AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Just a couple of things:

First off, from Phase Three onwards, we're going to do more than 13 missions per phase – even with Extras, the story's grown bigger and it's going to grow much, much bigger going forward. With the park becoming known to the outside world in Phase Three, it opens up a whole new chapter in the story, which I think you're going to enjoy reading.

Secondly, for Phase Three OCs, I've got some outlines for OCs that LG and I were never quite able to crack – these are all just vague outlines of characters I thought of but could never quite flesh out.

Guest/Guest Tran: Woodstock sounds good – one little thing, I always thought the Supersaurus in DR was female (and besides, we don't really have many named female sauropods), so she's probably going to be female. As well as this, the teratorns are just aggressive – there's no particular reason why they're acting in the way they do. They're just dicks.

Re: you getting an account, whilst we do respect your wishes to privacy… as my erstwhile co-writer has said, it would be a lot easier for us to talk about your OCs and suggestions in private. We have a lot of ideas for Phase Three – many of which that we don't want to spoil, since it'd ruin the surprise (and for a lot of these moments, the emotional impact) - and we'd feel much more comfortable discussing them over PMs.

Also, guys… big question here, now we're halfway through Phase Two, going forward, who would you like to see more of in PPR? Basically, who are your favourite characters (both human and animal)?

And, anyway, on with the story!

Uwanda Wa Miiba

Drew was standing in his office, waiting for his team. He'd been jubilant these past three weeks – ever since the announcement had been made that the park was going to open to the public. He'd done a little bit of a victory dance after the news had come out.

Some were worried about what would happen if this place was full of strangers – however, Drew didn't mind. This was what they'd been working towards, right from the start. And, with the celebration over, the time had come for a new mission.

The sound of the door opening made him turn to see Jack Denham, Adrian Sky and Cynthia Knightley walk in. Smiling, he said, "Hi, guys! We're going to the late Jurassic, about 150 million years ago to bring back a rather remarkable creature." He pressed a button on the projector and a picture of a stegosaur, like a smaller version of the dacentrurus in the Lourinha herbivore paddock. At the picture, Jack smiled and said, "Kentrosaurus. Stego's pricklier cousin. Pun very much intended and relished. Big mission."

Drew nodded, "Yup – Theodore decided we needed to hit the ground running – and, well, of the big three Late Jurassic formations, we had one left out…" Looking around the office, Adrian said, "Is this everybody? I thought today would be an all-hands-on-deck mission…"

"Was hoping to have one", Drew said, dismissively, "But Alice and Leon are staying to look after the carnivores from the last mission – Alice is a little excited about having our first hyenas, and Leon's formed quite the bond with that cave lion we found. Anyway, let's get to the portal, D-bags, 'cos time is a wastin'!"

And so, the team headed to the portal site. An employee entered the time period and location and the portal whirred into life. Drew put the remote in his pocket and, after securing it, turned to his team, who nodded at him, before they went through the portal, into the past.

. . . . .

Once the blinding light from the portal had died down, the first thing that hit the team was the heat. Looking around their surroundings, they saw that they had arrived at the top of a bluff looking over a valley. Dead bushes and shrubs reigned over the area with the occasional tree or termite mound. In the distance, however, Drew saw a large pool with giant ferns and horsetails growing around the edge, surrounding a small stand of conifers. Compared to the desolate landscape around it, this was an oasis.

Looking around, Jack said, under his breath, "Looks vaguely like the Morrison", to which Cynthia muttered, "I'll take your word for it", and Adrian nodded, "Yeah. You wouldn't believe North America and Africa had been separated for almost 20 million years." Jack shrugged, "Yeah – some places just look the same. To hear the locals tell it, Birmingham's exactly the same as Venice – only with less art and more drugs." Adrian rolled his eyes, "Don't you ever take anything seriously?", to which Jack smiled, "Seriousness and solemnity are different things, my broody, birdy friend – many boring people conflate the two." Adrian rolled his eyes again, as Cynthia said, "And I'm out of this conversation."

Their conversation was interrupted by Drew clapping his hands, "Enough chatting, D-bags! That over there is a smallish lake and this is the dry season, so a lot of animals are gonna be there! So, let's get lookin'!" The three looked at each other, as Jack muttered, "And yup, he says it – I used to get annoyed when he said it, but now, it's almost endearing."

