Chapter 7 - Alien Empire

The sound of tools and machinery rang through the air one evening at Prehistoric Park. Ever since the tyrannosaurus mission, it had been all hands on deck over the next two weeks constructing a massive dome-like building to house the unique animals that would be brought back on the next mission. All that remained were a few touches and soon it would be done.

"Just keep at it for a little while longer," Kyle yelled, his voice easily heard by even the workers furthest away from him. "As long as nothing goes wrong, we should have this finished by the end of the hour!"

At the same time all this was going on, Drew was patiently standing several feet away, watching with a smirk on his face. So far, everything was going perfectly - the specially designed building would be operational by the hour. He clasped his hands together and chuckled with joy. "This is gonna be so awesome," he whispered to himself. Even now he still couldn't wait.

For now, he would stick around just long enough to hopefully see the project's completion. Once that had happened, it was about high time he went back to his bungalow to sleep. After all, assuming there were no delays, then tomorrow would be a very important day.

. . . . .

The next day, Drew pointed at a picture of the now-finished building on the meeting table's center, a gleeful grin on his face. "I present to you the Prehistoric Park Carboniferous Bug House!"

Adrian and Leon nodded their heads, with looks of intrigue and nervousness respectively.

"I'll admit," said Adrian. "It certainly looks impressive." He directed a look towards Leon. "And let me guess, judging by how nervous you look, today's mission involves going to the Carboniferous Period to stock it."

Leon nodded his head, gulping slightly. "Yep."

"Exactly."

Drew nodded his head. "Though with that in mind, there are also plenty of amphibians and early reptiles from that time period. No species left behind after all." He directed a smug look towards Leon. "Even if the species in question are ones that scare us."

Leon nodded his head. "Too true," he admitted.

As much as Leon loved all animals in general, and was appropriately considered the resident animal expert of the group, he had made it no secret that his feelings about invertebrates were complicated. Some he had no problem with, some he thought looked awesome, but many, many more, he felt rather unnerved by. Naturally, the fact that he was willing to take part in this mission was quite surprising to Drew and Adrian. The fact that this mission wouldn't require the broadcasting device only surprised them further. But they weren't going to say much After all, if he was willing to take part, they weren't going to discourage him.

In that instant, Adrian decided to briefly direct the discussion to a different topic of equal importance. "I take it Jack and Alice aren't coming?"

Drew nodded his head. "Jack wanted to continue training the dromas," he explained. "And Alice said there were a few things she needed to take care of today involving Esme and some of the La Brea animals."

Leon and Adrian raised their eyebrows. "Who's Esme?" Adrian asked.

Drew raised his own eyebrow. "That American cheetah at the vet facility? The one she saved from the teratornis?"

"You mean Eshe," said Leon.

"Right, right, same difference."

Adrian and Leon gave each other a meaningful look.

"All that said though." Drew clasped his hands together, smirking "No time like the present. Let's get ourselves ready. The portal should be ready in half an hour."

And sure enough, a half hour later, the three had boarded a jeep and were ready to head off. The instant the portal was open and the 'all-clear' signal was given, Drew gunned the accelerator, sending himself, Leon and Adrian roaring through the portal and into the past.

. . . . .

The very first thing the rescue trio took notice of upon arrival was the sheer heat of the environment they now found themselves in – other eras had been hot, but this was almost oppressive. What they saw when they came out was a giant swamp; the smell of rotting plants hung in the air, mist hung low from the trees, like an all-obscuring fog and the buzzing of insects could be heard in the air.

"OK guys." Drew said, as Leon and Adrian turned their heads towards him, focusing on him in rapt interest, "I have two main targets for this mission; one is Petrolacosaurus, it's one of the first reptiles." Drew pulled out a picture of the target and his teammates got a good look at it. From its size, it looked like a rather harmless animal, but they full well knew that the animals that they really should be scared of were the gigantic bugs and amphibians that lived in this swamp alongside it (and probably hunted it).

After much deliberation Drew, Leon and Adrian had decided that the best place to look for their target would near a watering hole; in a swamp, they were spoiled for choice. However, they couldn't just pick any place to start looking; they needed a place that a small animal could drink and not worry about getting caught by predators or trapped in mud. After a while of searching, Adrian had managed to find a spot that was promising enough. However, there was a problem; the watering hole had some not-so-friendly visitors. A group of giant striped amphibians surrounded the lake. They were approximately ten feet long and looked like a cross between an alligator and a salamander. And, unfortunately, they weren't the friendly-looking type, shoving and snapping at each other frequently. Looking at the amphibians, Adrian said, "These are Proterogyrinus, right?", turning to Leon for confirmation.

Leon nodded, "Yes, these guys are the top predators. I suppose we'll have to rescue them later…" Suddenly, Drew came charging towards the amphibians, blaring his horn. Turning at this new creature, the amphibians snarled and snapped at him, before charging forward. Once they had gotten close enough, Drew activated the portal and they came charging through, into the present.

At this, Leon sighed and rolled his eyes, "Or we could just do it now". However, as soon as Leon spoke, something suddenly fell on top of him. Startled, Leon quickly shook his head, causing the object to fall off, and giving the team a chance to look at the now upside down creature that had fallen on him.

At first glance, it looked like a giant tarantula, however it was much, much bigger; about the size of Leon's head. Its body was entirely black, except for its two, easily noticeable, fangs, which were colored a startling crimson. As the spider adjusted to its current situation, its eight small eyes scanning the area, the team backed away to give it space. "Uh, Leon", Adrian asked nervously, as the spider hissed at the indignity it was currently being subjected to, "Any idea what this is?" Leon took a step back, a nervous look on his face, and said, "No. There isn't supposed to be a giant spider from this period." Drew chuckled at the gigantic spider struggling to right itself, "A new species – awesome."

After a while, the spider managed to right itself and hissed at them, as if holding them responsible for the indignity it had just been subject to. The spider regarded the new creatures with a supercilious lack of interest and it began to turn around to head back into the swamp. Drew and the team moved stealthily towards the spider, in order to bring this new creature back. Suddenly, they paused as the whoosh of some large flying creature zipped right across them; moving so fast it was practically invisible. The distractions caused by the new creature's arrival gave the spider the opening it needed to disappear into the swamp. Just as quickly as it had appeared, it had gone.

The adventurers tried to get a look at what just flew past them, but it was so fast they couldn't get a good enough view of it; it was little more than a vaguely insect-shaped blur. They only needed to wait a few seconds until another zipped past them, and another, and another. After a while, the team could get a good look at the mysterious aerial giants, as they buzzed around each other, and they were pleasantly surprised. They were beautiful looking creatures, resembling gigantic green dragonflies; however, they were much bigger, the size of hawks. Drew couldn't help but stare, open-mouthed, at this beautiful spectacle, "I-I think I remember hearing about these. These are Meganeura, right?" Leon nodded in confirmation and said, "Yeah, biggest flying insect." Drew looked once more at the magnificent looking prehistoric dragonflies. "Our other main target this mission," he stated, a clear awed tone to his voice. "And it's a real beauty. Pity catching it will be a bitch." Immediately after he said this, the dragonflies completely vanished from sight as they flew off into the distance. With this setback, they decided the best course of action would be to find either the spider or some Petrolacosaurus. They all knew that this would be a lot easier said than done, as they hiked through the swamp, following the spider's path.

