Rocco stalked around his aviary, in search of food – due to their large size and aggression, the teratorns were kept separately from the smaller La Brea birds of prey.

Whilst the goat carcass the teratorn pair been given earlier was fully eaten, there was always the possibility of the occasional small mammal that lucklessly ended up in the aviary. However so far, there was nothing. As his keen eyes scanned the exhibit, he noticed something…

That door wasn't open yesterday, was it?

Rocco looked at the open door, as the scent of food outside wafted in. He walked out of the aviary door, in search of prey.

. . . . .

In his office, Drew was sitting, and thinking about the next mission, which Theodore had said was going to be to Cretaceous Madagascar. This looked distinctly like shirking to the uninitiated – and it sounded like shirking to even some of the initiated. Suddenly, the alarms began blaring. Drew rolled his eyes and got up – what had happened now?

Running into the control room, he saw Kyle, Nikolai, Jack and Adrian talking to each other about something. Confused, Drew walked up to Jack and asked, "What's going on?" Jack turned to him and practically screamed, "Something big's just happened! Rocco's escaped!"

Adrian looked at them both and said, "I'll go and find him. I can use the tracker in his leg to locate him better" Jack suddenly interjected, "I'm coming with you. You might need help." Drew gave him a puzzled look, "What do you mean, 'help'?" Ignoring him, Leon looked purposefully at Nikolai, "First we need to stop off at the Hell Creek theropod paddocks. I need to get a few things." Nikolai looked at him; he knew what Jack meant. "Alright, here's where Rocco was last seen…"

A few minutes later, Jack and Adrian were sitting in a park Jeep outside the La Brea aviary, with the dromas in crates behind them. As he walked around, Jack explained his plan to Adrian, "This is a basic scent drill. We've done this a billion times, only this time the lure's a little bit bigger. When they find Rocco – and they will find Rocco – they're going to surround him, cut off his retreat and give us time to tranq him." He clapped his hands, "Sorted."

Jack jumped out of the Park jeep in front of the containment trucks, carrying a towel enriched with teratorn scent. He walked down the line, offering the scent to the dromas, who sniffed eagerly. In their crates, they began to buck and screech, eager to find the source of the smell. Once he was done, Jack got into the Jeep with Adrian, who revved the engine.

Nikolai, Kyle and Drew were sitting in the control room, watching all this happen. Drew said, " This might actually work", whilst Nikolai said to Kyle, "You didn't really believe it, did you? When we asked him to do this? Well, here he is."

Jack put his finger on the button that would release the dromas, before pressing the button, opening the crates and the dromas burst out, searching for their target, with Jack and Adrian following in the Jeep. As Adrian drove, Jack turned to him and said, "You know what this is like? Two comically mismatched guys chasing someone down - this is like Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys... Thelma and Louise." Adrian turned to Jack, confused, "Did you actually see Thelma and Louise?" Jack said, sheepishly, "Uh… No. I didn't." Rolling his eyes, Adrian sped up, joining the dromas, a pack on the hunt.

They followed Rocco's tracker to the Hell Creek section, and Adrian stopped the Jeep. Turning to Jack, Adrian said, "Rocco'll hear us if we go any further – from here on, we go on foot." Jack nodded, "Clever. Guess you aren't just muscles and brooding, after all." Adrian rolled his eyes and the two got out of the car.

The dromas stood in front of the two, as if awaiting an order from their alpha. Smiling, Jack put his hand on Duke's snout, gestured to the forest and said, quietly, "Search." The droma barked to the rest of his pack, and they all tore off into the forest, in search of the escaped teratorn. Jack turned to Adrian, a toothy grin on his face, "If Rocco's anywhere near here, they'll find him. That's the partnership – I make the jokes and have the dromas, you have the bird expertise and the brooding."

After about twenty minutes of stalking, the dromas slowed down, lowering their heads to the ground. Adrian turned to Jack quietly, "They've found something." Jack nodded, "I know." Standing in the clearing, about 200 metres away, was Rocco, tearing up a dead Nile monitor.

Jack whistled quietly to the dromas, who tensed, awaiting the order from their alpha. Jack raised his hand, making sure that all the entire pack could see him, and lowered it, before saying "Get it". Rocco only had time for a single squawk of outrage as the dromas ran into the clearing, splitting up and running in a circle around the teratorn, blocking off his retreat.

Then, suddenly, Bindi moved forward to snap at Rocco's heels and, the teratorn, kicked her in the chest, sending her flying to the ground. Getting to her feet, Bindi snapped at the teratorn, who screeched in reply. Diving forward, Duke attempted to bite Rocco's thigh; Rocco dodged the blow and kicked Duke in the mouth, knocking out some of his teeth. Rocco then jumped on the droma's back, using him as a ramp to launch himself into the air. The dromas snapped at him, as Rocco circled them nonchalantly just out of range, as if taunting them. Rocco then flew higher and higher, before folding up his wings and dive-bombing the dromas, missing them by inches, and dodging their attempted attacks.