As they approached the lake, it wasn't long before they saw their first animals. A herd of sauropods with leathery iron-grey skin, tannish gold underbellies, and reddish brown faces were drinking from the lake. Whilst they were relatively small compared to the sauropods back at the park, at forty feet long, they were still quite large. Their necks were comparatively short, with a row of spines along its back, which were larger along the neck and head. The heads were small and had comparatively wide muzzles. Cynthia said quietly, "I think those are Dicraeosaurus – a kind of small sauropod."

The dicraeosaurus were accompanied by a herd of medium-sized dinosaurs about twenty feet long and as tall as Adrian. There was a vague resemblance between them and the ornithomimus back at the park, but with much shorter, quill-like feathers along their bodies instead of the ornithomimus herd's emu-like feathers and the scaly portions of their body were tannish gold with slight dark green stripes instead of uniform blueish grey. The juveniles, interestingly, had teeth, whilst the adults had toothless beaks. Adrian said, "Elaphrosaurus, I presume?", and Cynthia looked, quizzically, "Why do the juveniles have teeth and the adults don't?"

Jack smirked, "Ontogenetic diet shifts – the juveniles must eat different things. Happens in quite a lot of animals – in some turtles, hatchlings are almost entirely carnivores and become more vegetarian as they get older. Guess we now know some dinosaurs had the same system." Drew chuckled, "Khatin will freak at documenting this. Remember the eusocial sea scorpions?"

They noticed an elaphrosaurus scanning the air uncertainly – some kind of lookout, they presumed. Suddenly, the lookout let out a cry and the whole elaphrosaurus group went on alert, some moving closer to the sauropods, their massive bodyguards, who resumed placidly drinking after briefly pausing from as much at the sound of the elaphrosaurus lookout's call.

Looking at the direction the sentry had looked in, the team turned to see a pair of theropods walk up to the lake. There was a vague resemblance to the majungasaurus back at the park, but they were smaller, about twenty feet long. Their arms were also longer, with more distinct fingers, and their scales were a tannish gold instead of reddish brown. Jack turned to Drew, "Some kind of primitive abelisaur? I didn't know they existed this far back." Drew said, "I think Leon told me there was one in South America in the Middle Jurassic – I've forgotten what it was called. Anyway, fragmentary abelisaur remains are known from Tendaguru." He smiled, "Anyway, we'll split up – you, Cynthia and Adrian take the herbivores, I'll take the abelisaurs." The three looked at each other – they knew that devious look.

As Drew slunk off, Jack, Adrian and Cynthia had decided to use the old "trail of vegetation" plan – in a dry season, plants were thin on the ground. Stealthily walking up to the dicraeosaurus and elaphrosaurus, the team left a trail of vegetation leading to a single pile. Once the combined herd had gotten close enough, the team tossed the vegetation through the portal, which the herbivores followed. Once the last one was through, Jack closed the portal. Turning to his teammates, he said, "I wonder how Drew planned to bring back the abelisaurs…"

"Incoming!"

Jack, Cynthia and Adrian turned their heads, their eyes widening in surprise at the sight of Drew running from the two abelisaurs. After their surprise had worn off, Jack, Cynthia and Adrian opened the portal immediately after Drew ran past, causing the abelisaurs to tear through the portal.

"Alright then," Drew said. "What do you say we walk around the lake shore for a bit and see if we can find some more animals?"

"Count me in," said Cynthia.

"Yup," Adrian agreed.

. . . . .

Alice was in good spirits as she worked to set up enrichment options for the cave hyenas to make use of in their paddock. So far she felt quite proud of the variety of options she'd placed around the paddock so far, with several of the red squeaky toys that had been provided for the cave hyenas on Christmas available for the cubs to play with, several red exercise balls and fake chewable bones for the adults to keep themselves entertained with, and even a couple of fiberglass horse carcasses containing meatballs in the event the pack got hungry.

Even now she could feel the hyenas gazing her way from the secured entrance to their holding area that was preventing the pack from leaving their den; and she was confident that they would not be disappointed once she left the paddock and let them back out. "Don't worry," she said out loud, more to the animals than herself, "Once I'm done in here, you lot are going to have a bit more fun."

"I can see you're enjoying yourself."

Alice briefly widened her eyes in surprise, only to then narrow them before directing a stoic look towards the outside of the paddock, where she could now see Colette standing by the outer wall and leaning over the railing to get a good look at what Alice was up to. "You could say that," Alice said diplomatically. She nodded her head. "I take it you're also having a nice day so far?"