A quarter of an hour later, all three of them couldn't help but feel surprised by how they still hadn't found any animals yet. "Is it just me," said Adrian. "Or have we not encountered anything?"

"I will admit," said Drew. "Considering how this was the time period where 'bugs ruled the world', part of me was honestly expecting to be seeing them a bit more."

"We'll just have to keep traveling for now," said Leon, strangely calm, "I'm sure we'll find something if we just keep..."

At the sight of something large rising up inches away from where Leon's right foot had just stepped, the trio reared back in surprise, as a gigantic armored millipede-like creature, reared up like a cobra, emerged, antennae waving threateningly towards them and its myriad 'front legs' wiggling through the air.

"Whoa," Drew managed to say, holding his hands out towards the creature as if trying to placate it. "Whoa there now. We mean you no harm."

Adrian whistled silently, "I'll admit, this makes all that empty-handed trekking earlier worthwhile."

After a few tense minutes, the gigantic arthropod seemed to relax, slowly lowering itself back down towards the ground. Evidently, it had been startled by Leon's foot stepping so close to it.

Managing to get himself calmed down, Leon pointed his finger at the slowly descending arthropod. "I recognize this," he managed to say. "It's an arthropleura."

"I remember reading about those." Adrian nodded his head. "Good to see one of them in person. Somebody's going to have to check its gender."

"We'll worry about that later," said Drew, "Come on. Let's see if we can find some plant material."

A few minutes later, the trio had gathered up a large amount of plant material to attract the attention of the giant millipede. It reared up again, but then started slowly moving towards the snack they were offering to it. Eager to capitalize on this, Drew summoned the portal before he tossed the plant material through. The Arthropleura skittered its massive body through the portal and into the present.

However, after this, the portal did something… strange. Rather than gradually shrinking and vanishing, it instead flickered and blinked out of existence like a faulty light bulb. Once the portal had disappeared, the trio looked perplexedly at each other. "OK?" Leon said. "Did it act like this when he rescued the proterogyrinus?"

"Don't think so," said Drew, pressing the button on his portal remote again. However, the hearts of all three members of the trio promptly dropped when the portal flickered before fading away. The trio went white. THIS was not good news. "Oh hell", Drew managed to say.

. . . . .

Back at the park, Jack was working with the dromas. In the two weeks since he had begun his training program, he had primarily focused on whistle-training. Today, he was working on training them so that they could respond to verbal commands. Jack clapped and said, "Come!" After a few minutes, the entire pack came running over. After the last of them arrived, they stood almost to attention, Jack threw them each a piece of meat; it was imperative that they be rewarded for arriving whenever he gave a verbal command.

Suddenly, he heard someone clapping slowly behind him and he turned to see Collete Dubois standing behind him. Jack raised his eyebrow and asked her, "What are you doing here?" Collete shrugged and said, "Dropped in to visit. You seem to be doing well with the dromas" Jack smiled, "Yeah – it took a lot of work. I started with Duke – we seem to have formed a connection. That made it easier for the rest of the pack to."

Collete walked down the walkway to stand next to Jack. Looking around, she reflected, "It's amazing, you know." Jack looked, confused, "What do you mean?". Collete looked around and said, "I never expected someone like you to be training dinosaurs. It's strange…"

Smiling, Jack raised his eyebrow and asked, "How?", before chuckling, "Get to know me and you'll see I'm full of surprises." Collete looked curiously. "I can see that," she responded. Jack opened his mouth to say something before suddenly realizing himself and saying "Never mind." They turned, looked at each other and smiled, at once savouring and regretting the intimacy of the moment. At this, Duke let out an amused squawk.

Jack and Collete, realizing what had happened, looked away diffidently, "Anyway", Jack said, to which Collete replied, "Should be going…" Collete scuttled off, awkwardly, before lifting her walkie-talkie, "Captain, he's doing pretty good with them. Tell Kyle to start arranging a meeting – you two can ask him to help with your plan."

. . . . .

At the same time this was happening, Kyle and his assembled holding pen team for the day were gathered around the specially designed holding pens located behind the main area of the carboniferous dome, observing the arthropleura. The head keeper nodded his head – the largest arthropods he'd worked with before Prehistoric Park had been the Goliath bird eating spiders. Working with arthropods on this scale posed an interesting new challenge.

As he had these thoughts, he noticed that the other keepers with him seemed to be equally impressed by the mighty prehistoric arthropod, even looking away from the nine proterogyrinus so they could get a good look at the creature. He smiled and nodded his head again at the sight of this. As much as he himself was perfectly fine with working with large invertebrates, a small part of him had been worried that the keepers in today's holding team would be unnerved by the prospect of seeing giant 'creepy crawlies' up close. However, somewhat paradoxically, the massive size of the arthropleura made it lose its creep factor, earning awe and respect rather than fear.

He then noticed Nikolai finish a call he'd been making on his communicator before then looking at him and beckoning for him to come over. He raised his eyebrow. "What could he want to talk about at this moment?" He thought to himself. Then he nodded his head. Whatever it was, odds were, it was pretty important. He looked to his team. "Keep an eye on the new arrivals," he stated. "There's something important I need to talk to Nikolai about."

"Yes sir!"

Trusting his team to handle the arthropleura and the nine proterogyrinus, the head keeper walked over to Nikolai. "Is there something wrong?" He asked, a slightly guarded tone to his voice.

The security chief shook his head, gesturing towards his communicator he'd just finished his phone call with. "I just got off the phone with Colette," he said. "She tells me that we're free to ask the younger Denham for help with the plan, and that you will need to work to set up a meeting with him."

Kyle raised his eyebrow, but this time in intrigue rather than guarded wariness. Then he nodded his head. "I see," he stated, now remembering the plan that he and Nikolai had shockingly managed to agree upon, one that they'd need Jack in order to make a reality.

. . . . .

Back at the Carboniferous, the team managed to find one of the creatures they were looking for; however, they're about to get a big surprise. As they wandered into a forest clearing, they saw two groups of small lizard-like creatures feeding on the carcass of an Arthropleura – they both looked like anole lizards, with one group being larger and slightly lighter in color than the others.

Adrian stared at the little creatures and, quietly, asked Leon, "I'm assuming those are Petrolacosaurus, right?" Drew nodded, "Yes; they must have been drawn here by the dead Arthropleura." Leon briefly breathed out and said, "Well, the smaller lizards appear to be Hylonomus".

Silently, Drew crept up to the little reptiles as silently as possible; given the fact that they were probably a very important prey item in the diets of the giant arthropods and amphibians in the area and had little in the way of natural defenses, they would probably have panicky demeanours and lightning fast reflexes. The smallest sound would be enough to frighten these lizards into scattering back into the forests. Strangely, however, the little lizards didn't seem to register him; they were too engrossed in feeding on the carcass to even notice the large creature coming towards them.

Eventually, using a net gun, he managed to catch all of them. Drew, Leon and Adrian then spent the next few minutes, placing each of the two groups of reptile in a specially designed pet carrier. Suddenly, the bushes rustled and another hylonomus emerged from the undergrowth to feed on the Arthropleura. Unfortunately, it seemed to be a bit more panicky than its compatriots, and it very swiftly started running away on sight of the three larger creatures before it. It was at that moment where Drew took note of a small, burrow-like hole underneath the tree's roots. "It's probably hoping to try to hide in the hole under that tree," he stated. "If we're lucky, we can corner it and get it caught from there." Leon then raised his eyebrow upon noticing another seemingly insignificant detail. " I'm a little confused as to what all that white silky looking material around the edges is supposed to be..."

