Chapter 3-Greater things to come
About a week later, new year's eve had arrived on the scene though the annual momentous occasion was unknown and unnoticed to the dinosaurs of the jurassic period who went about their daily routine and endeavours in the game of life and death, each species looking out to survive as they had always done for many years. Though for a certain Ceratosaurus, it was a matter solely on survival no matter what as it ran panicking for its' life in an effort to escape a ravenous saurophaganax which charged after it, snapping at it and only barely missing each time! Luckily for the little carnivore it was able to take refuge under some large tree roots as it hunkered down and laid low, as the saurophaganax tried to snap at it, unable to force its head through the gaps and its arm not able to fully get at it without the ceratosaurus snapping at it defensively, forcing it to retract it back. Frustrated at this, it began to slash at the tree with its claws then grab at the roots and yanked them out one by one.
High above, a pair of dinosaur shaped jets one blue and 1 pink, were watching the commotion from start to finish.
"Well well it looks like grampa's bones really did predict there'd be dinosaurs here Rod." Laura commented as they observed nature at its finest down below.
"Hmph! Coincidence and nothing more Laura." Rod scoffed as he shrugged his shoulders. It was at that point the saurophaganax had managed to shred through the tree's roots and expose the helpless ceratosaurus which made a defiant stand and hissed defensively at the massive predator despite seeing the odds were hopelessly stacked against it. Luckily for it….help was on the way, "Well, let's wrap this up quick before Helga calls us back for homework." said Rod as he propelled his jet to dive in!
"Yup, already on it." Laura nodded as she moved a little further away into position as Rod instructed her prior to this.
Just as the saurophaganax was about to grab the ceratosaurus in its' jaws, Rod charged in and blindsided it right at it's head, knocking it out cold as it collapsed to the ground to the surprise of its' prey!
"Just as planned!" Rod grinned pleased with himself as he pressed a button causing a cage to drop down on the unconscious jurassic giant before it took off into the sky and return to the ship.
It was at that moment the ceratosaurus tried to make a break for it, ceasing the chance while it had, but that was expected by Rod as he called out, "Your cue Laura!" At that moment she pressed a button in her jet which made a cage drop down on the unsuspecting dinosaur, trapping it making it screech in shock as it and its' predator were taken back to the ship.
"Hehe! Two for the price of one!" Rod grinned pleased with their success before noticing Laura wasn't as enthusiastic as he was which puzzled him, "You don't seem too happy Laura." He said to her as she sighed.
"Well, it's great we saved that little ceratosaurus but…." She said in a conflicted tone, "Aren't we kinda interfering with the circle of life and all? I mean sure we did save the poor ceratosaurus but…..that saurophaganax was just minding its' own business and trying to get lunch then we come in and interrupt its' moment….." She thought about it from the predator's point of view how it was simply trying to survive in this perilous prehistoric world so it didn't feel right for humans to come in and intervene….as they often has a habit of doing back home.
Rod however shrugged it off, "Aw no sweat, don't worry about it too much Laura. This situation is totally different." He said trying to reassure her, "They're about to go extinct if we leave them be, plus we'll give them all a way better home, all the food they can eat and no need to worry about predators anymore." He said with an encouraging smile hoping to cheer up his sister.
"Grampa did say that…." She then thought about it before nodding feeling assured once more. "Alright then, let's keep this up-"
Right before they could move on, Helga's face appeared on the monitor to their surprise, "Rod! Laura! It's time for you to return now! Time's up!" She growled signalling the end of playtime which made Rod groan with annoyance.
"After homework…." He moaned displeased.
Now it was Laura's turn to cheer them up, "Well at least we brought back some new specimens, that's all that counts Rod." She said as they piloted their crafts back to the Backlander several miles in the sky.
As soon as the pair returned home they arrived at the loading bay where the ceratosaurs and saurophaganax were being kept. It was here that a medical bay was set up to study the specimens they brought back too, along with taking blood samples for dna tests for health screening and research before turning them to cards.
"A couple of dinosaurs in just 1 week. Not bad I guess…." Rod commented rather pleased as he folded is arms on his hips. Not long ago the entire group of them took a handful of days to bring back a supersaurus and a seismosaurus, which was now being kept in a separate hanger given their enormous size and need for food and space. Plus the presence of carnivores would unnerve any herbivores they kept, making them restless so it was decided they be kept separated for safety to both them and the personnel looking after them.
