Fair enough". Kevin breathed out, "However, the one clever thing said arse-head did was say that you answer to me. And we need to get everything shipshape by the end of today – because there's moolah in it for us if we do. So, you'd best apologise to the lady…"

The workman's eyes widened, before saying, "Oh, why didn't you say so?", before turning to Cass, with a fake smile on his face, "Sorry, darling, for everything I previously said – I hope this doesn't permanently cloud our working relationship." A poker-faced Cass said, "Whilst I don't appreciate the patronising tone or the sexist language, I will be the bigger person here and accept your apology", whilst Horace rolled his eyes. Kyle, Nikolai and Kevin looked at each other, before moving on – this was probably the best they were going to get

. . . . .

Meanwhile, after returning to the clearing where they'd earlier rescued the waders and checking the small animal traps – which had caught two species of choristodere (one a vaguely tanystropheus-like creature with brown scales and black tiger-like stripes that had been identified as hyphalosaurus and the other a web footed chameleon faced creature with blue bellies and green backs that had been identified as monjurosuchus), two turtle species (with a orange scaled and reddish shelled species being identified as ordosemys and a jade green scaled and topaz gold shelled species being identified as manchurochelys) and four species of amphibian (two toads and two salamanders) – and sending back a small aggregation of juvenile Liaoningosaurus that had come swimming over towards them in curiosity, Drew, Jack and Adrian were moving through the undergrowth of the Cretaceous jungle once more. Hayabusa, meanwhile, was flying above them, looking around nervously and staying close to Adrian. As the team walked through the undergrowth, they noticed that, among ferns and horsetails, there were primitive flowers of various colours pockmarked throughout the undergrowth. They briefly stopped to look at a bright purple one. Drew said, "These are the first flowering plants; beautiful, aren't they?" Jack breathed out and said, "Amazing, isn't it? Everything from the largest oak tree to the smallest dandelion… all started with these tiny flowers."

Suddenly, botany became a secondary concern as the undergrowth rustled. Drew, Jack and Adrian looked in the approximate direction the sound had come from. Hayabusa circled around them, scanning the undergrowth. However, nothing emerged and, disturbed by what had transpired, they walked on. As they headed deeper into the forest, they periodically noticed shapes moving through the undergrowth; this increased in frequency as they went deeper. Suddenly, they walked out of the thick undergrowth into a large clearing. The canopy was particularly thin and the undergrowth plants were comparatively reduced.

Adrian turned to Drew and asked, "What do we do?" Drew turned to his teammates and said, "Scan the trees; this is perfect habitat for Microraptor. They're probably here some-". Suddenly, Hayabusa let out a screech of alarm as the undergrowth rustled all around them, before a familiar barking caw echoed through the clearing. The three adventurers all turned to each other in a shocked realization; whatever creatures had attacked the camp had been following them as they'd walked through the forest.

The caws got louder and louder as the undergrowth, before a theropod dinosaur emerged in the clearing in front of them. It was about eight feet long and came up to the three humans' waists; its body was covered in thick, reddish-brown feathers, with black feathers on its crest. It had a long snout covered with golden yellow scales, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and large intelligent-looking amber eyes. It stood on two powerful hind legs, with three-toed taloned feet; the second toe was larger than the others and held aloft, tipped in a vicious-looking, sickle-shaped claw. The creature cocked its head curiously at them, before circling them, hissing…

Drew knew what it was. Leon had seen to that before the debriefing that morning. "According to the info-packs, this is Zhenyuanlong," he whispered, "A kind of dromaeosaur found in these forests. This must be one of the ones that attacked the camp; we walked into their territory." Suddenly, the Zhenyuanlong threw back its head and cawed loudly; several others cawed in reply. The three humans backed closer to each other and Hayabusa stood between Adrian's legs, as the undergrowth rustled all around them. Suddenly, several more burst out from different angles, surrounding them. Jack turned to Drew, "If you've got a plan, fearless leader, now would be a brilliant time to implement it." Drew turned to Jack, pointed at one of the bait bags Jack had on his back, and said, "Pass me that bait bag." Jack said, quietly, "Why?" Drew turned to him and said, "There's meat in that bag; we can distract them from us with it." Jack, not needing to be told twice, quietly passed the bag to Drew, trying his best not to trigger the dromaeosaurs into charging. Once Drew had been given the bag, he grabbed a dead rat from the bag and threw it away from them. The dromaeosaurs followed the dead rat and eagerly began fighting over it. Drew used the distraction to activate the portal and threw another, larger rat through it. The dromaeosaurs dived after it, moving as if a unified entity. After the last one had gone through, Drew shut off the portal. Adrian nodded his head. "Not bad Drew," he said. "Not bad at all."

Drew chuckled, trademark grin back on his face. "Did you expect anything less?" He then looked to Jack. "Right then," he said. "Best be heading off. Times a wasting!"

. . . . .

Tina Cheng was in a contemplative mood as she sat on a bench near the arctodus paddock in the La Brea Grand Vista over the course of a break. As she sat, she found herself thinking about how life at the park was going, particularly with the temporary workmen currently at the park that had been ostensibly hired to assist in the opening day preparations…. However, things hadn't turned out that way – the majority of them were lazy, surly and rude. Theodore had delegated responsibility for hiring them to Percival – and he'd clearly gone for "cheap", rather than "reliable". Apparently, Kyle, Nikolai and the foreman were going round the park and getting everyone shipshape – as to how this had happened, she didn't know. And, to be honest, if things were clearing up, she didn't care.

This in mind, she took a look into the arctodus paddock. At that moment, all five of the mighty Pleistocene bears content, with all three of the females eagerly feasting on the fish that had been provided, one of the males napping on a large rock in the sun within his territory, and Smokey busy scratching the large tree. The reason why she was here was to check on one of the females, Calisto, who was expecting cubs.

Tina smiled at the visual reminder of how the arctodus would soon be amongst the latest animals to successfully breed at the park – Callisto had been the first to come into heat, the two males had fought and Smokey, the biggest, had understandably won. Based on the gestation time, the cubs would be born shortly after the opening day. She chuckled. "Another success for the breeding programme", before shaking her head side to side. "And at this point, I should be getting back to work," she thought to herself, before getting up off the bench and heading to the American lion paddock.

. . . . .

After their encounter with the Zhenyuanlong, the team resumed their walk through the jungle. Before long, they reached another clearing… and walked in on a tense standoff between a dinosaur and two mammals. The dinosaur was roughly three feet long and covered in forest green scales with brown stripes. Its head was disproportionately large, had slight claws on its fingers and toes, and had black thistle-like spines lined across its tail. It stood protectively over a small creche of juveniles, each barely a foot long.

Said two mammals it was facing off against were nothing short of bizarre – each was about the size of a Staffordshire bull terrier and looked like a cross between a Tasmanian devil and a honey badger, with brownish-black-and-white fur. They had a semi-sprawling posture, with comparatively short legs and flat feet. It was a tense, three-way-stand-off – it seemed that both the mammals had come upon the dinosaur independently. Watching the stand-off, Jack said, "I know what the dinosaur is – Psittacosaurus. And the mammals are…Repenomamus, right? The bigger species, I presume."

The little dinosaur advanced aggressively towards the two mammals, tail spines rattling, before snapping at them. At this, Jack chuckled. "Feisty little bastard, ain't it?", he said while directing a quick look towards Drew. Suddenly, the psittacosaurus threw back its head and let out a staccato call and more adult psittacosaurus, males and females both, emerged from the bushes. This seemed to take the wind out of the two repenomamus' sails, and they recoiled slightly – bolstered by the herd squawking threateningly at them and kicking up leaf litter; at which point the two mammals decided discretion would be the better part of valour, turned around, and hurried away...just in time for them to end up accidentally rushing right through the portal that Jack summoned. Drew chuckled, "Not bad," he said. "Not bad at all." Adrian chuckled. "I'll bet Alice will love working with these guys." Jack chuckled, "I'm sure she will – hell, I could get to enjoy working with 'em."

The sound of squawking caused the trio to turn to see the psittacosaurus herd now staring in their direction, clearly wondering just what had happened. Adrian looked to Drew. "Any more bright ideas?", he asked in a low whisper. Drew grinned. "Is that a trick question?", he said, quietly, before drawing another bait bag and picking up a large nut. "Leon's info packs say that these guys liked to eat nuts and seeds," he stated. "Now's as good a time as ever to test that."

Working cautiously together, the rescue team soon formed a trail of nuts and apples leading from them to the psittacosaurus herd. "And now we wait," Drew said as he, Adrian, and Jack watched to see how the small dinosaurs would react. After several long minutes, the juvenile they had seen earlier stepped forward and took a tentative bite from one of the apples. For about a minute, the psittacosaurus stayed absolutely still, before she swallowed the fruit, turned her head to face the rest of the herd, and warbled. The leaders of the herd looked to each other, and then warbled before they and the rest of the herd gingerly walked down the trail. As the small early ceratopsians got closer and closer towards where he and his companions were positioned, Drew grinned, "Going well so far," he whispered under his breath. "Let's just hope the portal doesn't scare them off," Jack whispered in response.

Eventually, the juvenile had gotten close to the end of the trail - as Jack was slowly drawing out his portal remote, Drew reached his hand slowly out towards the young psittacosaurus as if he planned to try to pat it affectionately on the head. Adrian and Jack both raised their eyebrows at the sight of this. "You sure that's a good idea Drew?", Adrian asked. "I'd say it's worth a try," Drew whispered. "Why not..."