Suddenly, a very familiar looking spider suddenly lunged out of the smaller hole right as the hylonomus ran by the side of it. Evidently, the white silky material was webbing that the luckless reptile had now caused to vibrate. It had just enough time to hiss in surprise before the spider landed upon it, slamming its red jaws into the hylonomus back multiple times and shaking its body like a dog.

The rescue trio reared back in surprise at the sight of this, completely caught off guard by the fact that they had encountered the spider again. Leon's reaction, however, quite simply took the cake. "YIKES!" He shrieked, recoiling in stunned horror. As much as there were many types of invertebrate that unnerved him, he was terrified of spiders. And encountering the spider again wasn't high on his priority list.

Adrian turned his head away from the spider and its kill long enough to direct a concerned look towards Leon. "You OK?"

Leon took a couple deep breaths, calming himself down as best as he could before then directing his wide-eyed gaze towards his friend. "I'm OK - just frazzled."

Drew nodded his head without looking at his two friends, his eyes remaining entirely focused on the spider as it prepared to drag the newly killed hylonomus into its burrow, disappearing into the hole. Whilst they were talking, he gently placed a pet carrier on the floor near the burrow, rubbed it gently against the webbing underneath it, stepped back, and waited for the spider to come barreling out. Sure enough, the spider lunged out of the burrow, landing right inside the pet carrier. Once it had gotten in, the trap closed, leaving it safely interred. Looking at the spider, now the type specimen of its species, Drew said, "Let's see if we can find any more."

Leon gulped, but swallowed his fear and nodded his head. "Sounds like a plan," he managed to say. "Agreed," said Adrian.

There appeared to be no other holes in the area where more of the spiders could be found, so the gang travelled further into the swamp. As they travelled, they came across a large slow-moving river, with several groups of amphibian.

At the water's edge were eight large temnospondyls with crocodilian jaws and covered in muddy brown scales with light greenish brown patches across their backs and tails. Swimming within the water in the centre of the river were ten long salamander-like creatures covered in light tannish gold scales. Positioned in the water at the river's edge were nine lime green scaled amphibians with alligator-like jaws. And gathered upon a log were eight small grey-and-gold-scaled amphibians that looked like a mix between a frog and a newt.

Leon was quick to point them all out. "The brown ones right in front of us are cochleosaurus. The green ones to their right are greererpeton. The ones in the very center of the river are eogyrinus. And the little ones on the log I'm pretty sure are eucritta."

Drew gazed intently at the amphibians, his eyes narrowed as he thought about just what to do in this situation. "The eucritta we could place in some of the pet carriers as long as we make sure to include some water. The rest of them, on the other hand, we'll have to send through the portal." He drew out his portal remote, and the light flickered and dissapeared. His eyes narrowed when, just like when he'd pressed this button after the remote's earlier malfunction. "This won't be any good," he thought to himself. He looked to Adrian and Leon. "Think you guys could check your portals?"

They did so. "Mine seems to be working", said Adrian. "Mine too," said Leon.

Drew thought to himself, considering the information. Then he nodded. "That could work," he stated. "But we'd best be careful about how often we use them this mission. With mine stalling for some reason, we'd use 'em sparingly – if we can keep animals within a pet carrier or bug cage until the end of the mission, we'd best do that."

Leon and Adrian saw no reason to argue with this idea, and they set their portals to the carboniferous dome's holding tanks before they then got to work on rescuing the amphibians. The cochleosaurus and greererpeton were lured in using dead insects as bait, whilst they splashed the water at the edge of the river with small sticks to attract the attention of the eogyrinus, before sending them through as well. "Not bad," said Drew. He took a quick look behind him, sighing in relief at the sight of the eight eucritta still relaxing on the log. "Now let's prepare a terrarium or two for them and get them in before they decide it's time to leave this area."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back at the park, Alice watched intently as Eshe cautiously made her way over towards the three other American cheetah, all of whom were watching her approach. At this time, Eshe was undergoing an attempt at integration with the others of her kind. A watching Alice hoped with all her willpower that this wouldn't end the way Arlo's did. Yolanda and a couple other keepers and vet techs were also present and watching alongside Alice, all of them hoping for the best but prepared in the event of a worst-case scenario.

Eshe came to a stop a distance away from the other American cheetahs, crouching low to the ground in a submissive fashion, clearly indicating she meant no harm. The closest, a male named Duma, approached her. With Alice, Yolanda, and the other staff members watching with baited breath, and the other American cheetahs all watching intently, Duma gazed carefully at Eshe and, eventually, after a nerve wracking couple minutes, Duma seemed to relax and nod his head, letting out a low purring in the process. Duma, at least, seemed to have accepted Eshe.

Alice and Yolanda sighed in relief as Eshe walked into position amongst the small coalition, happy that the now happy and healthy American cheetah had been accepted amongst others of her kind. "Thank goodness," Alice whispered under her breath. "I hear you," Yolanda said in agreement. She nodded her head, a look of contentment on her face as her golden hair blew slightly in the light breeze, her hazel eyes agleam. "After what happened with Arlo, it's reassuring to see this end well."

Alice nodded her head. "I can definitely agree with you there." She directed a companionable look towards the veterinary assistant. During the visits Alice had made to Eshe while she was in the vet facility, she had managed to hang around Yolanda quite a few times. And now, at this point, she had to admit that she rather liked her company. She was very outgoing, bright, and loved to make jokes.

The blonde chuckled, nodding her head in agreement. "Real pity though if this means you won't be dropping by as often. I've really enjoyed having you around to talk to, especially considering there aren't many other girls my age amongst the vets." She turned around to face Alice. "Although Jack's been pretty nice to me, too. I really like him – we share a sense of humour."

"I know what you mean," Alice stated as she nodded her head. In fact, from what she herself had noticed, Jack generally got along with Yolanda rather well. However, she had noticed that he'd hung out several times with Nikolai's second in command Colette, who seemed to be ambivalent on Yolanda at best – however, since Jack and Collete had started hanging out, she'd chatted to Yolanda a couple of times. It was strange - maybe Jack had influenced Colette's opinion.

"I'm still glad you've befriended me though," said Yolanda. She giggled. "Iit's nice to have a gal pal my age. Don't you think?"

"Agreed," said Alice, smile back on her face now that she was no longer focusing on Colette.

Yolanda checked her watch, and then looked over at the American cheetahs, taking note how they all seemed to be doing fine together. "Well I suppose that we should all be getting back to work," she then said. She looked at Alice one more time, smile still on her face. "I'd like to hang out with you again sometime soon though,."

"Right back at you," said Alice. Once Yolanda, the vet techs, and the other keepers had all departed to resume their other duties, Alice spent another couple minutes observing Eshe, Duma, and the other American cheetahs, sighing in relief at how well things had ended. The sound of her communicator going off startled her, but she managed to draw it out and answer it. "Denham, over?"

"Darrow speaking, over."

Alice smiled. "Hey there Will," she said. "Everything alright?"

"You could say that," her close friend in the research division, Will Darrow, responded. "Though there is something that you might like to help us with."

"I'm listening."

"Well Dr. von Schorzberg, Matt, Kaisumi, and I were called over to see if we could help Mr. Taymor identify the sex of the recently arrived arthropleura. Khatin figured that, if you were available, you might be able to help. Again, if you're not too busy at the mo..."