"Oui."

Colette nodded her head. "In fact," she continued. "I was actually feeling in the mood to have a little chat."

Alice raised her eyebrow at Colette, privately feeling very wary now about possibly engaging in a long talk with Colette. After all, even after all this time, and how she'd kept Jack safe in the shutdown, she still felt very wary and guarded around Nikolai's French born second in command. But at the same time, it would be polite… "I suppose it wouldn't hurt." She then looked briefly back in the direction of the hyenas before looking back at Colette. "Just uh, let me finish what I'm doing here first before we talk."

30 minutes later, Alice had finished getting the cave hyenas' enrichment set up, left the paddock, and allowed the cave hyenas out of their holding area; at which point she and Colette found themselves standing at the balcony-like viewing area of the paddock, facing each other. "So," Alice said. "You wanted to talk about something?"

Colette nodded her head. "I'm sure you're probably aware of how little we've spent time together," she said, rubbing the back of her head with a slightly sheepish look on her face. Alice raised her eyebrow. "I've certainly noticed," she said, calmly, "Well I've been thinking a lot lately," Colette then said. "And I've realized that, after all this time and how close I've gotten with Jack and Yolanda, perhaps maybe it's time we made an effort to hang out more?" Alice briefly narrowed her eyes and said, calmly, but with a subtle tone of distrust, "I'm sure I can try to fit such an idea onto my schedule."

Unfortunately, Alice hadn't been quite so quick to hide her brief look of distaste as she'd thought and Collete scowled at the expression. "What is your problem with me?", she snarled.

At this point, Alice finally allowed her own distaste to be fully made clear, an unnerving glare on her face. "What's my problem?", she hissed. "I could ask the same about you!"

Colette widened her eyes in rage, scandalized by what Alice had just said. "I beg your pardon?!"

"Oh, don't you act all innocent on me," Alice snarled, her hazel eyes narrowed into a bitter glare. "Eighteen months we've been at this and this is the first time you've ever come up to me for a chat. Hard not to feel a little suspicious, especially considering all the time you've spent with Jack lately!"

"Whatever you think, that's not the case…." Colette said.

Alice scoffed. "Yeah, right. If you wanted to be friends with me, sincerely, why did you wait eighteen months to do it? What's changed?

Colette growled, raising her hands, with her fingers now bent in claw-like positions. "Well, excuse me for just not being good with people!" She pointed one finger accusingly at Alice. "News flash! Some people are just… uncomfortable with other people. I'm not a sociable person - "

Alice snarled, her eyes now narrowing even further. "Yeah, sure, keep on saying that – at some point, you're going to sleep better." She folded her arms across her chest. "And while we're at it, I'd strongly recommend you tread with caution with whatever you've got going on with my brother. I've seen your type before; and I can tell you right up front that my brother isn't somebody you just discard! And believe me, I've said that to a few people before – I will say it to you. He's been burned before – and I never want to see him burned again."

Colette's eyes widened, clearly caught off guard by what she'd just heard Alice bring up. Quietly, she said, "I didn't know any of that – I understand why you're protective and I am sorry for him. But, please, whatever it is that's going on, because even I don't quite know yet – it's not what you believe. The person who you worry I am… that's not me." Snarling, Alice pointed her finger accusingly at Colette once more. "Thank you for saying that," she growled. "and I'll give you this much, I am grateful that you helped keep him safe during the shutdown last year. But hurt him and you WILL regret it." She raised her eyebrow. "Did you get all that? Be careful – you're not on terribly thick ice with me."

At this, Colette's eyes narrowed, and she said through gritted teeth, "Thank you for telling me that – I did want to be friends with you. I really, really did. However, I guess, at least for now, that's not going to happen – thank you for reminding me of that. Goodbye." As she left, a watching Alice chuckled, as she watched the outraged Colette stalk away, before whispering under her breath, "That ought to teach you".

The sound of the hyenas continuing to play around with the enrichment she'd provided eventually broke through to her and she shook her head side to side, snorting irritably at the reminder that she still had work to get back to. Glare still on her face, she stormed off in the direction of the nearest staff house, hoping that it would be just the place she'd need to cool down – she needed to be entirely focused when she got back to work. And considering how the next task on her schedule involved working with the Ice Age Mount bears alongside Will, the last thing she wanted was to him to see her in a mood.