The instant his fingers got close enough, the juvenile immediately stiffened, reared up, and snapped its beak at Drew's hand, forcing him to hurriedly yank his hand back. Unfortunately, the commotion had alerted the rest of the herd, who were now glaring at him. Drew winced, an awkward half smile on his face as he saw Adrian now glaring at him. "Ok," he stated. "I'll freely admit that didn't work as planned..."

The lead female of the herd let out a loud squawk and then charged towards the rescue team, the rest of the herd following close behind her. Eager to take advantage of this, Jack hurriedly summoned the portal just in time for the herd to go barrelling through to the present, with the youngsters following the adults. And once they were all gone, Jack closed the portal just as swiftly as he'd opened it. "And just like that," he stated. "Another rescue salvaged", to which Drew nodded and chuckled, "Pulled out of the ass… just the way I like it. Anyway, let's hurry up. The microraptor ain't gonna save itself."

. . . . .

Linda was fully engrossed in her work as she and her team examined the mighty sauropod currently standing within a recovery pen at the veterinary facility. At the moment, they were subjecting the supersaurus matriarch Woodstock to a routine checkup. So far, Woodstock appeared to be in very good health, something that Linda felt quite happy about. At the same time though, she also couldn't help but feel quite annoyed at the workmen – most of them were surly, annoying and rude. Fortunately, her contact with them was reduced.

"I take it you're still annoyed with the idiots?" Harry then stated from nearby. Linda directed her gaze towards him, a tight smile on her face. "What gave it away?"

Bethany raised her eyebrow. "Well, considering how tight you're gripping the stethoscope…" she stated. Linda looked closely at her right fist, tightly clenching the stethoscope – rolling her eyes, she loosened her grip on the stethoscope. "Sorry about that," she stated. "I guess the idiots get under my skin."

"I honestly don't know what Theodore was thinking when he gave Percival the responsibility," Yolanda stated, "He went with the cheapest people he could find." She then narrowed her eyes in annoyance, "Most of them are surly, annoying and rude." Linda sighed, "No kidding," before shaking her head side to side. "Still, hopefully, they'll be gone soon. Or something will eat one of them. Or they'll piss off someone they shouldn't…"

"I know the feeling, Linda," said Henry Ramon, who had tagged along to observe. He nodded his head, a grim look on his face, "The sooner those idiots are gone the better – I hear Kyle and Nikolai are dragging the foreman into getting everyone shipshape." Linda rolled her eyes at the mentioning of Kevin, "Took them long enough".

Yolanda nodded in agreement. "I suppose we'll just have to see how things unfold from here," she stated, "Fingers crossed, eh? Linda snorted. "Well, I'm not holding out much hope," she stated, "They've been a liability since they arrived." Henry nodded in agreement. "Almost a pity not one of them's been eaten yet. Although, fingers crossed, eh?" Linda chuckled at this.

The sound of Woodstock bellowing caused all four of the vets, plus Henry, to look towards the supersaurus. This was enough to get Linda nodding her head and looking to her three underlings. "And on that note, we'd best get back to work," she said. "I doubt that the herd will appreciate us keeping their matriarch away."

. . . . .

After their encounter with the Psittacosaurus and Repenomamus, the team continued walking through the forest. After about half an hour, Jack turned to Drew and asked, "What do we do now?" Drew was about to speak when, suddenly, a loud squawking came from a nearby clearing. Running to the source of the sound, they saw a dead juvenile iguanodont being ripped apart by two species of theropod, each approximately around six feet long, which resembled giant versions of the compies back at the park. One of the species had jet black legs and feet, with red and white feathers, while the other species was covered in tawny yellow gold feathers with white underbellies, with some of them having large resplendent red feathered crests. Jack looked at the creatures and said, "Huaxiagnathus and sinocalliopteryx – large species of local compsognathid." Nodding, Drew took a closer look at the sinocalliopteryx, his eyebrow raising in clear intrigue. "Nice crests," he said, "Sexual dimorphism?" Adrian nodded his head. "Probably," he admitted.

The sound of cawing and screeching caused the trio to look slightly away from the compsognathids in time to see two species of largish microraptorine, each between three and five feet long, a pack of short-armed dromaeosaurids, and a mostly steely grey-coloured chayangopterid with a five-foot wingspan and golden tannish yellow wingtips, enter the clearing. One of the microraptorines covered in orange and black tiger-stripe patterned feathers, the other microraptorine species had feathers that were a slightly darker reddish brown, grading to yellow on the belly (and black tips on the wing) and the dromaeosaurids covered in black and yellow feathers with blood red spots along their tails and wing tips. Looking at the scavengers, Jack said, "One of the microraptorines is sinornithosaurus, definitely", pointing at the orange and black microraptorines, "I don't know what the other microraptorine or the other dromaeosaur are. That being said, the chayangopterids are probably eoazhdarcho. And I think that carcass is the right size to be towed…" Drew chuckled. "Read my mind – the old ways are always the best."

After Drew had contacted the park, he ran towards the dead iguanodont, making sure to avoid rousing the wrath of the squabbling dinosaurs and pterosaurs, carefully drilled a hole in the femur and carefully hooked the winch into it; the winch was attached to a park truck on the other side. Drew ran back to the portal and gave the thumbs-up signal and the winch began pulling the sauropod carcass away. The scavengers took notice of this and began to move towards it, hissing, squawking and snarling, all united in a desire to not lose their meal. Within minutes, the iguanodont carcass was yanked through the portal by the truck dragging it. The scavengers, moving too fast to stop and eager to avoid losing their meal, dove through the portal after the carcass and into the present. Once the portal was closed, Drew nodded his head, trademark grin still on his face as he flashed a thumbs up to his teammates. "Another rescue successfully achieved." Adrian nodded in agreement. "I trust we'll be leaving it to Leon and the research team to identify the two Jack couldn't confidently identify for us?"

"That is exactly what we'll be doing," Drew stated, "And with that in mind, onward we go! Time's a wasting!"

. . . . .

Back at the park, Leon stood at a balcony-like viewing area for the smilodon fatalis paddock, watching intently as Diego and Shira relaxed upon the large rock in the centre of the paddock and watched Ka-Zar, Blag, and Iorunn playfully wrestling together nearby. At the sight of all this, Leon couldn't help but let a smile come on his face. "They're still adorable," he thought to himself, "Almost a pity that they'll be quite a bit bigger when the park opens."

That got Leon thinking - Ka-Zar, Blag, and Iorunn would likely need their own paddocks soon, before their parents drove them off. Relating to that, they would need additional smilodon fatalis – to prevent the adolescents from inbreeding. But then, one could say that about most of the larger animals – and Custer the Alamosaurus was the only member of his species the park had. There'd been some talk about opening other locations – that'd help with the inevitable overcrowding.

However, another thought began to swim into his head – many of the Pleistocene animals, had gone extinct in what was, in purely evolutionary terms, a blink of an eye. The world had changed comparatively little between then and now – aside from the fact that it was far more industrialised and sprawling with humans. Perhaps, once a good enough population had been built up, they could reintroduce these species back into their old haunts.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Right now, the priorities were keeping the park running and getting it ready for opening day. Once that had happened, then those questions could be pondered. At that, he looked back towards Diego and Shira, smiling. "Things will probably get mega chaotic around here once the park opens," he thought to himself. "But at least you'll still be around for me to hang around when I need to cool down Diego."

"Well, well, well, if it ain't Joe Exotic."

Leon narrowed his eyes, looked behind him with a visibly annoyed expression on his face. And sure enough, as he'd come to suspect, there was now a trio of the temporary workmen standing behind him. Leon groaned. "Seriously?", he stated blankly before rolling his eyes. "Come up with a better nickname.". He then pointed in the direction of the homotherium paddock. "And, besides, shouldn't you be working right now? I'm sure you've been 'on break' for the last hour. Don't you think a better way to spend your time would be helping your friends with the stand-off barriers?"

One of the workmen, a stocky Texan, scoffed and rolled his eyes. "So we make our own hours, big deal." He then pointed in the same direction Leon was pointing. "And for the record, our boys in this zone already seem to be doing just fine." "In other words," said another workman, this one with a Brooklyn accent. "They don't need our help right now." He then looked at the Texan. "So we thought we could just hang round for a bit, watch some of the animals…"

Leon rolled his eyes again. "Well, I'm sure there's somewhere in the park that could need your help… doing the job you were hired to do in the first place?" He turned to face Diego and his family once again. "Losers," he thought to himself, as he checked his watch to see how much time he had left for his own break. So far, he could comfortably wait about five minutes before...

"Oh-ho-ho, looks like we're getting under the Dolittle boy's skin," said the Brooklynite. "Think he needs his squeeze machine?", asked the Texan, a brief chuckle escaping from him afterward. "Maybe we should go find it and bring it over here so he can cool himself down." At this, Leon rolled his eyes. "Hey, let's be nice to the little freak," said the third workman, a tall and rather broad shouldered man from Montana. "I'm sure he's busy watching those oversized putty tats. You really seem to like 'em." Leon said, coolly "I try not to play favourites – but I've bonded with them. It's a long story that I'm not going to share with you. Please leave me alone."