"Say no more," said Alice, a smile on her face, "I'm on my way."

. . . . .

Back in the Carboniferous period, the trio had come across a small patch of land dotted with web lined burrows. They stood silently as they counted the burrows. Their appeared to be about thirteen. And they had every reason to believe that at least a few of them were occupied. The trio took stock of their carriers and bug cages. At that moment, several of the containers they'd brought along were occupied by the petrolacosaurus, hylonomus, the eucritta, and the single spider. Fortunately, they still had plenty of empty carriers available. "Let's get thirteen bug cages prepared," said Drew. "I'd say, we keep them separate – we don't want them eating each other ."

"Works for me," Leon agreed.

And so they got to work, repeating the same strategy that Drew had used to entice the first one. Whilst four of the burrows turned out to be flooded, the other nine had a spider - five of them looked identical to the first one that had been captured, whereas the remaining four were comparatively smaller and had pincers that were a much darker red. Judging by l sexual dimorphism, odds were that these four were the males of the species. Once all nine of the spiders were placed securely into their new 'bug cages', Drew decided it was time to head back to where they'd left the jeep.

Along the way, they managed to stop by the watering hole where they'd encountered the proterogyrinus. And as it so happened, there were now thirteen small lizard-like beasts resembling Chinese fire-bellied newts drinking from the water while seventeen small snake-like creatures were lounging upon some sort of prehistoric lily-pads near the water's edge. True to form, Leon was able to identify them. "The lizard-like ones taking a drink are the synapsid archaeothyris," he explained. "And those snake-like amphibians are phlegethontia."

"They certainly look fascinating," said Adrian. He looked to Drew. "Good time to catch them?"

Drew grinned. "Good time to catch them."

And sure enough, the trio managed to catch all of the animals and place them securely in the pet carriers. At this point, they now had quite an impressive haul on their hands. Once they'd returned to camp and put all the still empty carriers and 'bug cages' into the jeep's 'cargo hold' and placed all the crated up smaller animals, they planned out the watch rotation for the night.

The last shift for the night's watch went to Leon; and as he diligently kept to his post and stayed vigilant when his time came, he couldn't help but also occasionally take a glance at the area where the various carriers were currently being kept. In fact, every now and then he would go so far as to make extra sure that the containers were indeed completely secure, the ones containing the undiscovered prehistoric spiders especially so. Much to his relief, all of the spiders were very much secure in their containers, just as they'd been the last time he'd checked. The primitive reptiles and smaller amphibians were also secure in their containers.

He took a deep breath, and then exhaled, half in relief and half in annoyance. "You're being paranoid," he whispered under his breath as he walked away from the jeep and back to his post. "You've checked those containers seven times now and nothing's changed - they're not going to escape. And it's not like anything's going to happen..."

As he was saying this last bit, he happened to turn his head to look behind him and towards the jeep, only to pause at the sight of what appeared to be some sort of large scorpion crawling near one of the jeep's rear tires. At that moment, the little arthropod was calmly crawling along, occasionally giving the large tire it was near a cursory observation before then resuming its carefree movement under the jeep. Leon gazed intently, paying close attention to the scorpion as it calmly crawled around under the jeep while occasionally snapping its intimidating red striped claws and swung its red tipped tail. It was a pulmonoscorpius, one of the earliest land scorpions in existence.

Heart in his mouth, Leon carefully made his way back to the jeep, drawing out an empty 'bug cage' from the same area where all the filled up and occupied containers were positioned. As much as scorpions unnerved him, he wasn't scared of them per se. That level of fear was reserved entirely for spiders.

He got into position, looking carefully at the scorpion as it continued to slowly move around under the jeep, waiting patiently for the opportune moment. And sure enough, once the scorpion had completely turned its back on Leon and allowed its tail to be fully in position for an ideal grab, Leon swiftly reached under the jeep and grabbed the scorpion by the tail, making sure to grab very close to the tip to prevent it from stinging him. The scorpion understandably did not react kindly to this, viciously swinging and snapping its claws as it was lifted off the ground and yanked backwards. But Leon, fueled by determination and nerves, was quick enough to place it into the bug cage he'd procured and secure the lid tightly shut, leaving the scorpion no choice but to uselessly bang at the reinforced glass and reinforced metal cover. He let out a loud sigh of relief as he placed the newly captured scorpion into the jeep's 'cargo chamber' alongside the other captured animals from that day.

At the sound of more claw snapping from somewhere behind him, he turned his head in time to see what appeared to be two more pulmonoscorpius, which looked significantly smaller than the one he'd caught already. One of them was crawling nearby the ashes surrounding the remains of the earlier contained campfire, and the other was crawling around on a log near the edge of the camp. "These must be males," he thought to himself. He took a meaningful look at the interior of the jeep 'cargo hold', noticing that there were still plenty of empty 'bug cages' to spare, and then grabbed ahold of two of them before he then carefully made his way over to first the campfire remains and then the log, carefully capturing the two scorpions just as he'd done the previous one. Once he had both male prehistoric scorpions captured, he carefully placed them into the cargo hold alongside the others. "I hope I don't have to deal with any more," he whispered under his breath before he then turned around to head back to his post. "I was barely able to handle the first one..."

He paused, eyes widened and face blanched at the sight of yet another pulmonoscorpius, this one the same size (and likely gender) as the very first one he'd captured this evening. What was worse, it was currently crawling right on the back of the sleeping Drew. Heart in his mouth, Leon hurriedly grabbed another bug cage before making his way over to Drew, making sure to be as careful and quiet as possible, before grabbing the scorpion by the tail, yanking it off of Drew, and threw it into the bug cage, slamming the lid shut. "There," he whispered under his breath once he'd locked the cage with the scorpion inside. "You ain't stinging any of my friends tonight."

As if in direct response to what Leon had just said, the newly captured scorpion stabbed its tail viciously at the glass directly between it and Leon's face. Leon briefly shuddered as he then made his way back to the jeep, placing it into the cargo hold with everything else. That task done, he finally made his way back to his post, sitting down with a relieved sigh. "Man, this was eventful," he thought, before directing a meaningful look at the still sleeping Drew and Adrian. "I wonder what they'll think when I tell them about what happened?"

. . . . .

The next morning, Leon showed Drew and Adrian the scorpions. Adrian nodded his head, a silent look of approval on his face. Drew also seemed pleased. "Not sure if I should be unnerved or flattered by the fact that one of those was crawling all over me last night." He turned to Leon, a proud smile on his face as he gave his friend a 'thumbs-up'. "Well done Leon. Scorpions may be one of the easier invertebrates to capture, but the fact that they're amongst the invertebrates that unnerve you is enough for me to give you serious props for managing to catch this little bunch last night." Leon raised his eyebrow upon hearing Drew describe the scorpions as 'easy to capture', but was otherwise pleased that he was getting credit for his hard work.

Once the team had gotten over Leon's achievement with the scorpions, Drew began to discuss his plans for the mission, "Alright guys, we'll split up. Me and Leon will look for another Arthropleura, while Adrian goes after some Meganeura. I'm assuming I can trust you to capture a decent amount, Adrian?" Adrian, who was polishing a type of water gun (it was used as a capture gun for flying insects), looked up at Drew and smiled. "Mate, I am the best sniper for this job and you know it." He said all this in an exaggeratedly fake Aussie accent.