Jack and Adrian realised that the fight was rapidly turning in Rocco's favour; he had the advantage of flight and they didn't. He was running circles around them – he was moving so fast they couldn't dart him, and, if they tried to dart him when he was dive-bombing them, they ran the risk of hitting one of the dromas. Jack turned to look at Adrian and said, "What do we do? How do we break this bloody stalemate? He can fly, they can't." Adrian's eyes suddenly widened at this statement, before he said, "I have an idea", as he turned and began running towards the Hell Creek aviary. Jack raised his eyebrow and asked, "Adrian? Where are you going?" Adrian turned to look at Jack and said, "To the Hell Creek aviary. You'd probably say that it was time for a little… air-to-air combat."

Jack's eyes widened in surprise at this.

. . . . .

"This is not going well."

From the control room, Drew, Kyle and Nikolai watched Rocco running rings around the dromas. Drew rolled his eyes and said, "So… is this what you expected when you came up with this? I assume the plan Jack and Adrian have is to harangue him until he tires out…" Kyle shrugged, "I don't know – Adrian's gone somewhere, so I assume that the dromas are just keeping him occupied, but with Denham, who's to say…"

Nikolai gave both Drew and Kyle a look, "Denham and Sky must have some sort of plan – I trust them that it will be successful, komandir. Why don't you?" Drew stared at him, quiet, before saying, "Alright, fair enough. Fingers crossed they have something up their sleeve...

Suddenly, Rocco turned and squawked in outrage as a large, black-and-white shape came barrelling out of the sky and dive-bombed him.

Drew looked at Kyle and Nikolai and said, "What?"

. . . . .

In the clearing, Jack, Adrian and the dromas watched the dogfight. Cirrus jabbed Rocco with his beak, leaving a wound on the teratorn's wing – Rocco screeched in pain and moved for Cirrus' neck. Cirrus managed to move his neck to the left, dodging the teratorn's beak and jabbed the bird again. Rocco screeched in pain and slashed at Cirrus' chest with his talons, leaving three long gashes on the azhdarchid's chest. The azhdarchid let out a pained caw and swung his head into Rocco's side, dislodging him from his chest. The teratorn landed on a large branch to reorient himself, before lunging at Cirrus again.

Jack turned to Adrian and quietly said, "Any idea on who's going to win?" Adrian gave a concerned look as the fight continued – it was honestly either way. Cirrus had size and power on his side – however, Rocco made up for the deficit with speed and ferocity. Dodging a blow from Cirrus' beak, Rocco dived straight for Cirrus' right wing and began tearing at it with his beak, ripping a hole in the wing membrane. Cirrus screeched in pain as Rocco pulled away, his beak covered with blood.

Cirrus, his right wing injured, was forced to land, with Rocco pursuing him. They both landed at opposite ends of the clearing, facing each other. The two circled each other, screeching and hissing, sizing each other up.

It was Rocco who struck first, diving for Cirrus' torn wing, when suddenly, the dromas dived in. Cirrus gave a look of confusion as the dromas circled the enraged teratorn, dodging his attempts at attacking them. Rocco screeched and advanced towards them, before, suddenly, moving slower, as if in a drunken stupor, before collapsing to the ground. Jack lifted his communicator and said, "Nikolai, could you bring a containment truck? The Code Red is officially stood down."

. . . .

After Rocco had been loaded onto the containment truck, he, Cirrus and the dromas had all been taken to the vet offices to treat the minor injuries they had sustained in the confrontation, before all being returned to their paddocks.

Jack was sitting in the breakroom, the exhilaration of the day wearing down and being replaced with a crippling sense of… guilt. Regret. His treacherous mind prodded him endlessly about how Rocco had gotten the better of the dromas. How Kyle and Nikolai's trust in him, the latter more so than the former, had been wasted – just like Drew's trust in him had evaporated after the Gogo Reef incident. How, on the first run, the dromas had failed at what they were supposed to do – and how that made him a failure.

He suddenly the sound of someone's throat clearing and he turned to see Nikolai standing behind him, staring at him with an inquisitive look, as if wondering what on Earth Jack had spent the past twenty minutes thinking about.

"For a first run, it went alright", Jack smiled awkwardly, trying to hide his earlier thoughts,"Sorry they didn't perform as… well as expected…", before Nikolai casually shook his head and said, "Don't worry about it. From someone who's been on several, first missions never go right." There was a pause, "At least no-one died. Continue the good work, Denham - I believe you can."

Once he had left, Jack smiled – perhaps Collete was right about Nikolai liking him. To be honest, it was nice that somebody had a little faith in him.