"Or what are ya gonna do?," said the Texan, a wolf-like grin on his face, "Set your good ol' pal El Diablo on us?" Leon glowered. "First off, his name's Diego," he growled. "And second." He flipped the bird at the trio. "I'm not going to do that – as it happens he doesn't come at my beck and call. I've got nothing to prove to you, please leave." At this, the Brooklynite jeered, "Oh, now you're gettin' tough with us. Never knew you had it in you." The Texan chuckled. "Nah, he's lettin' that bulldog mouth overload that puppy-dog ass…" His two comrades looked at him confusedly, as did Leon. "Now, I didn't understand one word of that," Leon grumbled, "but I know an insult when I hear it. And I am telling you that I don't care – you are harassing me, please leave me alone."

"Aww… you sure talk big," said the Montanan. Leon smirked. "I try to – I've been insulted by so many people I realised that that's the best defense. So why don't you vamoose over to somewhere where you're actually needed?" Stepping forward, the Montanan snarled, "Make me, partner." He placed a hand on Leon's shoulder, pointing at the smilodon fatalis paddock with his other hand. "You think you're tough? Show us you can back it up."

Leon rolled his eyes. "No," he stated flatly.

"Perhaps you didn't hear us," said the Brooklynite, a noticeable tension starting to show in his voice. "If ya want us to leave, ya better make us." Narrowing his eyes, Leon growled, "Perhaps you didn't hear me. I'm not in the mood to pick a fight - please leave." Chuckling, the Texan said, "What's the matter?" You wanting to look tough for that airhead assistant vet whose pants ya wanna get in?"

At this, Leon narrowed his eyes even further, before pointing at the Texan. "What you just said," he snarled. "Take that back, now." The Brooklynite chuckled and tutted, "Sorry, pal, but you ain't our boss." Leon snarled, "I don't think you understand… take back what you just said about Yolanda now!" "Again... or what?" said the Montanan, now sounding very confident indeed. "You'll bore us to death with animal trivia? Again, give me a good reason to back off and I will."

Suddenly, a loud, jaguar-like roar echoed from the paddock and the three workmen went rigid to see Diego fixing them with a murderous glare. The three workmen went rigid, before slowly beginning to back off. Diego snarled again, causing all three workmen to shriek in surprise and stumble away in fright, much to Leon's smug triumph as he directed a smirk at them.

"Well said, Diego."

Eyes widening, Leon and the three workmen looked behind them in time to see none other than the hired foreman Kevin Drake standing right there alongside Kyle and Nikolai. The sight of this was naturally enough to make the three workmen blanch. "Uh...hi...boss," said the Brooklynite. "Heh...heh...when did you get here?", to which Kevin raised his eyebrow. "Few minutes ago". He folded his arms across his chest. "Seems you've been making friends…" At this, all three of the workmen promptly whimpered. Smirking still, Leon turned to the Montanan, "So, now will you back off?" Kevin nodded his head. "You heard him," he stated. "Back off and shut up."

The Montanan winced, gritting his teeth in a mixture of embarrassment and despair, and then gingerly muttered an apology, who graciously accepted. "Thank you," he then said before nodding his head and checking his watch. "And on that note, I think I'll be heading back off to do a little thing called...uh...my work." As he left, Leon looked to Kyle, Nikolai and Kevin, "Will you be able to handle these guys?"

Kyle and Nikolai looked at each other, and then towards Kevin. "I get the feeling we probably will," Kyle stated. Kevin smirked upon hearing this and nodded his head. "Don't worry, kid," he said to Leon. "We've got this." Sighing, Leon said, "If you say so," before turning around, waving goodbye to the smilodon fatalis family, and walking off in the direction of wherever he currently wished to head.

No sooner was Leon gone when Kevin, Kyle, and Nikolai glared at the three workmen. "Right then," said Kevin. "Care to explain?" Kevin asked pointedly. The workmen winced and directed surreptitious glances at each other. At this point, they realised how badly they'd screwed up – they'd intended a little light teasing of the weirdo, but had gone out of hand. Eventually, they all looked to Kevin, Kyle, and Nikolai, nervous half smiles and half grimaces on their faces. Already they could tell that they'd have a hell of a time explaining this.

"This is gonna hurt," they all thought to themselves.

. . . . .

Back in Cretaceous China, the team were still trudging through the forest, Hayabusa flying above them. Jack turned to Drew, a bemused grin on his face. "We've got two species of microraptorine, but neither of them are Microraptor," he noted before letting out a slight chuckle. "Isn't that ironic?" Drew shrugged, before a low grunt alerted them to something in a nearby clearing.

A small group of therizinosaurs, vaguely resembling miniature versions of the therizinosaurus back at the park, were standing in the clearing, browsing. They had dark green feathers and cobalt blue scaled faces, and the largest individuals were just a little shorter than Adrian.

Suddenly, the bushes rustled – the beipiaosaurus went on alert. The team watched with bated breath as a small pack of tyrannosauroids emerged into the clearing – each was about six feet long and was covered in orangish feathers, with black spots. The only parts that weren't feathered were the faces and feet, which were covered in tannish scales. The beipiaosaurus bellowed and swished their claws at the tyrannosaurs, who responded in kind by hissing hungrily at them.

Chuckling, Drew rammed his right fist against his left palm, trademark grin once again on his face. "Adrian, you and Jack handle the dilong. I'll take care of the beipiaosaurus." Adrian and Jack nodded in reply and the team split up. Closing his eyes, Adrian said, "Hayabusa, launch", and the La Brea caracara took off into the air, getting the dilong's attention. The dilong snapped at her, as she circled them nonchalantly just out of range, as if taunting them. She then flew higher and higher, before folding up her wings and dive-bombing the dilong, missing them by inches, dodging their snapping jaws.

As this happened, Drew summoned the portal near the confused, but wary, beipiaosaurus. And once the portal was summoned, he drew out his handheld device and played a recording of the park's rescued herd of therizinosaurus bellowing, instantly attracting the attention of the herd. And as all the therizinosaurs looked his way, eyes wide with curiosity, Drew stood, rooted to the spot and muttered, "Please, please, please…" In a serendipitous bit of timing, the sound of the dilong snarling rang through the air from behind the beipiaosaurus, proving the last bit of convincing they needed to charge as one towards the portal. Once the last one had gone through, Drew closed the portal and turned his head towards Adrian, still watching Hayabusa holding the attention of the dilong while Jack stood nearby and ready to provide backup if things went south. "NOW!"

This was all that Adrian needed to hear. And in that moment, he whistled to Hayabusa, who flew towards him, the Dilong quickly following in pursuit, and drew out his portal remote as his caracara flew towards him, pressing the button and summoning the portal right as the tyrannosauroids were seconds away from him; at which point the entire pack, moving too fast to stop, barrelled through the portal. Once the last of the carnivores had gone, Adrian dismissed the portal and flashed Drew a thumbs up.

Turning to Drew, Jack said grinning, "You regret letting Hayabusa stay here with us?" Drew shook his head. "Nope," he stated. "Anyway, D-bags! Let's get back to searching!"

. . . . .

Almost an entire hour of trekking later, the team walked into yet another large clearing…and, mere seconds later, the entire forest suddenly went silent. At this, all three of the rescue team members looked nervously at each other, as Jack said, quietly, "Drew – why is everything so quiet?" A low tyrannosaur-like grumbling suddenly split the air from the foliage to the left of the team's current position, at which point Jack winced. "Don't tell me, there's a large predator here, isn't there?" Drew nodded. "Yup." Jack sighed. "Well, there goes our lucky streak," he muttered before gesturing towards a nearby large tree. "We'd better hide."

And so, immediately after quietly slipping into hiding behind the tree, the team went quiet as a small pack of large tyrannosaurs walked into the clearing, with Hayabusa perching on Adrian's shoulder. The tyrannosaurs in question looked like gigantic versions of the dilong they'd seen before, but darker coloured, lacking the spots the dilong had. At the sight of the creatures, Drew quietly said, "Yutyrannus – biggest predator here." Jack chuckled. "And here I was starting to fear we'd never meet the apex predator". Drew rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up," he grumbled. Adrian made a quiet shushing noise to shut his two companions up.

The world was silent for a few minutes as the yutyrannus, one by one, walked into the clearing. A curious juvenile brought his nose within inches of where the three humans were hiding, and they went rigid with terror – fortunately, a grunt from a nearby adult brought him back to the group. The team remained, rooted to the spot, until the yutyrannus stalked out of the clearing.

Once they were sure the coast was clear, the team walked back into the clearing. Looking at where the yutyrannus had been, Jack said, "So, anyway, what do we do now, fearless leader?" Drew sighed. "We might as well set up small animal traps in this clearing," he stated. "There's a lot of small dinosaurs, lizards, mammals and birds in this formation that Leon keeps bugging me about bringing back, and this feels like a good spot."

. . . . . .

Khatin was very much in his element as he walked through the holding pens and made observations of the various animals the team had brought back so far. He'd been looking forward to observing the many feathered dinosaurs of the Yixan in the flesh – and it had been worth the wait.

Naturally, the first order of business had been to see if he could help identify the animals that the rescue team and holding pens team hadn't quite been confident in identifying. To this end, he'd started with the amphibians - both toads he'd managed to determine to be species of the liaobatrachus genus, with one noticeably larger than the other. The two salamanders he'd managed to differentiate on close examination, with the muddy brown scaled and purple striped species turning out to be laccotriton while the dark grey scaled species with the green spots had been identified as sinerpeton. The microraptorine and dromaeosaurid species that Jack hadn't been confident on had proved to be easy to identify under Khatin's careful gaze, with the solid dark reddish-brown microraptorines turning out to be changyuraptor and the basal dromaeosaurids being identified as tianyuraptor.