Leon and Drew rolled their eyes and chuckled – their days of playing TF2 hadn't really ended. Adrian's favorite class was the Sniper, and, whenever he chose it, he'd start talking Australian to 'get into character'.

After Drew and Leon left, Adrian approached a large watering hole. That didn't change wherever in the world you went to; watering holes would always attract wildlife. He briefly scouted the area and hid behind a tree. His plan was to catch the dragonflies off guard when they arrived. His prediction was soon proven to be correct as giant dragonflies cascaded down from the nearby trees. Some were green, whilst others were a bright blue in color; most likely a form of sexual dimorphism. "Alright, buggies", Adrian thought to himself, 'Let's dance.'

At the same time this was happening, neither of the three members of the trio noticed what appeared to be thick storm clouds gathering around in the sky above them.

. . . .

"Careful now," Khatin said as he observed his four 'helpers', currently gathered at an 'observation deck' near the Carboniferous Dome's holding pens, holding the arthropleura lying upon a large 'research table' made out of reinforced steel and glass, and with a large thick medical blanket draped across all but its head and the end of its body. The team were trying to identify the sex of said Arthropleura and were ensuring the process went smoothly and without incident.

Khatin was standing near the arthropod's head and holding a large offering of plant matter near its mandibles for it to eat in order to keep it calm. One of his assistants, a young Japanese woman about Jack's age, was currently stroking and speaking soothingly to the creature in an effort to help Khatin keep it calm, whilst another assistant, a young man Alice's age with ash blonde hair and black eyes, was standing to the right of the creature and holding the blanket in place from that side while Alice did the same from the other side, working to keep the arthropleura in place as well. Another assistant, a dark haired man about the same age as Alice and the blonde assistant, was currently lying on his back underneath the table similarly to a mechanic under a car, shining a flashlight upon the underside of the mighty arthropod, searching for something.

"This is so exciting," the Japanese woman squealed, her green eyes agleam with clear excitement. Khatin couldn't help but let out a brief chuckle. He could count all the times when Kaisumi Ishiara hadn't been her usual bubbly and excitable self on one hand. She'd first been hired to work with him at this park, always approaching her work with excitement and enthusiasm and regarding the animals with a sense of awe. And with how naturally kind, friendly, and eternally optimistic she usually tended to be, she was liked by pretty much everyone. "I agree with you," he said, nodding his head in the process, "However, I do hope this doesn't take much longer. I'm starting to run out of plants to keep it mollified with."

"I have to agree with him, Matt," said the blonde assistant, Alice's friend Will Darrow. He gritted his teeth as he found himself briefly having to struggle to keep his side of the blanket in position upon the arthropleura when it ended up moving slightly towards him over the course of continuing its snack. "I doubt it should be taking this long. I also highly doubt that Kaisumi can keep it soothed without some sort of food or similar distraction around to provide assistance."

"No need to be a worrywart," said Will and Alice's other close friend, Matt Thompson, as he continued his careful examination of the arthropod's underside. "I'm almost done. Just a couple seconds now...and done! Found some gonopods. This one's definitely a male." He stuck his right hand out from under the table, a 'thumbs-up' flashing in the air. "Let him rip everybody!"

"Get the ramp," Khatin said, his eyes focused on Kaisumi, who nodded, ran to the side, and returned with a sturdy metal ramp, which she placed at a diagonal position against the end of the table where the male arthropleura's head was positioned. At the same time this happened, Matt got out from under the table and hurried over to the wall of a holding pen behind Khatin, lifting up a metal grate. As this happened, Khatin allowed the arthropod to eat the last of the plant food offering before stepping aside and giving Alice and Will the all clear to let go of it. And sure enough, once it had finished eating, it crawled forward and out from under the blanket, making its way calmly down the ramp and through the raised grate to enter the holding pen. Once the arthropleura entered the holding pen, Matt gently lowered the grate back down into place and locked it tight.

He turned to face his boss and three friends afterward, a proud smile on his face. "That went rather well," he said, his brown eyes agleam. "Don't you guys think so?"

"Easy for you to say," Will responded, sarcastically rolling his eyes in the process. "All you had to do was lie on your back underneath the thing and wave a flashlight around. We're the ones who were doing all the heavy lifting."

Matt chuckled, not at all offended by Will's sarcastic remark. It was part of the usual banter after all. "Considering I had to lie on my back on this hard metal floor and look very carefully at the underside of a giant insect in search of its genitals, I'd say I did my own share of the heavy lifting."

Alice chuckled, shaking her head side to side in amusement as she did so. "Another one of those days?"

"Yep," Will and Matt both said at once.

Kaisumi giggled, a wide smile on her face and her green eyes agleam. "Were you really like this even back in university?"

"Yep," Matt and Alice responded in unison. Will, however, briefly raised his eyebrow in confusion. "Didn't you already ask us that?"

"I did." Kaisumi giggled again. "But hey, no harm in getting a refresher, right?"

"I suppose not."

Matt chuckled. "Forget the 'suppose' part mate," he said. "I'd say the answer's yes."

Alice and Kaisumi chuckled as Will directed a look of mock annoyance towards the dark haired boy.

"You can save that for later this evening," said Khatin as he grabbed the medical blanket and started folding it up. "But right now, I believe we still have work to do."

"Sir, yes sir," said Kaisumi, bright-eyed look of glee still on her face.

"What she said," Matt and Will said in unison while Alice nodded. She had to admit, today had gone pretty well. At the same time, she couldn't help but wonder how the team were doing back in the Carboniferous period.

. . . .

Back in the Carboniferous, Adrian had his water gun rifle pointed at a dragonfly as he landed on a log. He looked through the scope and aimed perfectly, pulled the trigger, and yet somehow still missed. He swore, "Curse you, physics!", to the trees above, as he reloaded his gun and tried again. Eventually, he aimed for one on a log - raising his rifle, he pulled the trigger. Amazingly, he managed to get a hit. He rushed in to grab his prize, suddenly causing panic amongst the giant insects. Adrian didn't waste any time grabbing his rifle and shooting again.

Drew and Leon's search wasn't going much better; they hadn't found anything. As they headed back to camp, they saw a large log. Hoping to repeat what happened before, they attempted to flip it over. However, their efforts were naught; the log was a real log and it had some not so friendly inhabitants living in it. Several familiar-looking, small, black scorpions were hiding under the log. The scorpions gave defensive positions, raising their stingers and clicking their claws aggressively at the new arrivals. Drew turned to Leon and said, "OK. I'll grab these guys and bring them back to camp; you check on Adrian". Leon turned away and walked towards the lake. After a brief period of walking, he soon found the watering hole Adrian was at. And it seemed he was having the time of his life.

"Boom, headshot! Boom, headshot! Boom, headshot!", Adrian said, constantly pulling the trigger of his water gun. However, he soon realized that he had forgotten to refill it; now it was shooting nothing but air. The dragonflies he had caught were in a butterfly net hanging from a tree. Once he'd run out, Adrian placed them all into containment crates, ready for transport. Leon slowly walked towards Adrian, ready to pick up the crates, when, suddenly, Adrian yelled, "Whoo!", causing Leon to step aside in shock, only to then trip on a rock and fall into the lake. After a few minutes, Drew arrived, carrying several crated Pulmonoscorpius and with several sting marks as testament. He placed them in the animal carriers they'd taken and looked at his teammates. "Leon, I take it all back; grabbing scorpions is never easy." To which his teammates nodded in agreement.