. . . . .

After sending the dicraeosaurus, elaphrosaurus and the new abelisaurid species back, the team had resumed walking along the lake shore. A group of small crocodiles – about two feet long and covered in tannish gold scales – lay basking on the shore of the lake. Drew chuckled, "Some more little crocodiles – you'll like this, Jack." Cynthia looked at them, curiously, and said, "Bernissartia?". A grinning Jack shook his head and said, "No – too early. Bernissartia was early Cretaceous. They're a new species, probably… And, leave bringing them back to me." Noticing Drew's somewhat huffy look, Cynthia said, "Let him do it – he's your reptile guy, isn't he?"

And so, Drew and Cynthia watched as Jack left a trail of small fish from the bait bag in front of the small crocodiles and let them follow it. Once they had gotten to the end of the trail, Jack activated the portal – the crocodiles briefly recoiled at the sight of the glowing object, before curiously approaching it. Once the last one had come through, Jack shut off the portal and turned to Drew and Cynthia, grinning. Cynthia gave him a thumbs-up, as Drew said, quietly, "You did good."

Suddenly, they noticed that Adrian's attention had been elsewhere the whole time. As if reading their minds, he said, "Guys, look.", and Drew, Jack and Cynthia turned to see two species of pterosaur, one with a three-foot wingspan and light grey coloured, with a red beak and crest, and a larger, darker-coloured species, with a six-foot wingspan and a black-and-white coloured crest were rooting around in the shallows, picking up snails and crushing them with their teeth. Adrian said, "Tendaguripterus – a type of dsungaripterid. The larger pterosaur is a new species – another dsungaripterid. They're shellfish eaters – freshwater snails. I think we can use a trail of them as bait." The sound of pterosaur-like screeching from above caused the team to briefly look up in time to see a flock of small azhdarchids descending down towards the water, joining the dsungaripterids in the process as they began to search for fish. As the team took a closer look at these new arrivals, they took note of the pterosaurs' leathery grey wings, vaguely hammerkop-like beaks, short snowy white skinned heads and necks, amber eyes, and dusty brown pycnofibers covering the rest of their bodies. "Another new species I'm guessing?" Cynthia asked. "Yep," said Adrian. "Shouldn't be a problem though. We can just add some fish to the trail."

Once the pterosaurs had been sent through the portal using a trail of mollusks and fish, the team noticed that a rather strange-looking theropod dinosaur had come to the lake to drink while they were busy with the pterosaurs. At about twenty feet long, it looked like a smaller version of the Torvosaurus back at the park, only with a tannish brown colouration and black stripes, with a longer, narrower snout and with longer arms. The first finger ended in an enlarged, hook-like claw and its teeth were large and slightly curved, forming a small, interlocking rosette.

Cynthia said, confusedly, "What's that?" Jack said, silently, "Leon told me about this. It's Ostafrikasaurus – the first spinosaurid." Adrian said, "Amazing to think, isn't it? This creature's descendants will be the largest Mesozoic era land carnivores." A second ostafrikasaurus, slightly shorter than the first, walked out of the scrub and began drinking next to it. At the sight, Drew smiled and said, "I've got a plan."

. . . . .

Will Darrow sat, relaxed, on a bench within the indoor viewing area for Baloo's den at the cave bear paddock. So far everything was going smoothly. He smiled as he sat patiently waiting for Alice to arrive so she and him could do their scheduled work at the cave bear and steppe brown bear paddocks together. Admittedly, it was now about five minutes late, but he was confident that she wouldn't be much longer.

The sound of a low growling broke through Will's thoughts about Alice, and he turned his head directly towards the viewing glass. Sure enough, Baloo, who had been napping when Will had first entered the area, was now awake and gazing inquisitively at Will with his good eye. Will chuckled. "Good to see you're awake, mate," he said. Baloo let out a low rumble, and Will chuckled. Over the course of the past week, he had made several visits to Baloo's den and the bear had become strangely comfortable around him, helped by the fact that Will often helped Alice take care of the cave bears. Because of this, he was noticing that he and Baloo were starting to form a close bond – Baloo was cautious around most other humans who weren't Alice and Will, often nervously regarding them with his good eye.