"It's slow but at least steady." Laura nodded satisfied at their week's accomplishment. She then scratched her chin in thought, "You know part of me was thinking what if we took one home?"
Rod blinked his eyes confused at her statement, "We are taking them home Laura. That's why we came here in the first place."
"No I mean take home with us." She clarified.
"You like a pet?" Rod raised an eyebrow questioningly at her.
Laura nodded and smiled joyfully, "Yeah, it'd be way cooler than an average puppy, kitten or goldfish right?" She asked rather hopefully.
Rod scratched his head in thought and shook his head, "I don't know if Dr Ancient would approve of that idea though." He had doubts that the Ancients would agree that they open a pet store or petting zoo for the dinosaurs like that, "Don't forget, all pets need plenty of responsibility like feeding and cleaning them. Surely dinosaurs can't be any different." Rod added, "Especially with babies…sure they start out cute and little but don't forget they all grow up at some point." It was then he pointed out with his thumb to the end of the room, "And when that happens-"
Looking to where he pointed, Laura took noticed of Ed and Zander, who were kept on standby on board the ship due to their recent failures in Jurassic China, having failed in nabbing a single dinosaur there.
They tried with various species like sinraptor, micro raptor or piatnzkysaurus but ultimately each of their attempts had failed from either luring them in with food or trying to just drop the cage on them, only to mess up each time due to miscalculations, bad weather messing up their controls or bad luck as the swifter dinosaurs often got away at the last second. There had been a few funny moments of Ed and Zander trying to jump on and wrangle the smaller, younger shunosaurus in the wild only for them to get thrown off or driven off when the rest of the herd came after them. They tried using butterfly nets to snag micro raptors but often ended up running into trees, tripping over roots and even cases of falling over cliffs and needing rescuing, thus taking even more time off the group's hands. Resulting in much slower progress due to the quality of help available.
Under punishment by Dr Z they had to remain behind with the job of catering and caring for the dinosaurs, which involved feeding and cleaning them….which was far from a tradeoff compared to their field work as their bad luck was no better. Now the both of them were playing a game of rock, paper and scissors to decide between feeding and cleaning today.
"ROCK! PAPER! SCISSORS! GO!" They both yelled throwing out their hands, only for it to end in Zander's victory.
"No fair Zander! That's twice in a row! You must have cheated!" Ed whined in defeat as he fell on his knees with Zander snickering with glee and in victory.
"Can you prove it Ed?" He grinned to which the fatter man twiddled his fingers.
"Ugh…no…." He groaned as he got handed a rusty, smelly shovel with flies hovering around it.
"Then get to it then!" Zander pointed out at the door leading to the giant dinosaur enclosures on the other side of the room, as Ed reluctantly went over to get changed into a hazmat safety suit, zipping himself up and putting on some thick rubber gloves.
"Can't believe I have to go clean the supersaurus' cage….." He grumbled to himself wondering what choices in his life he could have made better so this could have been avoided.
Right behind him, "And don't forget after that comes seismosaurus'!" waved Zander playfully as he whistled pleased with himself before going over to fetch the ferns from the storage to restock the feeding buckets.
As Ed neared the door to the giant sauropod hangar, "I really hope Dr Z finishes those droids soon so we can take a vacation…." He muttered to himself cursing his bad luck, "Heck I'd trade places with Ursula and take my chances out there in the jungle and act as live bait than be stuck here on cleaning duty…." He said at the end as he opened the door.
The second Ed entered the room and shut the door behind him, Laura gulped as even from the far end of the room she could get a whiff of the horrendous odour that seeped out of that door even for a few seconds, which made her turn green and sickly, "On second thought…." She covered her mouth about to hurl before making a run for the bathroom outside, with Rod following after her.
(Meanwhile)
In a laboratory a couple of blocks away, Dr Ancient and Cretacia were running a trial with a certain hand held device shaped similar to a video game console with a slot for inserting cards and a glass screen on it. Holding out the allosaurus card, Ancient slashed causing the allosaurus to materialise inside the cage in front of them as it roared out in a fury! Only to revert back to card form when Ancient pressed a button on it.
"Wow….this thing actually works almost flawlessly….." Cretacia whistled amazed at how well it worked, even better than their carding console at the cages but this was way more portable.