"So, mate", Adrian asked his leader, "Did you find any Arthies yet?" From the water, Leon glowered at Adrian. "You can stop with the accent now." Adrian smiled awkwardly, "Eh, might have done it a couple times too many back in the bog… now I can't break out of it."

Drew chuckled and began, "Well to answer your question; no, we didn't. We'll have to try again at some point… after we get Leon out of the lake."

At this statement, Adrian directed a sheepish look towards the small lake that he'd just accidentally knocked a now glowering and wet Leon into. "Sorry about that," he said. "Didn't realize you were there." Leon rolled his eyes, calmly swimming back towards shore...only to abruptly pause and hiss in pain from within the center of the lake.

Adrian's eyes widened. "You ok?!"

"No," Leon snarled, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, "Something's...biting my ankle!"

Drew was quick to react, gently placing the bug cages that now contained the captured meganeura on the ground before rushing over to the lake, diving in, and swimming over to where Leon was positioned. As he got near Leon from under the water, he managed to get a good look at the creature It was a large dark brown amphibian with small black spots that resembled a mix between a moray eel and a tadpole. It had two ridiculously tiny forelegs and two larger hind legs, with a massive jaw filled with vicious teeth clenched tightly around Leon's left ankle. He managed to grab onto the creature just as it let go after a lucky strike from Leon's reflexively kicking right foot hit the side of its head and jarred it into releasing its grip. His arms wrapped tightly around the creature, he surfaced while still holding onto it, Leon turning around to face him at the same time.

Leon's eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and awe at the sight of the creature viciously thrashing in Drew's grasp, snapping its jaws open and shut repeatedly with considerable force. "I remember this thing," he managed to say despite the pain in his ankle. "That's a crassigyrinus."

"Yep," Drew agreed, wincing slightly as he tried to maintain his tight grip around the creature, which was not an easy task. "Do you think your portal has enough energy to send it to the park? I don't think I can hold it forever."

"Right, of course."

Fighting through the pain in his ankle, Leon drew out his portal and opened it up just in time for Drew to let it go, at which point the creature darted right through the portal in its efforts to swim away. Leon hurriedly closed the portal the instant the crassigyrinus was gone. "Phew," he sighed in relief. "That was intense..."

"GUYS! THERE'S MORE THAN ONE!"

Tensing up instantly at the sound of Adrian's shout, Drew and Leon looked around them, and their faces blanched at the sight of seven more crassigyrinus circling them both, gaping intently at the two humans. "Hoo boy," Leon managed to say. With a hiss, the seven crassigyrinus started swimming straight towards him and Drew. Acting purely on reflex, the two drew out and opened their portals, managing to send all the incoming carnivorous amphibians through the portal to join their compatriot. Once the crassigyrinus were gone and the portals were closed, Leon looked at Drew once more. "That was intense."

"Yup." Drew nodded his head. "Let's get out of this lake before anything else tries to eat us."

"No need to tell me twice," Leon agreed.

They swam back to the shore where Adrian was waiting and got out of the water, only for Leon to wince and hiss in pain, sitting down on a log so Adrian could examine the injury, "I'm SO going to need to get this looked at," Leon said.

"No kidding," Adrian agreed. He shook his head side to side. "You'll probably need to avoid putting weight on that for a while."

"Agreed," said Drew. He grabbed a loose branch and passed it over to Leon. "Here," he said. "You can use this as a crutch for now." He looked to Adrian. "Come on," he said. "Let's get everything back to the camp. Once there, you can stay with Leon and all the critters we've got in the jeep while I go see if I can find a female arthropleura..." He paused, sniffing the air. "Does anyone else smell smoke?"

Leon and Adrian started sniffing the air. "I certainly do," Leon eventually responded, clearly sounding nervous. "Me too," said an equally nervous sounding Adrian. Then they noticed something else interesting; the noises of the swamp had stopped...only to be replaced by what sounded like rumbling thunder and the occasional crack of lightning. Then they noticed an orange light, alongside massive plumes of smoke, rising from areas of the swamp not too far ahead of their current position, and eyes widened in horror as they realized what was going on; because of a lightning strike, the forest for miles around was a blazing inferno. Drew instantly turned his head towards his two buddies. "Guys, we need to get moving! There's a fire!" Adrian and Leon immediately got up from their seated positions alongside Drew, Leon determinedly using the makeshift crutch to further speed up his getting up. They only stuck around just long enough for Adrian and Drew to gather up the 'bug cages' containing the newly rescued meganeura and additional pulmonoscorpius and Leon to grab the bag of remaining empty carriers and sling it over his shoulder alongside his backpack before they all started hurrying over back towards the camp. As they did so, they happened to pass by the exact same water hole where they'd captured the proterogyrinus, archaeothyris, and phlegethontia, and noticed what appeared to be ten large amphibians colored similarly to the eucritta, but bigger and with heads resembling the proterogyrinus. At that moment, they all seemed to be panicked to the point that they were snapping at and fighting each other in their efforts to get into the water.

"Pholidogaster," Leon stated, swiftly drawing out his portal remote. "I'd best make this quick."

"What are you doing?!" Drew yelled.

"Taking a page out of your book," Leon snarled, briefly glancing towards Drew before lifting his crutch and slamming it on the ground. Much to his relief, the ten pholidogaster looked away from each other and towards him before charging towards him. Leon managed to open the portal in time for all ten amphibians to barrel through the portal. This done, he closed the portal and the trio resumed their flight to their campsite, barely remaining ahead of the fire.

There were thankfully no further delays, and they hurriedly struck their tents and packed them, their other supplies, and the newly captured meganeura and pulmonoscorpius into the 'cargo hold' alongside all the other crated small animals still in there. Once this was done, Leon and Adrian got into the jeep, with Leon getting onto the front passenger's seat and throwing down his makeshift crutch while Adrian climbed up onto the driver's seat. Once everything was loaded up, Drew nodded his head. "Good job," he said. He briefly looked at the swamp, noticing that the light and smoke of the fire was still getting closer, and then back at his friends. "Status on your remotes?"

"Seems to be working" Leon hissed, a mixture of pain and fear". "Likewise", Adrian piped in.

"Excellent." Drew abruptly snatched Adrian's portal remote, handing his own remote to the dumbfounded Malaysian American immediately afterward. "Now get yourselves and the captures through the portal! Stat! Leon's remote should be able to get you through before you get trapped in here!" Immediately after he said this, he turned and started to slip on a gas mask. "Wait, where are you going?!" Leon asked, his eyes widening in concern. "Are you nuts?!" Adrian yelled in agreement towards Drew.

Drew fixed his hat and replied without looking back, "Finding an Arthropleura. We don't want to make two trips, do we?" As he said that, he bolted into the swamp, vanishing from sight within seconds. Leon sighed, "Typical", whilst Adrian, who was focused on a Meganeura that he'd caught flying away from the towering inferno said, "Yeah", before shrugging, "We can't stop him, so we'll just have to pray that luck is on his side…. And on that note, we'd best get back."

"Agreed."

Adrian immediately turned the key to turn on the ignition...only for the jeep to sputter ineffectually.

"What the hell?!" Adrian howled as he attempted to get the jeep moving. "Why's it not starting?!" Leon roared.