With the identifications out of the way, Khatin had moved on to observing the other animals, with the ankylosaurs being particularly fascinating. "Fascinating," he said as he observed them intently from his position outside their holding pen, "Simply fascinating."

The sound of a loud squawking caused the park's chief researcher to turn away from the ankylosaurs to take note of the small herd of psittacosaurus gathered in the holding pen behind him. At that moment, they were all staring curiously in his direction, their parrot-like eyes agleam as they stared intently at him. In that instant, he couldn't help but take note of how, when he really looked closely enough at them, he could easily see the resemblance between them and their ceratopsid descendants. It was ironic – these small and relatively unassuming dinosaurs had some of the mightiest dinosaurs as their descendants.

At that moment, one of the seven juveniles amongst the herd, a female by the looks of it, stepped closer towards the holding pen's wall, letting out a low warbling as she did so. Khatin chuckled, and gave off a slight wave towards the young dinosaur. The curious juvenile squawked and reared back slightly, clearly uncertain how to react to the sight of Khatin waving at her. After a few minutes passed, the small dinosaurs all relaxed and stepped in his direction once again, warbling slightly as if wondering what he'd do next. He shook his head side to side. He had to admit, he was somewhat flabbergasted at this strange interest the psittacosaurus herd seemed to be taking in him. But at the same time, he also felt rather flattered. "Stranger things have happened," he admitted.

As the psittacosaurus herd continued staring at him, he soon realized he had just the thing on him that could perhaps further curry the little dinosaurs' favour. And so, with his disarming smile still on his face, he reached into his pocket and drew out some bird nuts – whilst it would be a new taste, it had been theorised that psittacosaurus had fed on nuts and seeds. Nut in hand, he extended his hand out towards the psittacosaurus, before the same juvenile that had seemed so curious about him before stepped forward, extended her head through the bars before her and gingerly accepted the nut, crushing it in her beak as she crunched down on it. Once she'd finished eating it, she looked up at Khatin, as if asking whether he had any more. Khatin shook his head and the dinosaur huffed. He chuckled – it seemed he'd found a new friend.

. . . . .

After setting the traps, the team proceeded to spend an entire hour trekking their way back to the lake, refilling their canteens with the fresh cool water within, and then trekking all the way back to the clearing where they'd laid the traps. And as their luck ultimately had it, they'd managed to catch a lot of smaller animals. The first two species they took notice of within the traps were each a species of lizard, one of which was a flat headed creature with a brown scales with white dots covering the top half of its body and leafy green scales covering the bottom half of its body, and the other of which was varying shades of green all over, looked vaguely like a mix between an iguana and a bearded dragon, and had membranous wings attached to the sides of its body.

Various birds and small theropods were the next to be found within the traps. Three of the species were easy to tell apart from the rest by their long additional feathery 'strands' attached to their tail feathers, with only differences in feather colouring differentiating them - one flock with black and grey feathers, one flock with white and blue feathers, and the third with green, yellow, and white feathers. The rest of the birds and theropods in the traps were no less intriguing to look at. An entire flock's worth of duck sized troodonts covered in feathers similarly to those of modern day quails were divided between three of the traps, with some of them possessing 'helmet shaped' feathered black and white crests. A small pack of compsognathids were next to be found within the traps, with their faces covered primarily in golden yellow fuzz-like feathers, fiery orange feathers covering their backs and the tops of their heads, the fronts of their necks and the remainder of their main bodies covered in whitish grey fuzz, and their tails covered in both the orange and the greyish white fuzz styled in ring tailed lemur-like stripes while their snouts, arms, legs, hands, and feet were completely bare. Next to be noticed were a pack of vaguely dromaeosaur-like theropods covered in grey and gold feathers of varying shades.

Three species of pterosaur were also amongst the animals found in the traps. One of them was a tapejarid covered in black and white pycnofibers and with a large yellow and white crest on four of the individuals while the other four possessed much shorter and less impressive coal black crests. The second pterosaur species was a ctenochasmatid with a red face, black pycnofibers covering its head, neck, body, and the undersides of its wings, and brown pycnofibers covering its legs, back, tail, and the backs of its wings. The third, much to the team's surprise, was some kind of rhamphorhynchid covered in pinkish red fuzz with golden yellow spots.

Two herds of small herbivorous dinosaur were next to be identified amongst the animals in the traps. One of them was a house cat-sized ornithopod that had the majority of its body covered in dark forest green plumage, with greenish-blue feathers covering the back of its head, neck, and body, white fuzzy feathers covering its face and chin, and slategrey scales covering its fingers, feet, and tail. The other small herbivorous dinosaur was a 50 centimetre long ceratopsian that looked like a miniature version of leptoceratops and udanoceratops back at the park, and covered in bright mint green scales with brown spots and spines on their tails. An especially eye catching creature amongst the trapped animals were a small 'flock' of peacock sized and beak faced theropods with thick chartreuse feathers covering their bodies, arms, and legs, darker blueish green covering the backs of their otherwise bare heads and necks, their hands and feet just as bare as their faces, and resplendent red feathers covering their tails.

Working together, all three of the rescue team members were able to easily identify the trapped animals. Jack had identified the 'winged lizards' as xianglong, while the flat-headed species were liushusaurus, the quail feathered tiny troodonts as mei long, the compsognathids as sinosauropteryx, and the grey and gold feathered theropods as yixianosaurus. The three birds with the long tail strands were easily recognizable to Adrian as the three separate species of confuciusornis, the tapejarid was eopteranodon and the ctenochasmatid was pterofiltrus, with the rhamphorhynchid a new species. The ornithopods were identified as jeholosaurus, the ceratopsians liaoceratops, and the peacock sized beak faced theropods caudipteryx.

Finally, in the last few traps, the team found eight small mammals that looked like minature versions of the repenomamus pair they'd rescued earlier. "The smaller species, do you think?" Jack asked, to which Drew nodded, "We'd best get all these little fellas through the portal." And at that, Drew summoned the portal and he and his companions got straight to work on picking up each trap one by one and carrying them through to the present.

Having finished checking the small animal traps and sending the animals back to the park, Drew, Jack and Adrian resumed their walk through the Cretaceous forest, with Hayabusa flying alongside them. With the exception of the smaller animals, they so far hadn't seen any animals since their encounter with the Yutyrannus. As they walked, they scanned the trees for Microraptor, catching vague glimpses of creatures scurrying through the branches, too fleeting to be identifiable.

At this point, Drew was starting to get somewhat miffed – turning to his compatriots and said, "Well guys, it would appear that looking isn't working. We may need another plan. How about we try-". He was cut off by a loud, low reverberating squawk that echoed through the forest. He scanned the forest, to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. Once he had, he began walking towards the sound, Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa following him. Following the sound, they entered a clearing and saw a dinosaur standing in front of them.

It was smaller than they had been expecting; only slightly smaller than the zhenyuanlong. There was also a vague similarity in appearance; however, this new dinosaur had a longer, more rounded head, as opposed to the zhenyuanlongs' sharp, pointed muzzle. Its teeth were also different too; rather than the sharp, serrated teeth of the zhenyuanlong, it had large incisor teeth, like that of a rabbit.

Unlike the reddish plumage of the zhenyuanlong, this dinosaur had an extravagant crest of blue-green feathers on its head, a similarly coloured fan on its tail and long, slightly darker blue feathers on its arms, with the exception of noticeably purple feathers lined across the back of said arms. The remainder of its body, with the exception of its feet, were covered in thick feathers of varying shades of purple and blue similarly to those of a modern day Victoria crowned pigeon. The dinosaur threw back its head, let out another booming cry and jumped up and down, lifting his tail to expose his tail fan, bobbing his head to show off his crest and flapping his arms to reveal his wing feathers.

Drew knew what it was immediately, "According to the info-packs, this is incisivosaurus; a distant relative of the oviraptorids. As you can tell from the buck teeth, it's a herbivore." Jack pointed at the Incisivosaurus, "I'm guessing this is a male; what with the bright colors and the vigorous displaying. This, fearless leader, looks like a mating display."

True to Jack's word, they noticed another Incisivosaurus enter the clearing; this one was slightly smaller and slightly duller in coloration. This was evidently a female; she lacked the extravagant tail fan and head plumage seen on the male. The male, after seeing this new arrival, resumed his displaying vigorously, interspersing it with high-pitched pinging sounds to draw the female closer. The female bent down and displayed her arm feathers, to which the male replied in kind. After a few minutes of this synchronized "dancing", she turned her back to the male and lifted her tail to expose her cloaca.

Turning away, Jack tittered. "I think they need to be alone, if you catch my drift," he stated conspiratorially, causing his compatriots to start giggling. "Oh, stop it," Drew giggled. "Yeah," Adrian said, barely stifling back laughter himself. "Keep your eyes on the mission." Hayabusa, for her part, looked confusedly at the humans; what were they so amused by?

After the Incisivosaurus had finished mating, Drew, still stifling back giggles, aimed the portal remote at the clearing and summoned the portal. The two oviraptorids stood, transfixed, at the glowing vortex and walked through it; the female first, followed by the male. When the male had gone through, Drew shut the portal off and turned to his team, "Right what we do about the Microraptor is-", before Jack's voice interrupted him. "Uh, fearless leader?" Jack then said, pointing his finger towards somewhere to the left with a noticeably wide eyed look on his face. "You'd best come over here; you'll want to see this."