"With just a push of a button or the swiping of the card you can change the dinosaur back and forth between a card and full form…." Ancient breathed in amazement at the device's impressive functionality, "And…." Taking several steps far away from the roaring allo's cage, Ancient pressed the recall button causing the allosaurus to change back to card form as the card flew right to his hand.
The sight of it made Cretacia's jaw hang in disbelief, "You can even do so when you're so far away too….." Cretacia whistled impressed with Dr Z's latest invention, the Alpha scanner. It could be really helpful in the field, now they may not need to go down to the surface every time with the dinosaurs to card them. Now they can just bring them back here while they are in safer conditions then card them in a more portable manner and in controlled conditions.
"It's really reliable," Ancient commented as he fingered the device all over and opened up a compartment to see not just the wind stone inside but also the advanced circuitry connected to it, "Have to say Dr Z was real creative and outdid himself with this."
"Still a few kinks to work out though…." Cretacia grimaced, "You remember what happened when Dr Z tried to show it off the other day?" She referred back when Dr Z tried to show off the Alpha scanner device himself to everyone else with the allosaurus too, only for it to get loose when he accidentally summoned it outside the cage! It went feral and went to trash the laboratory and would have made a meal out if him and everyone present had Jonathan and Helga not gotten there in time to subdue it and knock it out cold. Dr Z really got an earful from Helga right after that.
Upon being reminded, Ancient sweat dropped and laughed nervously, "Eheh….How could I forget?" If there was a good thing that came out of that, it just meant they needed to be careful where they summon the dinosaurs as well. After checking the device he discovered Dr Z hadn't perfected the targeting systems correctly, and you needed to calibrate it better before summoning it to the field. There had to also be situations where the dinosaur can't be in too close proximity to you before you summon it as well. Though when it came to recalling the beast that part worked just fine now thanks to Dr Ancient working out the bugs in the device.
"I must admit I was a little peeved when I saw him actually manage to segment that stone circle into 6 other pieces." Cretacia grunted, "And the fact he embedded those computer chips into them so that he could sync it with this device."
"We're really lucky it could still attach back to the rest of the stone circle and that they still work fine even with the add on chip." Ancient agreed with a sigh of relief, "Otherwise we'd be stuck in the past and we'd need to be saved ourselves and not just the dinosaurs."
"Ugh….No way do I want to go extinct and become a fossil myself." Cretacia shivered at the thought of being put on a museum display, no way she wanted that, she wanted to study artefacts and history not become part of it herself.
It was then Dr Ancient took out the wind stone from the scanner, "Still these stones truly are mysterious." He said before returning to the console where the others were kept, "These 6 symbols….no doubt they represent the elements found on our planet today." He commented as he looked at them over one by one, recognising what they each meant, "Fire, water, wind, earth, thunder and grass." Seeing that correspond to a few of the species they gained so far, Ancient was then having a theory came to mind, "The dinosaurs were so tied to the planet for so many years….when they were all wiped out at once, it seems their spirits bonded with the planet's very own essence somehow to become the stones."
"And it seems certain species happen to correspond with certain elements….." Cretacia added noticing how the allosaurus card had the same wind symbol as the wind stone. Having theorised you needed a matching dinosaur and card to be able to summon them out. Though to confirm it they'd need to run some more tests, "That can help us classify and organise them better."
Ancient nodded in response, "As for the middle one…." The both of them looked to the center piece with red, blue and yellow dots on it, "Seems that one has an untapped power we aren't able to access yet….."
Seeing him so deep in thought he'd tune everything else out, Cretacia hoped to avoid that as she smiled warmly and patted him on the back, "Well let's not think about that too hard, we've got more than enough to handle on our plate for the moment."
Ancient smiled appreciating his wife's concern, "Haha I suppose, if we piled on more than we have it'd be worse than overeating and indigestion for sure." He chuckled before eying a nearby screen seeing multiple readings on a graph which made him eye it closely and with intensity.
Noticing his tense look, "You seem a little uneasy dear. Is something on your mind?" Cretacia asked him curiously and with concern.
Bringing her in closer, "Seeing these readings….if the cards are exposed to any element matching their symbol….it's possible they may be able to materialise on their own back to their true dinosaur forms…." Ancient theorised to the surprise of his wife.