"Hell if I know!" Adrian shrieked. But then the two boys heard bubbling water coming from under the hood of the car. "Oh for the love of..." Adrian grumbled before then facepalming. "Swamp water must have gotten into the engine somehow."

"Son of a...," Leon managed to hiss before the sound of an explosion nearby caused him to go silent. The two looked nervously at each other. How were they going to get through the portal to safety? Then Adrian's eyes widened as if he'd suddenly had an idea. "Sit tight Leon," he stated as he hurriedly unbuckled his seat belt and opened the door to get out.

"What are you doing?" Leon asked.

"I've got an idea," said Adrian as he got out of the jeep before then turning around and extending his hand towards Leon. "Can I have your remote for a moment?"

Leon thought to himself for a few seconds, only to then notice that the fire had now formed a complete ring around the clearing. "Sure," he quickly stated, handing his portal remote over to Adrian, who shifted the co-ordinates to the veterinary facility. "Just sit tight - I'll be right back," he said as he hurried through the portal. "You'd better be," Leon growled.

For what felt like an hour, Leon remained seated in the jeep, getting increasingly nervous as the fire continued to blaze around him. Eventually, right as Leon was certain the fire was going to expand into the clearing with him still in it and that he'd be doomed to die, Adrian finally burst out of the portal and back into the Carboniferous swamp, pulling a long rope attached to a thick towing hook along with him, the other end still on the other side of the portal. Leon raised his eyebrow. "What exactly do you have in mind?"

"Just a moment," Adrian stated as he attached the towing rope to the appropriate area under the front of the jeep before then hurrying back into his earlier position at the driver's seat. He closed the door, locked it, and buckled his seat belt before then drawing out his communicator and initiating a call, which went through very quickly.

"Dr. Eberhart speaking," said Linda's voice on the other end of the line. "Over?"

"This is Sky," said Adrian. "We are ready for extraction! I repeat, we are ready for extraction!"

"Say no more," said Linda before the call ended. All of ten seconds later, immediately after the sound of a sauropod's bellowing split the air from the other side of the portal, an unseen force suddenly seemed to take hold of the tow rope and start pulling on it. And within minutes, the jeep, with Leon, Adrian, and the various small Carboniferous animals had been brought out of the blazing inferno and into the safety of the park; at which point they got a good look at what had just now pulled them through to safety, and his eyes widened upon seeing Arlo standing several feet ahead, eating ferns from a nearby wheelbarrow with the tow line attached to a Velcro collar around his neck.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

Leon looked to Adrian, who smiled. "Linda's been training Arlo every other day to help with towing transports for some of the larger animals, and Alice told me that today would be one of his training days. Figured he'd be available."

Leon, briefly speechless, took a glance back at Arlo, who was still working on swallowing the ferns in the wheelbarrow, all while a proud Linda congratulated him and Yolanda smiled and flashed a thumbs-up in his and Adrian's direction. He shook his head side to side, bemused. "This place is just full of surprises," he thought to himself.

Meanwhile, back in the Carboniferous period, Drew was running as fast as he could through the burning swamp. He looked everywhere, in order to detect an Arthropleura hidden under foliage. His discovery, however, came entirely by accident. As he blundered into a clearing, what initially appeared to be a large brown log suddenly reared up and looked him in the eye. He'd found another Arthropleura. There was a subtle difference between it and the one at the park; it had to be female. A flying cinder brought him back to reality; he realized with widened eyes just how close to the inferno he now was.

The giant began to crawl away, but Drew, not wishing to sentence it to its death, jumped onto its back and tried to hold it down, whilst trying to open the portal at the same time. The centipede bucked and shook like a bull in a rodeo ring, trying to get free, as the fire got closer. She managed to get Drew off her back but he maintained his grip and managed to physically lift the front part of the struggling Arthropleura, raising her up, whilst dodging her snapping mandibles. As the fire got closer, the smoke thickened and visibility soon went to zero. Drew used his free arm to grab the portal remote and quickly press the on button. Soon a bright vortex appeared, engulfing both man and arthropod. When it disappeared, they were gone entirely, back to the present.

Once the portal had been shut off, he let go of the arthropleura, took off his gas mask, and briefly looked up to see Leon, Adrian, Kyle, Nikolai and Collete giving him flabbergasted looks. Kyle firstly turned to Leon and Adrian and then to Drew, before asking, "What the hell happened?"

Drew smiled and said, "I'll tell you all about it." Kyle facepalmed at this statement.

Hours later, once the dust had settled, all the newly rescued animals had been transferred to their new homes in the Carboniferous Dome. The ten meganeura practically had free reign of the dome as they flew around through the air, with a nominal 'home exhibit' for them to use as a place to rest, drink, and lay their eggs when the time came for them to mate. All the other animals, meanwhile, had clearer boundaries. One large terrarium served as home for both the hylonomus and the petrolacosaurus, all of which were now scampering around to explore their new home, with two of the male petrolacosaurus, named Larry and Lubbock, going so far as to briefly attempt to climb up the glass barrier separating them from the outside of the terrarium before joining their brethren at the 'drinking bowl'.

A small tank near the front entrance to the dome was now the dwelling for both the eucritta and the phlegethontia, which had been deemed unlikely to harm each other due to the both of them being insectivores, with the eucritta currently basking on some lily pads while the phlegethontia slithered around through the water. A single 'dry land' paddock directly opposite this tank served as home to the archaeothyris, which were now scouting their new territory and digging new burrows for them to live in. The various larger amphibians had their own separate enclosures; with most of them each having their own separate land paddocks containing freshwater pools scattered across the dome while the crassigyrinus all lived in a single large circular pool in the very center of the dome that had a bridge across it for staff members and future guests to cross when visiting. In this pool, the crassigyrinus were currently chowing down on salmon that had been thrown into their pool for feeding, with the one that had bitten Leon, a female named Sasha, currently engaged in a wrestling match with two other females named Anne and Marcy over one of the salmon. At the same time, in the proterogyrinus 'paddock', a female named Yunnan was hissing and swinging her tail as if announcing the paddock as her turf while a male named Andrias basked upon a log floating in the pool and the remaining seven proterogyrinus, three of them male and four of them female, swam peacefully through the water. An especially large land paddock located right next to the proterogyrinus paddock appropriately served as home to the two arthropleura, with the male (named Felix) happily feasting on ferns on the left side of the exhibit while the female (named Melancholia) was skulking about in the bushes on the right side of the exhibit. A large vivarium near the back exit of the dome currently served as home to the eight pulmonoscorpius, all of which had quickly established their own respective 'territories', with the female that had been crawling around on Drew, named Selqet, advertising herself as queen of her turf. Likewise, the ten newly discovered prehistoric spiders had similarly established their own territories within their own vivarium directly opposite the one with the scorpions, with each of them scuttling around and making webs in the burrows they'd chosen for themselves. The very first one that the rescue team had encountered, now named Neith, was the first to finish making her web, at which point she eagerly crawled straight into her burrow to rest. The exhibits that weren't explicitly built into walls had been covered in some way or other by metal nets so that the meganeura wouldn't end up eating or getting eaten by the residents.

Naturally, all the new residents had proven quite a wonder to behold for all the staff. Bethany the veterinarian stared with intrigue as the eight pulmnoscorpius crawled around in their territories. Nikolai, surprisingly enough, seemed to have developed a soft spot for the arthropleura as he was observed in the Carboniferous Dome during a break to watch Felix and Melancholia briefly interact at the 'boundary line' in the center of the exhibit before then parting. But it was the unexpected giant spiders who were on most people's minds. Khatin was sitting on a stool he'd brought into the dome, the intrigued look of a scientist on his face as he carefully observed the prehistoric spiders.