Drew, Adrian and Hayabusa headed over to Jack to see that he had caught sight of a series of tracks; and large ones at that, with each being about a foot wide. Adrian bent down to regard them; they looked rather familiar. Adrian could only come to one conclusion about the trackmaker's rough identity - there was only one kind of animal that made tracks like that…

Suddenly, a high, chirping call echoed through the forest, causing the team to look in the direction of a large tree. They watched as a small shape leapt from the branch, spread its arms and legs and gracefully glided down to the print and began digging for grubs.

Now that it was on the ground, they could look at it closer. It was small, barely over two feet long, with a body that was covered in iridescent black feathers, with its only bare parts being its feet, muzzle and fingers. Its arms and legs were covered in long, asymmetrical feathers, like those on a bird's wings, and had a sickle claw on its second toe. They all knew what it was immediately. Drew muttered, in awe, "Microraptor." As he said this, his trademark grin came on his face, a noticeably elated glow coming into his hazel eyes. Suddenly, the little dinosaur turned to notice those regarding it and climbed back up into the trees at lightning speed, disappearing before they could blink.

Drew turned to his compatriots and said, "That's a Microraptor. The reason why it ran back up the tree is, since it can't fly, it can't take off from the ground. We can use that to our advantage." Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa looked at each other puzzled. "How?", Jack said. Drew smirked, "Easy."

. . . . .

The plan, as it turned out, was to construct a small fence around an area of soil, with openings filled with grubs as bait. Drew had been very quick to explain the plan, "We construct the fence entirely around the openings of this clearing, so when the Microraptor come down to feed on our bait, they won't be able to leave and we can get them through the portal. All we have to do is wait." And so they did, sitting in the undergrowth and waiting for their targets to arrive.

Eventually, they saw a Microraptor gracefully glide down into the area surrounded by their fence and begin digging for grubs. The Microraptor was then joined by a second, then a third and so on. Soon, twelve microraptors were in the corral, digging for the grubs the team had buried within the trap as bait. Drew smiled; just a little longer and they'd have…

Suddenly, two young male Incisivosaurus tore into the clearing, knocking over the fence and causing the Microraptors to scatter, climbing back up into the trees. The two rivals circled and vigorously displayed at each other. At the failure of their plan, Jack sighed. "And the best laid plans of mice and men…" Adrian turned to his compatriots, a smile on his face. "We can salvage something from this," he said, interrupting Jack before he could finish his sentence. "Jack, can I have the horn?" After Jack obliged, Adrian walked into the clearing and began blaring his horn at the two quarreling dinosaurs, which turned to look at him. Their grudges forgotten at the sight of this new arrival, the two dinosaurs charged at him and, when they had gotten close enough, Drew opened the portal and they dived through, into the present.

Jack turned to look at the destroyed fence, "What do we do about the Microraptor?" Drew sighed and turned to look at Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa, "Stay there, I'm going back to the park to get some stuff that might help us." He walked through the portal, back to the present.

. . . . .

Nikolai sighed in equal parts contentment and relief as he sat upon a bench directly facing the main herbivore paddock at Ice Age Mount. At the moment, he was currently taking a break – and getting the workmen shipshape had been more aggravating than expected. Even now he could remember how things had unfolded in the 'talk' that he, Nikolai, and Kevin had engaged in with the trio they'd caught harassing Leon. Kevin, at this point quite peeved indeed, had read the trio the riot act – and pointed out that there was "moolah" in them behaving. They'd quietly responded that they'd only been messing around and stalked off. Nikolai shook his head side to side – this was proving to be a testing day, which made the break even better. And it certainly helped that, so far anyway, all the paddock's inhabitants themselves appeared to be in good spirits.

Most of the other grazers – the horses, saiga and bovids – were grazing on the hill in the centre of the paddock, whilst the six female elasmotherium were all napping nearby the front of the paddock's rear forest while Mbeya, the male, was sharpening his mighty horn against the side of one of the nearby trees. George he couldn't see – probably somewhere in the forest area. Martha, as he was happy to notice, seemed in good spirits as she browsed upon some bushes nearby where the bovids were grazing. Ellie, meanwhile, was taking a drink from the far rightmost side of the paddock's lake while the larger herd of woolly mammoths were drinking nearby. The coelodonta crash were as well… except for Achilles, who was browsing alongside Martha. Nikolai nodded his head, a small smile on his face – whilst he hoped that Martha and Ellie would both be accepted by the herd, they at least had company in the meantime. Their odds of being accepted were certainly good – the herd were tolerant of their presence. It was possible that they could be accepted in the herd soon.

At that moment, he noticed the mammoth calf Lyuba running over towards where Martha and Achilles were positioned. As he watched carefully, Lyuba came to a stop directly behind the browsing Martha and Achilles and then trumpeted playfully as if calling their attention. At this point, Ellie and the larger woolly mammoth herd had joined Nikolai in watching the proceedings as Martha and Achilles turned their heads in Lyuba's direction. Nikolai was now holding his breath. This was a tense moment

Fortunately, after a few seconds, Martha rumbled good-naturedly, to which Lyuba trumpeted playfully before then turning to face Achilles and extending her trunk towards the woolly rhino in a gesture of frienship. Achilles, in stark contrast to Martha, swung his head in Lyuba's direction and snorted irritably – he made no move to chase the calf off, however. Nikolai shook his head in amusement at the sight of all this. "Well I suppose that wasn't exactly surprising," he muttered. Martha, meanwhile, shook her head side to side, patted Lyuba on the head, to which the calf rubbed her head against Martha's hind leg, before returning to the herd. Nikolai nodded his head. "At least Lyuba's happy to interact with Martha," he said to himself. "Hopefully the others will soon, as well." After saying this, he looked in the general direction of the holding pens. At this point, he really couldn't help but wonder how things had been unfolding. "Here's hoping I'll be able to get back to there soon," he thought to himself. "This crap with the workmen has cost them a lot of time."

The sound of his communicator suddenly split the air, at which point he promptly drew it out and answered. "Koshkin, over?"

"I trust you're doing well on your little break?"

Nikolai nodded his head at the sound of Kyle's voice. "Da," he said. "I should be ready to provide further assistance in a few minutes."

"That's good to hear," said Kyle. "Kevin and I are on our way to Ice Age Mount right not to check to see if there was anybody we missed. And once we've finished there, Flaming Cliffs is the last zone we need to check. "

"Sounds good," said Nikolai. "I'll be waiting right by the Ice Age Mount herbivore paddock."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, in prehistoric China, Drew had returned with three net guns; one each for himself, Jack and Adrian. He explained, "We use the net guns to net the Microraptor when they're on the ground and put them in individual carriers." And so, the three adventurers and accompanying bird continued through the forest, searching for Microraptor. After about an hour, they heard noise in a nearby clearing, finding a small group of additional incisivosaurus, all of which were displaying.

Watching the bucktoothed dinosaurs, Drew smirked. "We'll need some more at the park anyways," he chuckled before turning towards his companions. "And before you ask, I've got a plan...and it's a cracker" Jack and Adrian rolled their eyes, with Hayabusa giving the team leader a rather quizzical look. "Naturally," Adrian groaned. This plan, simply enough, involved making a trail of plants to use as bait and allowing the dinosaurs to follow it. Once they had gotten close enough, Drew activated the portal, allowing them all, following a brief moment of wariness, to go through, one by one, into the present.

Once the last incisivosaurus had gone through, Drew shut off the portal. Jack looked at Drew and asked, "So what's the plan now?" Before Drew could speak, the team heard a familiar call and looked up to see several Microraptor gliding through the trees, heading deeper into the forest. Drew, smiling, turned to Jack and Adrian and said, "The plan is we see where they're headed."

And so, they followed the Microraptors, deeper and deeper into the forest, until, after about an hour's walking, they entered a clearing and looked up in the trees to see a flock consisting of three species of small microraptorine – the Microraptor, they immediately recognized, but they didn't know what the other two were (Leon would probably know) – perched like gargoyles, waiting expectantly for something to arrive…

Suddenly, a loud, hooting bellow echoed through the forest; a bellow that sounded strangely familiar. Jack turned to Drew and said, "That isn't what I think it is, right?" Suddenly, the ground began to shake as a large sauropod walked into the clearing and bellowed at them. Drew, Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa stood stupefied by this new giant. This was evidently some kind of titanosaur; however, they didn't know which one. Maybe Leon would be able to identify them when they brought them back.

Like the sauropods back at the park, it had a long neck, a small head, four columnar legs and a long tail. However, in comparison to the ones back at the park, it was much smaller; only about forty-five feet long. It had green-brown scales, with lighter markings on its snout and a row of osteoderms and iguana-like spikes ran down its back to its posterior. It was eventually joined by several more, in a group consisting of two species, as well as two species of iguanodont (one noticeably larger than the other), moving along the forest trackway. As the giant creatures all came into the clearing, the rescue team couldn't help but observe that, while the second sauropod species had the same green-brown scales, it had yellow markings on its snout instead of red ones. The iguanodonts were had similar colours, with the larger species being covered in muddy brown scales with blotchy lighter patches across the sides of their bodies, while the smaller ones had a lighter shade of brown scales covering the majority of their bodies with black stripes.

Observations now made, Drew, Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa walked out of the way of the giants and looked up at the microraptorines, who were staring anticipatorily; as if this was what they had been waiting for. They turned to look as one of the mighty sauropods stepped on a large, dead log. The log splintered and cracked open under the sauropod's weight. The microraptorines dived towards the log and began eating insects from under the bark. Some were rooting through the soil nearby to where the giants had walked.