Cretacia widened her eyes realising what he meant, "Even without contact with the energy from the stones!?" As her husband nodded confirming her worry, she then folded her arms and closed her eyes in thought, "Well that can't be good. We'd need to store them in a secure vault cut off from all the outside elements. Imagine the thought of them all somehow activating at once….." She shuddered imagining their entire collection of dinosaurs suddenly exploding out of the vault then rampaging around the ship and turning it into a scrapyard…chances of that happening though were statistically unlikely but still not impossible so that was something to make sure never happens.
Ancient nodded agreeing with her, "I think we should be able to design capsules to contain them safely as well." He said as he brought up schematics for card capsules, resembling that of a large football sized egg.
"Aww an egg, how cute honey." Cretacia gushed thinking of it almost like an easter egg with a goodie inside, or like an actual egg hatching with a dinosaur inside. Little did she know she was carrying a child of her own inside at this point.
While pondering over those ideas, a thought came over Dr Ancient, wondering how the dinosaurs would feel while they were as cards. From what he theorised they tend to revert back to card form should their energy levels reach critical, could be a defensive procedure of the cards to keep them safe and alive from life threatening situations. Whether they would recover should they remain as cards he wasn't sure yet. But what if the dinosaurs were to be injured with a mortal wound, lost limb or be implanted with prosthetics, would they still be carded like normal? Many ideas came to mind as he was worried about such situations and if they were to test them…how would they do it in an ethical way? Plus he wanted the dinosaurs to be free now and then and not kept cooped up for too long in their cards, it'd be like a prison to them that way.
"I feel, if we are to truly save the dinosaurs we would also need to understand what they are thinking and feeling as we are doing this….." He just knew many of them would be stressed and terrified being taken out of their habitats and forced into captivity, but they have to communicate this to them somehow to show them they meant no harm.
"If only we could talk to them somehow…." Cretacia commented before an idea came to mind, "Say, you think we could develop a translator to do that?" She asked Ancient in a half joking manner
Ancient couldn't help but snicker a little at the hilarious, doubtful but interesting idea his wife suggested, "Hehe, it would be something indeed, establishing communications between 2 cultures so we can create something new for both sides to strive forward towards." He then folded his arms and smiled, "Though such a device will take time, which we will have plenty of after this is done."
"Yeah, I suppose you are right." Cretacia had to agree with him, though that idea wasn't one to fully rule out yet, since they made big leaps so far perhaps that idea may be possible in the near future..
Ancient folded his arms and smiled amazed at the research breakthroughs and discoveries they made so far, and no doubt there where many more that had yet to be uncovered. The very idea tickled his desire to learn and understand everything he could, "There really are so many mysteries to the dinosaurs and these stones, ones I never thought we would discover and take a crack at trying to solve." He said.
"We could go over with Dr Z on this later too, honestly I am rather curious as to how he managed to come up with the idea for his alpha scanner and the chips he embedded into the stones." Cretacia then suggested.
Ancient couldn't help but chuckled amused, "He sure has the mind of a 10 year old child despite being in that old body….." He said before nodding confidently, "But it's that wild imagination that's help make this big breakthrough we never thought would be possible."
"Just hope that imagination doesn't get the better of us one day….." Cretacia sweatdropped before the 2 of them burst into joyous laughter together at the hilarity that would ensure should that happen.
(Meanwhile)
Down below, a purple stegosaurus suddenly got the surprise of its' life when a cage was suddenly dropped on it from above before it slowly began lifting up into the sky. It bellowed out cries of agitation and anxiety as it hovered back to the ship, with Dr Z and Ursula watching nearby in a black jet.
"Nice! We got one!" Dr Z happily cheered at their day's success.
As he celebrated, Ursula breathed a sigh of relief, "And I didn't have to act as bait this time thankfully….." At first Dr Z considered using her to rile up the stego and lure it into a trap much or as live bait should it be a carnivore they found. Thankfully that wasn't the case this time around as they had the perfect chance to drop the cage on it while it was feeding, and she was even more grateful she called first dibs to go with Dr Z into the field this time. It sure beats cleanup duty and dino sitting like Ed and Zander.
Dr Z's satisfaction sadly didn't last long as he suddenly shook his fists and pounded on the controls impatiently, "Grrr! This is still taking way too long! This is way too slow too! We need a way faster and more efficient method of gathering up these dinosaurs!" He screamed his head off.