Within hours, the research division had confirmed that the spiders had been entirely unseen in the fossil record until now Khatin himself had been both flabbergasted and surprised; so far, he and his team had managed to narrow these spiders as members of the Mesothelae suborder, but a completely new genus. Khatin continued to carefully observe them, taking note of everything he could. Khatin smiled, for he had finally thought up a proper name for this new discovery. He took out a sticky note, wrote the new binomial name for the spiders upon it, and placed it where an information plate would be - Megalorachne kansensis. Satisfied, he took a picture of this same sticky note with his phone to record the name for posterity.

As this happened, all the other major staff members were likewise either hard at work, or making good use of their time in which they had breaks. Jack was training the dromas, with Colette watching from outside the paddock. Kyle and Nikolai were both carefully observing and taking note of the animals and their exhibits, with Nikolai occasionally taking a break to observe Felix and Melancholia. Alice was currently hanging out with Adrian, Will, Matt, and Kaisumi in the park bar. Leon was currently resting in the park infirmary, allowing his bandaged ankle to rest. Yolanda and Linda were currently watching Arlo return to the Morrison herbivore paddock, watching proudly as he walked to where Shorty and the other brachiosaurus were gathered, browsing near his newfound friend. And Drew was in the midst of a video chat with Theodore both to give a status report on this mission and find out the next target.

Later that night, Nikolai was sitting in the dome when he heard someone approaching. He turned around and saw Jack walking towards him. Jack smiled and said "Hi", before sitting down next to Nikolai. He calmly asked, "What you doin'?"

Nikolai's response was a very simple, "Watching."

Jack nodded, "Oh. Like watching the bugs?"

Nikolai nodded, "I do, after a tough day it's very, what's the word... relaxing." Jack slumped back. "Yeah, relaxing is the word for it. You can just sit, wind down, and watch the bugs buzz past."

After a small pause, Nikolai gave off a small smile. "I used to catch insects, you know."

"Really?"

Nikolai gave a wistful look, "Yes. When I was a child I would go into the garden and look for insects, worms, spiders, you name it. When I found them, I'd put them in a jar, an empty jar, watch them a bit and set them free. And, when I set them free, I'd make sure I put them right where I found them, down to the exact spot. I did that all the time."

Jack smiled, "Yeah. I did that, when I was a kid. I suppose that's a little boy thing - looking for weird-looking stuff that all the grown-ups think is disgusting." There was a brief pause as a Meganeura buzzed past them, "They're beautiful, aren't they?"

Nikolai nodded, "Da. They are beautiful. What's your secret, Denham?"

Jack gave him a curious look, "What do you mean?"

Nikolai's response amazed him, "Everybody likes you. EVERYBODY. But me? I'm not a popular guy. Uh-uh. Not popular at all. Oh, nobody likes me. I don't know why. I'm alright, when you get to know me. I'm alright."

The emotion in the response surprised Jack; he'd never seen Nikolai talk about this before. In an attempt to defuse the situation, he said, "Hey, I know for a fact a lot of people think you're great." The clearly unconvinced Nikolai raised an eyebrow, "Really?" Jack smiled, "Yeah. They think you're just a little too... work-focused sometimes. You're a little married to the job. But that's okay! It's fine to be dedicated. There's nothing wrong with that."

In response to this, Nikolai rolled his eyes, "That's because I WORRY! All the time. Every day, I worry about keeping everyone safe. You, Drew, Kyle... okay, maybe not so much Kyle. And, besides, I have other interests." Jack raised his eyebrow and said, curiously, "Like what?" The response he got surprised him, "Like music!"

"What kind?"

"Every kind! Music is the only thing in the world that...", Nikolai then stopped himself. There was a brief, awkward pause; neither of them had suspected this was how their night was going to go.

Jack turned to Nikolai and smiled, "Y'know, I don't care what people say – you're an alright guy" He then turned to check his watch, "God, is that the time? Sorry, I'd love to stay and chat but I gotta get to the Hell Creek crocodile enclosure – there's a bunch of crocs wondering where their evening meals are. See you tomorrow." Jack then moved to leave the building. As he left, Nikolai gave a soft smile and said, "Thank you."

Jack turned to him, amazed, before suddenly, Nikolai's tone turned serious again, "Denham, just before you go – do you have time for a meeting with Kyle and I at roughly 12:00 hours tomorrow?" Jack took a step back in amazement at the preciseness at which Nikolai had said this, before saying, "Yeah, sure. See ya there."

As Jack left the building, he briefly stood outside and said, more to himself than anyone else, "Anyways, you're wrong. People don't like me – they just laugh at my jokes. There's a difference. A big difference". He sighed, before stalking off into the night.

As he left, Nikolai nodded his head, a solemn look on his face. "He may act the fool," he muttered under his breath, "But he's more than he seems."

The sound of a clicking noise from in front of him caused him to see Felix lying on the ground on the path. At that moment, the mighty armoured millipede-like arthropod appeared to be watching him in curiosity. Shortly after, Melancholia raised herself up and stared in Nikolai's direction as well. Nikolai smiled, and nodded his head. Even now he couldn't help but reflect on just how the names strangely reflected both before and after he'd met Theodore for the first time. Even now he could remember the melancholy he'd felt both during the later years of his time in the Spetsnaz due to both the people he'd slain and the comrades he'd lost and all that time where he'd found himself feeling directionless and lost his way. But at the same time, he could also remember how lucky he'd been to meet Theodore for the first time and get hired to work at Prehistoric Park, a chance he'd eagerly taken.

So far, his decision was working well for him, especially since he had an entire team of 'comrades' working with him. And, with the Arthropleura seeming strangely comfortable with him, the animals were warming up to hm as well. All in all, life was good for him nowadays, certainly more so than it had been before.

Life in general was now going well for everyone at the park. But of course, the staff were all too well aware of how things could yet get shaken up once more when the time came for the next mission.

* Archaeothyris florensis (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

* Arthropleura moyseyi (2; all adults; 1 male, 1 female)

* Cochleosaurus bohemicus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Crassigyrinus scoticus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Eogyrinus attheyi (10; all adults; 4 male, 6 female)

* Eucritta melanolimnetes (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Greererpeton burckemorani (9; all adults; 5 male, 4 female)

* Hylonomus lyelli (19; all adults; 9 male, 10 female)

* Meganeura moyni (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

* Megalorachne kansensis (10; all adults; 4 male, 6 female)

* Petrolacosaurus kansensis (12; all adults; 6 male, 6 female)

* Phlegethontia longissimi (17; all adults; 8 male, 9 female)

* Pholidogaster pisciformis (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

* Proterogyrinus scheelei (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

* Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined:

The time has come to visit the Permian Period.

(A large group of sail-backed reptiles feast contentedly on plants near a large lake.)

To rescue the mighty dimetrodon!

(A large male dimetrodon charges towards Drew, Alice, and Jack, snarling and hissing in rage.)

While back at the park, one of the rescue team members decides to face his fears.

(A nervous Leon looks towards Yolanda, who nods encouragingly at him while they're both standing nearby the pulmonoscorpius enclosures.)

All next time, on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: South of Heaven!

Remember, vote on the poll - you'll find it on my profile.