Drew looked at the microraptorines and turned to his compatriots. "That's why they were waiting! As the herd walk through the forest, they break up dead wood and turn up soil, flushing out invertebrates, which the microraptorines eat." Jack turned to Drew, smiling. "And they're just standing in this clearing," he then stated before pointing at the feasting microraptorines. "Perfect opportunity, don't you think?" Drew turned to his comrade and smiled. "You just read my mind."

Over the next hour or so, they would aim their net guns at the feeding microraptorines. When they fired, the targeted microraptorines would find themselves trapped under the net, allowing Drew, Jack and Adrian to put them in the glass-doored animal carriers. This was easier said than done; mostly due to Jack's tendency to miss his targets. Once they had captured a significant amount, Drew turned to his compatriots. "Let's get the microraptorines sent back to the park and head back to the lake," he stated, "The sauropods and iguanodonts are headed for there."

"Sounds like a plan," Jack stated before nodding his head and looking to Adrian. "Here's hoping the park's ready," he stated. "Not to mention the yutyrannus." At this, Adrian nodded and muttered. "Considering what's going on with the workmen, I'd be hoping that too."

. . . . .

As it so happened, that was a possibility Kyle, Nikolai, and even Kevin would soon find themselves immensely hoping to be true. At that moment, all three of them had just now arrived at the Flaming Cliffs exhibit zone alongside Cameron, and were hoping for an easier ride.

"I'll admit," Kevin stated, casually, "I really wasn't expecting any of the guys to do that – of course, the kid's a bit weird, so I assume he attracts that sort of thing, but, still… just 'cause someone makes it easy doesn't mean you have to…" Kyle nodded his head. "I could really get to like you, you know that?," he said. "True, you're a surly, mercenary money-grubber, but… you're not wrong half the time." Kevin smirked, "Aw, you listed all my best qualities…" "Anyway," Nikolai stated before he then looked ahead. "Drew will be pleased we got everyone shipshape… unfortunately, all we had to do was offer you money..."

They rushed over towards the four main Flaming Cliffs carnivore paddocks, swiftly catching two of the temporary workmen who Kyle had been disciplining this morning – the burly Australian and the thin Scouser – were sitting by the tsaagan fence… holding beer cans. They looked nervous – one was looking at the sky, whilst the other was obsessively reading signs.

At this, Kevin and the two chiefs of staff looked at each other in irritation. "Well, they're trying to hide something," Kyle stated. "Oh my God, I wonder what," Kevin groaned in agreement. "Well regardless," said Nikolai. "Let's get this over with." As they headed over, Kyle said, "Where did they even get that alcohol?" Nikolai shrugged, "Probably got it from one of the staff lounges," Nikolai grumbled, "Some of them seem to be quite good at picking locks…"

As they approached, the Australian said, nervously, "Look, Kyle, mate… I know this looks bad, but well, we just needed something to steady our nerves, 'cause we were lookin' for ya and we need to tell you something…" The Scouser said, "Yeah, yeah… something we need to tell you about as quickly as we can because, y'know, every second counts…" Glaring at them, Kyle said, "I really don't care about the booze – it's just… weren't there three of you?"

The Australian exhaled, "Yeah… well, good news and bad news there. The good news is we know exactly where he is…" Nikolai said, calmly but firmly, "Where is he?" Suddenly, a drunk Glaswegian voice yelling, "They're not so scary, ya cowardly bastards! Just big chickens…" before a scream and a cacophony of snarling and hissing from the Velociraptor paddock, before the Glaswegian screamed, "Help me, bastards!" and the Australian sighed, "Yeah, that's the bad news."

Nikolai, however, was very quick to react. "The story can wait – we need to get him out", as he, Kyle, and a reluctant Kevin rushed over to the paddock, followed by the workman's colleagues, who exchanged nervous glares. And, when they finally reached the paddock, they found the luckless workman cowering as the Velociraptors circled him, snarling. Nikolai whipped out the horn and blared it, causing the raptors to stand still in their tracks, hissing and screeching in discomfort at the loud noise. Kyle and Kevin, taking full advantage of this, hurriedly grabbed a nearby heavy-duty rope and extended it into the paddock. "Grab on!" Kyle yelled, to which Kevin screamed, "Before the sandy-feathered fuckers come back!"

Panting and gasping, the workman hurriedly scrambled towards the rope and grabbed onto it. And from there, visibly heaving from the effort, the two men pulled onto the rope, just barely managing to get him out. And from there, the whole raptor pack snarled and cawed in rage, snapping at the empty space where the workman had been.

Meanwhile, outside the paddock, time seemed to briefly stand still as all present gazed at the workman, panting and gasping on the ground. Eventually, the man managed to turn his head to face the two chiefs of staff, eyes still widened, "Thu...thu...thank...you for savin' my life," he eventually managed to say, to which Nikolai said, "Don't worry about it – just admit you were stupid." The drunk man nodded, as the Australian said, "Mate… don't say we didn't warn ya."

Panting after the exertion, Kevin pointed at Kyle, "That couple of thousand up front you promised me? I want double now – four grand," he spat, to which Kyle said, "We won't go higher than three." Kevin said, "How about three and a half? That's my lowest offer, so I'd say take it." Kyle sighed, "Fine."

"We did try to warn him, mind…" said the Scouser, to which Nikolai said, "Yes – regrettably you failed. Try harder next time – you get a minor reprimand for the alcohol…" before gesturing to the Glaswegian, still dazed from his brush with death, "As for him… I think nearly getting eaten is its own punishment", to which the Australian said, "Don't worry about that – and if that ain't enough, I'll give him a good slap when he sobers up."

Kyle and Nikolai sighed – it had been a long day. But nevertheless, they seemed to have succeeded in getting everyone shipshape. "So far, so good, it seems," Nikolai grunted stoically. Already he was hoping that no further drama would ensue this day.

. . . . .

With the microraptorines successfully captured and sent back to the park, the team headed down the mountain, back to the lake. After roughly two hours of trekking, they walked into a clearing…containing a pack of sleeping Zhenyuanlong! Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa moved closer to Drew. Jack turned to Drew and whispered, "Fearless leader? How are we supposed to get past this lot without waking them up?" Drew scanned the clearing, seeing for ways they could get around the sleeping theropods without waking them up. However, there was something very wrong about this. There was something eerie about the stillness of the Zhenyuanlong; he couldn't even hear them breathing.

Drew leaned down to the nearest Zhenyuanlong and put his hand on its wrist. The skin felt cold. Drew took his hand away. He couldn't feel a pulse.

It was almost certainly dead.

Drew turned to his teammates and said, "This one's dead!" Jack leant down to the one nearest to him, checked for a pulse and said, "This one's dead too." After checking the pulse of the individual nearest to him, Adrian scanned the clearing and said, "I think they all are." Drew looked at the bodies; there wasn't even a scratch on them. He said, puzzled, "I wonder what happened to them…"

Suddenly, a juvenile Zhenyuanlong weakly stood up, trying to hold its head in the air, whilst coughing and gasping as if struggling to breathe. As this happened, Hayabusa suddenly began to snap her beak and twitch uncomfortably, moving closer to Adrian in the process. Jack turned to look at the carbon dioxide meter, his eyes widening as he noticed the level displayed on the machine was now steadily rising. "Umm, Drew…"

Drew's eyes widened in horror. "Carbon dioxide," he hissed. "That's how the Zhenyuanlong died; they were gassed by CO2 from the volcano!" Jack gestured to the juvenile Zhenyuanlong, now struggling to breathe even more than before. "All except for one. If we don't get him back to the park, he's going to die." "You're right", Drew said, "We'll take him with us." Nodding his head, Jack gently picked up the little theropod and put him in a spare animal carrier. Once in the carrier, the little dinosaur began to move around and breathe more deeply, having just escaped the gas cloud. The carriers were airtight, so no carbon dioxide could get in.

Right after that, a massive earthquake rocked the forest floor. Drew, Jack and Adrian struggled to stay upright and keep hold on to their carriers as the ground shook around them. Hayabusa nearly dodged a falling branch as the young Zhenyuanlong began to squawk in alarm.

Trying to gain his bearings after the massive quake, Drew said, "Right, we need to get out of the forest before there are any aftershocks…" Drew turned to see that Jack and Adrian were looking into the horizon, a shocked expression on their faces, with the former pointing at the volcano while the latter also briefly got down and helped Hayabusa get onto his shoulder. "Uh, Drew," Jack stated nervously. "I might be jumping the gun here, but I don't that's what you should be worried about."

Drew turned to look where Jack was pointing, and his eyes widened from horror at what he saw. The volcano's summit was covered by a gigantic plume of smoke pointing into the sky, so huge it almost blocked out the sun and seeped down into the forest, like a toxic mist. As he looked closer, he noticed lava trickling down the volcano's side, burning everything in its path.

The volcano had erupted.

"Oh shit."

Drew, Jack and Adrian looked at the erupting volcano in wordless horror. Drew turned to Jack and Adrian, "We need to head back to the lake now!" Jack suddenly turned to Drew and said, "Uh, tiny problem, fearless leader; that eruption is pumping out so much ash into the sky it'll block out the sun and we don't have any torches. Even if we move as fast as we can, we won't be able to find the lake in the dark." Suddenly, Hayabusa jumped off Adrian's shoulder and began flying out of the clearing. She turned to look at the three humans, having briefly perched on a tree stump seconds earlier, and squawked, as if telling the humans to follow her. The humans all looked at each other, confused, before moving to follow her.