"That's what you're worried about Dr Z?" Ursula eyed him with a questionable look, "I mean look down there." Looking out the window the pair could see a second stegosaurus, this time grey and white in color, only this one wasn't as lucky as the first as it was sinking deeply into mud right when it was trying to lean down for a drink at the lake. Already it thrashed and roared in anger and fear in an effort to drag itself free but to no avail, seeing it made Ursula eye it with pity, especially with a vicious torvosaurus lumbering out of the brush and heading towards it, waiting for the right moment to strike, "We can't just leave that guy down there a sitting duck and just waiting to be made a meal right?" She asked eyeing Dr Z sadly, hoping he would do something.
"Uhh….." Dr Z blinked his eyes and stared unsure of what to do with this situation. But it was at this point he felt this dinosaur was sadly a lost cause, one he would call an acceptable loss, "It's….too late I'm afraid Ursula. Like I said we only have one cage and no way we can go back for the crane in time to save that other stegosaurus." He said reluctantly while trying to keep his cool, "Plus even if we did it'd take way too long, that one's really stuck up to its' hips in the mud! Not worth the trouble to go through." He said trying to look away and bury all his feelings of weakness too, "So I think it's only fair we let….nature run its course this time around. Just shows we can't win em all or save em all. We did only come to take a handful of specimens back after all."
"I guess…..but still…." Ursula could see the point in his words, on one hand it wouldn't be right for humans to interfere with nature more than they already have but on the other hand to turn a blind eye to someone in need of help…almost like those in poverty back in their world.
Dr Z, not wanting to take the chance of Ursula acting against his orders or guilt tripping him with puppy dog eyes tried to think of something quickly to distract her, "Wait a minute…." He snapped his fingers realising something he could do with Ursula, as he began digging through the back seats, "I know I put it in here somewhere….." He grunted annoyed as Ursula looked on, puzzled as to what he was doing. Then again who could understand him, the inner workings of his mind were like an enigma. "Oh what's this!?" He then said suddenly which got Ursula's attention.
"Huh?" She blinked curiously before he shoved a limited edition coupon in her face.
"I just so happened to get my hands on this coupon for 50% for those deluxe new model shoes you wanted for some time Ursula." He said with a sneaky grin which made her eyes glisten up with joy,
"Oh! For me Dr Z!? You shouldn't have!" She squealed happily taking it from him.
Dr Z smiled brightly maintaining his facade of generosity, "Indeed, you deserve this extra special reward for being a good assistant today. In fact I plan to reward Ed and Zander for their hard work and contributions too, which has been long overdue so hope you'll forgive me."
"Apology accepted! You're the best boss and step father ever! Yippee!" She cheered in a jolly way, forgetting what she told him just now.
"Hehehe works every time…." Dr Z sneakily snickered to himself, he just knew how what made his assistants tick since the day he took them in and that hasn't changed one bit. Lucky for him. It was then he could focus more on himself that very moment, seeing the rate things were going with Ancient's work he himself would be robbed of the glory he sought for many years, how will he leave his mark on the world? Dr z didn't want to lose the spot and being the best palaeontologist and dino expert there was, yet Ancient did outshine him in some cases and his past achievements forgotten overtime and he didn't want that to happen…and he didn't have anything that could compete with what he was trying to do.
"Just what can I do to make a better achievement than Ancient….what could be better than bringing dinosaurs back to the present day?" He pondered long and hard to himself before widening his eyes with realisation, "Wait….maybe….just maybe…..what if I made the dinosaurs better when we brought them back?" Using ideas from Rod's fighting games at the arcade using monsters to fight one another and their special super moves too, what if he could make dinosaurs perform similar feats of power like that? While it sounded unrealistic, it was no doubt fun, plus no one has attempted it before so he will be the first to do so. It was then he knew just where to start, the stones, maybe they did hold secret powers as Ancient said, yet while he himself doesn't believe in magic he did believe the scientific genius needed to harness that power. If ancient could turn dinos to cards surely he can too and will do better! "Eeeheehee!" He couldn't help but cackle to himself most deviously which hadn't gone unnoticed.
Ursula felt uneasy seeing his sudden change in behaviour having looked away from the coupon she had, "Uhh Dr Z…" She tapped him on the shoulder getting his attention, "You've got a weird look inn your eyes….well weirder than usual…." And that meant no good at all in her book.
"Grr! Never mind that Ursula!" He retorted before pointing out at her, "Listen up, when we get back we're telling Ancient we're done with the jurassic era. It's time we get to the real meat of this project and that's the Cretaceous!"
"Y…Yeah, if I remember that's the time when the dinosaurs were reaching the end of their reign." Ursula blinked her eyes, surprised they'd be leaving the jurassic so soon after being here only a week.
"Correct!" He answered proudly before continuing, "Plus it's when the greatest of them appeared on the planet! That's where we'll really be doing the saving! What I'm really aiming to include is an actual t-rex! No way we can call ourselves dinosaur saviours if we don't have a t-rex on board." He boasted with a confident grin having made up his mind, "A perfect way to start the new year if I do say so myself!"
Ursula feeling her morale boosted, due to being so impressionable, joined in and cheered, "You said it Dr Z! You really know what's what!" She was rather excited at the thought of bringing the best dinosaurs of all back home. The alpha gang's fame and name would be well known through the whole world with this!
"And when the dinosaurs' reign ends, mine will soon begin as their new Dinosaur King! Ahahaha!" He then cackled maniacally, caught up in the moment he didn't realise he was thinking out loud to Ursula, "I'll show Ancient just what I'm really made of, once I put in my spin on the project he'll do well to respect and see me for more than some old washed up scientist!" He boasted, believing he would get the chance to take over this operation and run it his way!
Ursula sweat dropped uneasily, this time actually starting to get really scared of him for once. "Wh….Whatever you say Dr Z…..you're the man in charge…." This time she believed he fell off his rocker.
As they began to leave, they didn't realise a massive apatosaurus herd was coming in towards the lake, lead by a huge titanic sized male as they approached towards what could be a potential death trap with the morvosaurus feasting on the now dead stegosaurus ion the distance, and the very thick mud just waiting for another unsuspecting dinosaur to be caught in its tight deadly snare…..
And here this chapter we have everyone pitching in to help bring in various species of dinosaur from the jurassic. We also get a brief moment of Ursula having some love for dinosaurs, as fromm Ruff and Ready given how she pitied the trapped stegosaurus. only to be easily distracted by Dr Z bribing her with a fashion coupon given how vain she is. As for the stegosaurus that was Armatus to be revived and used by the space pirates later, also I had a Brontikens cameo just as Dr Z and Ursula left. (Not sure if should do a chapter for Brontikens in Walking with Dinosaur King, still thinking over).
I may gloss/skip over some dinosaur captures and maybe just cameos of cages being brought in. With few jurassic dinosaurs that appeared would like to say we will move on to the Cretaceous next chapter. Also a brief moment of how Dr Z slowly gains his own idea to make his own mark in the project if only to gain some glory for himself, selfish yes but also played a role later on for the future.
Given how the Ancients experimenting with the prototype Alpha scanner Dr Z made, looking at Battle at the Pyramids when Ursula kicked out Terry from the plane to summon him outside. But when it came to Spiny when summoning him on the spot it destroyed the ship she and the trio were in. Was trying to see if I could explain that part.
Review replies
tsukikami02
Glad you like it.
Sounds humorous feel free to right other thoughts on what the dinosaurs may be thinking as the Ancients and Alpha Gang begin to take different species one by one. Majority of them single species (Apart from the saurolophus couple and deinonychus trio), so they may be either alone or separated from family. (There will be some more intense moments next chapter but won't spoil anything) Would like to assume your story characters have a language the humans don't understand yet.
The Ancients see the element symbols this chapter.
Since millions of years span between the jurassic and cretaceous would like to assume no way your characters live that long? Will let you do your story how you see fit. Who knows as the Ancients travel between time periods maybe they may make cameos in your story.
Dr Z felt going after microraptors would be too difficult since they move so fast and are so small. At the time he is thinking of saving larger more impressive species since he has a survival of the fittest mindset at the moment.
Actually the egg they found was abandoned by the family when the mother felt the egg wouldn't hatch. Since footprints leaving from the nest site, if anything the trio saved the megalosaurus before it got eaten by the allosaurus.
.brandy
Thanks for that.
Anonymous
Well I didn't read that story so I have no clue on that.