As fast as they could, they followed Hayabusa, carrying the juvenile Zhenyuanlong. As they moved through the forest, they put on their gas masks to cope with the volcanic ash; it never hurt to be prepared. Hayabusa, for her part, was simply flying above the gas cloud, taking deep breaths wherever she could. As they ran through the forest, Jack turned to Adrian, confused. "Where do you think she's taking us?" Adrian turned to Jack and said, "We're headed back to the lake – she must know the way there."

Eventually, the team reached the lake to find the sauropods, iguanodonts and a small group of adult Liaoningosaurus, as well as the Yutyrannus pack, standing by it, letting out distressed bellows, mixed in with coughing, wheezing and spluttering. The volcanic ash had now blocked out the sun, shrouding the lake in darkness, meaning the animals were only visible as silhouettes.

Drew turned to Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa, shouting over the animals' bellows and the restrictions of his gas mask, "Get everything else through the portal! I'll handle the animals!" Jack and Adrian nodded obediently and Hayabusa cawed in affirmative. Carrying their equipment and the carrier containing the juvenile Zhenyuanlong. Jack and Adrian summoned the portal and hurriedly rushed through back to the park, with Hayabusa close behind them.

After they left, Drew turned to the animals by the lake and began blaring his horn at them. The sauropods charged towards the source of this new sound, with the iguanodonts, liaoningosaurus herd, and yutyrannus hurriedly following. Once they had all gotten close enough, Drew opened the portal and the entire massive group of panicked dinosaurs charged through, moving as if a single entity. Once the last one had gone through, Drew ran through the portal himself and closed it once he was back at the park.

Once the portal had been shut off, he took off his gas mask and briefly looked up to see Leon, Alice, Kyle, Nikolai, Colette, and Yolanda giving him flabbergasted looks. Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa were standing next to them, concern on their faces. Leon firstly turned to Jack, Adrian and Hayabusa and then to Drew, before asking, "What the hell happened?", to which Drew smiled and said, "I'll tell you all about it." Kyle facepalmed at this statement, "And just when I was thinking things were going well," he thought bitterly to himself.

. . . . .

An hour later, once all the dust had settled, all the newly rescued animals from the Yixian formation had been safely transferred to their new homes in the appropriately named Yixian Formation exhibit zone. As had been the case for several other Mesozoic themed zones, a large exhibit building was positioned near the entrance of this zone, themed on the inside to resemble a Cretaceous Yixian jungle, was where all the smaller animals would now live.

The centrepiece was a gigantic, walk-through area themed to resemble an Yixian jungle, which was home to the oviraptorosaurs, primitive ceratopsians, small ornithopods, pterosaurs, birds and microraptorines. All the terrestrial animals were rooting around their new home, whilst the microraptorines, eopteranodon and psuedosordes were flying around above.

Of course, not all of the inhabitants of this portion of the Yixian forest building were kept in the main area. The dilong pack lived in the largest paddock, with alpha male Mushu and his mate Sisu bellowing a challenge to non-existent challengers on a log while the rest of the pack patrolled their new territory. The huaxiagnathus and sinocalliopteryx lived in two paddocks at the right of the dilong paddock, separated by a wall. A smaller paddock nearby served as home to the sinosauropteryx, which were all currently stalking about their new territory. The remaining three packs of deinonychosaur that now dwelled in this part of the building, meanwhile, now lived in three separate paddocks behind the dilong, with the tianyuraptor all heartily feasting upon a freshly provided chicken carcass, the mei long rooting in the soil and the yixianosaurus scouting their new territory for threats.

Nearby, three aviaries contained the two larget microraptorines and the eoazhdarcho, with the sinornithosaurus currently in the midst of feasting upon a freshly provided chicken carcass while the changyuraptor were currently busy scouting about the edges of their new territory. Two separate exhibits nearby served as home for the two species of repenomammus, who were all napping in their burrows.

A large aviary themed after an Yixian lakeside served as home to both the wading pterosaurs (the boreopterus, ctenochasmatids and ikrandraco) and the longirostravis flock. All species were now wading around their new territory, searching for food. In a small exhibit nearby lived the manchurochelys and ordosemys, with both bales of Yixian formation turtles either basking under a heatlamp or swimming around in their pool. Several tanks located near the aviary's front entrance were what now served as home for the rescued amphibians and choristoderes. And at that moment, while the choristoderes calmly swam about in the waters of their respective tanks, the rescued Yixian amphibians were relaxing in the light of their tanks' ceiling lamps on logs and stones nearby their respective 'pools'.

Similarly, two large terrariums located to the right of the entrance to the main walkthrough area served as home for the two Yixian lizard species, with the liushusaurus basking in relaxation upon logs underneath the light of the ceiling based heating lamp inside their terrarium and the xianglong all curiously climbing up trees in their terrarium and occasionally jumping off to take a leisurely glide.

Positioned outside directly behind the Yixian forest building, and right in the very center of the exhibit zone, was an massive paddock that now served as home for the larger herbivorous dinosaurs. At that moment, all five of the herbivores were settling into their new homes, with the red snouted dongbeititan and yellow snouted liaoningotitan both peacefully gathered together in the forested section at the very back of the paddock while feeding on the trees, whereas the reddish faced bolong and yellow faced jinzhousaurus were all either scouting the edges of the paddock for threats, browsing upon the bushes. And of course, all the liaoningosaurus, were gathered at the paddock's massive lake. And at that moment, the adults and adolescents were all browsing by the lakeshore, while the youngsters were all playfully swimming around together within the lake.

Finally, in the very back of the exhibit zone and directly behind the paddock with the sauropods and iguanodonts were two appropriately large paddocks that served as home for the two top predators of the Yixian formation. Of these paddocks, the one on the left served as home for the zhenyuanlong, which were all heartily chowing down on a freshly provided goat carcass. The one on the right, meanwhile served as home for the yutyrannus, which were themselves happily feasting upon a freshly provided cow carcass.

All in all, things were so far going well for the park's newest residents.

At that very moment, Kyle, Nikolai, and Kevin were standing at the main herbivore paddock, with the foreman in particular seeming quite impressed as he watched the assorted ankylosaurs, sauropods, and iguanodonts going about their business. "I will admit," Kevin said, feeling quite relaxed, "this park really is a beautiful place. Most interesting gig I've ever had"

"Glad you think so," Kyle stated, nodding as head as he watched the herds, "And hopefully, now that you've gotten everyone shipshape, we can move that bit closer to sharing it with the world.", to which Kevin chuckled. "I can definitely agree with you there," he stated. "Sorry for the inconvenience." Nikolai shrugged. "Don't worry about it", as Kyle said, "Agreed - and besides, it felt good getting them in line. A lot of pent-up stuff there." Kevin couldn't help but chuckle, "I suppose you're not wrong there," he admitted. "But even so, they just needed a firm hand."

"We'll see what Theodore says when he gets back to us on that matter," said Nikolai. He then raised his eyebrow. "I will admit though, I'm still surprised you didn't have the one we rescued dismissed." Kevin shrugged. "Eh, figured his near death experience with the raptors was punishment enough," he explained. "Too much effort – and, hey, he did say what he did was stupid." "A wise course of action," Kyle stated. He looked in the general direction of the main staff building. "I think Percival's learning that he's not as smart as he thinks." Nikolai shrugged. "I'm sure Theodore won't be happy with what he finds out went down," he stated before looking back to Kevin. "Though regardless, I do hope you enjoy the rest of your time here."

Kevin chuckled. "Me too," he said. "Me too." He paused, as if to think, before saying, "Hell, I might stick around… so you'd best get used to looking at my mug." At this, Kyle chuckled. "We'll see, we'll see." Kevin smirked, "Just warnin' ya. Anyway… about that three-and-a-half grand…"

Meanwhile, in the vet offices, Linda was looking over the orphaned Zhenyuanlong, a male, as he walked unsteadily around his recovery pen. After several hours of being treated for carbon dioxide poisoning, he had been sent over to recovery. Linda looked over the little dinosaur, scared in this new environment, and felt a pang of sympathy; maybe the larger pack they had could take him in. Stranger things had happened.

Nevertheless, there was no denying that, for now at least, life was largely going smoothly for everyone at the park, human and animal alike. And with the workmen now ship-shape (and the Glaswegian getting a good slap in the face), the human element was resolved.

And now, for five of the staff, it was time to resolve a loose end.

. . . . .

Later that evening, Jack and Colette were standing nearby the constructed fountain in the 'entrance area' in the "main street area" as they waited for Alice, Adrian, and Yolanda to arrive for the planned meeting. Jack looked to Colette, a half hopeful and half concerned look on his face. "You're certain you wanna do this?" Jack asked. "I mean, you can still back out." Colette directed a warm smile towards Jack, "Don't worry. I'm ready to get this done and over with. Believe me, the sooner we get this over with, the better."

"Glad to know we're on the same page."

At this, Jack and Colette turned their heads towards Main Street in time to see Alice, Adrian, and Yolanda stepping into view. Yolanda smiled at the sight of Jack and Colette. "Good to see you two made it," she said. Alice only nodded silently, before she then looked to Colette. "Sorry to keep you waiting," she said. "It's fine," said Colette. She nodded her head, and then directed a firm look towards Alice. "I trust you remember exactly why we're holding this meeting?" Alice nodded her head. "I do," she said before looking face to face with Colette. "And for what it's worth, I am sorry."

At the sound of this, Yolanda looked to Adrian, smile still on her face. "Well, this is off to a good start."

Colette raised her eyebrow, clearly not expecting Alice to start the meeting the way she'd just done. "Well that was quick," she said. Alice nodded her head as if acknowledging that Colette had a fair point. "Don't get me wrong," she said. "I still stand by what I said, but… I should have handled it better."

Colette nodded. "That's true," she admitted before pointing her finger at Alice. "I just got angry that you were judging me before you'd really gotten to know me – and I still don't appreciate how you insinuated that I don't… care very deeply about Jack. Because believe me, I do." She took a deep breath to make sure she stayed calm. "Nevertheless, that's no excuse. And I shouldn't have reacted quite the way I did." At this, Jack raised his eyebrow in confusion, and then looked to Adrian and Yolanda, who both silently raised a hand towards Jack.

Alice nodded her head. "And I get that now. After all, you helped keep him safe during the Shutdown – and, like I said, I am eternally grateful to you for that." She lifted her finger. "It just looked a bit suspicious that you waited so long; I suppose I just got a bit paranoid." Colette nodded, "Well like I said. Social cues aren't really…my thing. And I was busy a lot of the time anyhow." She then glanced in Jack's direction, "And I thought, since nobody was making the effort to introduce us…"

"The thought crossed my mind," Yolanda admitted. She nodded her head. "But I'd thought you'd feel more comfortable if I allowed you to do it on your own terms. And as your friend, I wanted you to do it at your own pace." She then looked to Alice. "I didn't want to force the issue on either of you – I'm not a nag." Adrian nodded his head in agreement. "You shouldn't force these things," he stated.

At this point, Jack felt he had to say something. "Hold on," he said before looking at Alice and pointing his finger at her. "The incident you mentioned a few weeks ago." He then pointed to Colette. "Was Colette the one you argued with?" Even as he asked this, part of him was thinking that it made sense. After all, he had begun to suspect that was the case – however, he still didn't quite have the full context.

At this, Colette and Alice looked back at each other and then to Jack and nodded. "Yes Jack," Colette said. "I was." She pointed to Alice. "I decided that it was time to get to know your sister better, what with how close you and I have become. Unfortunately, she wasn't quite in the mood for it...to put it lightly." Jack looked back at Alice, who nodded her head. "It's true," she said.

At this, Jack looked to Adrian and Yolanda, his eyebrow raised as if he were silently asking if they'd known about the matter. Adrian nodded his head. "I'd guessed what had happened, but didn't ask for details. I didn't feel it was really my place." Yolanda nodded her head in agreement. "After the Basilosaurus mission, I asked Alice why she'd gotten suspended…and she told me. I asked Collete for corroboration and she told me a few more details." She then pointed to both Alice and Colette. "I didn't want to be a snitch, so I decided to let them tell you themselves."

Colette nodded her head. "Thank you, Yolanda, for that," she said. Alice also nodded her head. "Seconded," she stated.

At this, Jack looked to Alice. "But why?", he stated, seemingly genuinely confused. "I mean, I know you and Colette didn't really talk to each other all that much before, but what made you react like that when she was finally making an effort at bonding with you? Really?"

Alice sighed and hung her head. "Like I said, the timing felt too suspicious." She then rubbed the back of her head. "And I was a little on guard because I was worried."

Jack raised his eyebrow, now looking rather flabbergasted. "Worried about me?" At this, Colette, Adrian, and Yolanda all awkwardly looked to Alice, who sighed once more. "You've been burned before, Jack. A few times."

Jack's eyes widened at the memories, "What do any of them have to do with this?" Alice hung her head. "Collete just.., rubbed me up the wrong way with her… demeanor – I was concerned and.. and…" She sighed, beginning to tear up, "And I just...I didn't want you to be hurt again…and I know I was being mean and horrible…"

At this, Jack stepped over towards Alice and hugged her- Alice to widened her eyes in shock before reciprocating. Jack nodded his head. "You've always been there for me, Alice," he stated. "And I appreciate that, I really do.", before stepping back, keeping his hands on his sister's shoulders and staring up so they could look at each other eye to eye. "But you have to let me make my own decisions. And as much as Colette puts people off at first glance…she's better than she lets on." He pointed at Colette, who was currently nodding her head with a small, but still visible, appreciative smile at Jack's support. "And I'm sure if you just give her a chance, you'll be able to see this."

Alice looked towards Colette, and then back at her brother. "Sometimes I wish you never had to grow up," she said. Jack let out a low chuckle. "Sometimes I say the same Ally," he said. "But we've all got to." Alice nodded her head. "Too true." At this, she walked over towards Colette, coming to a stop at arm's length away. "And I'll say this to you Colette," she then said. "I wouldn't consider us friends just yet. But I'm willing to change that." She extended her right hand, offering a handshake, "Would that work for you?" Colette tilted her head as if thinking to herself, and then grabbed onto Alice's hand and shook it. "Works for me," she said as she did so. She looked towards Jack while still shaking Alice's hand. "And for Jack's sake, I'm very glad we were able to come to this agreement." Alice chuckled slightly. "I can definitely agree with you there." Yolanda and Adrian nodded, pleased with how this had unfolded. Even Jack had a noticeable smile on his face.

Then, once the handshake was over and Alice and Colette had let go of each other's hand, Alice pointed her finger at Colette, a darker look briefly appearing on her face in the process. "Remember this though," she said. "I'll stand by is this; any missteps and you will regret it." Colette chuckled at this. "Wouldn't have it any other way." She then looked to Jack, Yolanda, and Adrian. "And on that note, it's probably about time we all get some sleep. Tomorrow's gonna be a busy day after all." Alice snorted. "Ain't that the truth?" Jack groaned. "When isn't it?" Yolanda chuckled. "Well, this is a weight off all our shoulders, isn't it?"

And at that, the short meeting was adjourned, and all five participants parted ways – it had been a long day – and they all needed some sleep. At least this had now been resolved. Alice in particular was feeling happy – her suspension was almost up. Perhaps she could go on the next mission.

Rescue toll:

Beipiaopterus chenianus (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

Beipiaosaurus inexpectus (12; 8 adults, 4 youngsters; 6 male, 6 female)

Boreopterus cuiae (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

Bolong yixianensis (10; 6 adults, 4 youngsters; 5 male, 5 female)

Caudipteryx dongi (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

Changyuraptor yangi (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

Confuciusornis dui (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

Confuciusornis feduccai (13; all adults; 7 male, 6 female)

Confuciusornis sanctus (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

Dongbeititan dongi (10; 6 adults, 4 youngsters; 3 male, 7 female)

Dilong paradoxus (7; all adults; 4 male, 3 female)

Eosipterus yangi (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Eoazhdarcho liaoxiensis (5; all adults; 3 male, 2 female)

Eopteranodon lii (9; all adults; 5 male, 4 female)

Feilongus youngi (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

Gegepterus changi (9; all adults; 3 male, 6 female)

Graciliraptor lujiatunensis (12; all adults; 6 male, 6 female)

Huanhepterus quingyangensis (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)

Huaxiagnathus orientalis (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

Hyphalosaurus baitaigouensis (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)

Ikrandraco avatar (2; both adults; 1 male, 1 female)

Incisivosaurus gauthieri (11; all adults; 6 male, 5 female)

Jeholosaurus shangyuanensis (13; 7 adults, 6 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)

Jinzhousaurus yangi (9; 6 adults; 3 youngsters; 4 male, 3 female)

Laccotriton subsolanus (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

Liaobatrachus grabaui (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)

Liaobatrachus zhaoi (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Liaoceratops yanzigouensis (16; 9 adults, 7 youngsters; 7 male, 9 female)

Liaoningosaurus 'chuanqilong' paradoxus (20; 10 adults, 10 youngsters; 8 male, 12 female)

Liaoningotitan sinensis (9; 5 adults, 4 youngsters; 4 male, 5 female)

Liushusaurus acanthocaudata (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

Longirostravis hani (14; all adults; 7 male, 7 female)

Manchurochelys manchoukuoensis (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

Mei long (18; all adults, 9 male, 9 female)

Microraptor gui (12; all adults; 6 male, 6 female)

Moganopterus zhuiana (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Monjurosuchus splendens (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

Ordosemys liaoxiensis (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis (17; 10 adults, 7 youngsters; 8 male, 9 female)

Pseudosordes denhami (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

Pterofiltrus qiui (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

Repenomamus robustus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Repenomamus giganticus (2; both adults; 1 male, 1 female)

Sinerpeton fengshanensis (9; all adults; 5 male, 4 female)

Sinocalliopteryx gigas (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)

Sinornithosaurus millenii (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

Sinosauropteryx prima (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

Tianyuraptor ostromi (7; 4 adults, 3 youngsters; 3 male, 4 female)

Xianglong zhaoi (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Yixianosaurus longimanus (10; 6 adults, 4 youngsters; 5 male, 5 female)

Yutyrannus huali (7; 4 adults, 3 youngsters; 3 male, 4 female)

Zhenyuanlong suni (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Zhongjianosaurus yangi (12; all adults; 6 male, 6 female)

Next time on Prehistoric Park: Reimagined:

The rescue team returns to Mongolia.

(A float of giant crocodiles surround a single frightened baby leathery grey skinned and long necked creature.)

To rescue the world's last true giant!

(A small group of giant, leathery-skinned long-necked mammals drink from a small lake.)

In a world of the big, the bad and the plain ugly.

(A snarling pack of hungry hyaenodonts confront a bellowing elderly chalicothere.)

All next time, on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: The New Giants!