"Here's hoping things go well here today once Alice arrives," Will said. Baloo groaned once more, seemingly agreeing with Will. Will chuckled. He had to admit, while Alice hadn't been able to attend the lock-in on December 23rd, she'd made up for it by being there to personally watch Koda's integration with the larger steppe brown bear sleuth alongside him on Christmas Day.

In addition, Alice and the others had helped him feel a bit better about the notion of the opening – which still made him nervous. The announcement had been three weeks prior, but it still weighed heavily on his mind – what would this place be like when it was filled with strangers? Alice had been nothing but a tower of help – telling him that this was what they'd been working towards these past eighteen months. It was no good changing what was meant to be. He thought again – he'd been thinking about Alice lately. Even with everything weighing on him lately (and everyone at the park lately), thoughts about Alice still seemed to always be amongst the ones that weighed heaviest on his mind. It was honestly enough to make him wonder...

His communicator abruptly going off jolted him from his thoughts, with even Baloo letting out a confused grunt at the sudden noise. Will chuckled nervously. "Sorry about that," he said as he drew out his communicator and answered. "Darrow speaking, over?"

"Hey there Will," said Alice's voice on the other end of the communication. "Everything good?"

"You could say that," Will said, smile on his face as he took a glance in Baloo's direction. The heavily scarred, partially crippled, and half blind cave bear was now lying on his stomach, inquisitive gaze still on his face as he observed Will talking on the communicator. "Baloo and I are just waiting patiently here in his indoor viewing area for you to arrive."

"Yeah," Alice said. "Sorry I'm going to be late."

"Oh, it's no problem," Will said, nodding his head in acceptance. "I'm sure you had a good reason… would you like to talk about it?"

"Not really – I'd rather just talk about anything else," Alice admitted. "Well regardless, I'm about to head over right now. Should only be about five minutes."

"Copy that," said Will. He flashed a thumbs up. "I'll be right here in Baloo's indoor viewing area waiting." Baloo let out a low humming vocalisation – Will's smile widened. Clearly Baloo had not forgotten Alice since the last time she and Will had taken care of him. "See you soon," Will then stated before ending the call.

. . . . .

Drew's plan, as it turned out, was to leave a pile of fish by the lakeshore and lead the ostafrikasaurus through the portal using it as bait. Watching from cover by the fish pile, Drew chuckled, "Come on, take the bait. You know you want to – it's the dry season." Jack turned to look at Drew, "Could you not monologue to yourself whilst we're waiting? It gets weird after a while." Drew's only response was an eye-roll and a "Sorry."

Eventually, the Ostafrikasaurus sniffed the air and walked towards the fish pile – after a few minutes, they reached it and began feeding, feasting on the pile with gusto. The team waited some distance away, for the two spinosaurids to finish. "There won't be much left of the pile in a few minutes. They clearly haven't eaten in a long while.," Adrian muttered. "If we don't act now, we'll miss the opportunity."

Drew looked at the two ostafrikasaurus, a smirk on his face. "Wait for it, wait for it". Cynthia, Adrian and Jack sighed – they knew that devious-looking smirk. Drew turned to Adrian and said, "Grab the fish with the grappling tool – make it look like we're trying to steal their dinner."

Using a grappling tool, Adrian hooked a fish that one of the ostafrikasaurus had dropped and began pulling it. The theropods, noticing the meat moving away, followed it – once they'd gotten close enough, he activated the portal and the theropods dived after the meat. Once the spinosaurs had gone through, Jack turned to Drew, "Okay, fearless leader, what's the plan?" Drew was about to speak when, suddenly a quiet chittering interrupted them. "Well first," said Drew, pointing at what turned out to be a small group of burrows nearby. "Let's find out what lives in those here burrows before I answer that question."

Careful to not make any sudden noises, the team made their way over to the burrows. Getting on their hands and knees, they looked closer to see the head of a small mammal poke out from the nearest burrow. After a few minutes, the animal fully emerged. It looked vaguely like the paurodon back at the park, only silvery grey in colour - Drew said, quietly, "That's a Brancatherulum – little burrowing mammal".

"Fascinating." Jack whispered. "How are we going to get it through?"

"There's some dead termites as bait – Adrian, leave a trail." Nodding, Adrian carefully drew out a small package and carefully left a trail of dead insects, whilst walking away from the burrows. "How about we wait some distance away?" Cynthia suggested. "They'll probably come out if we're not breathing down their necks."

The team did as she suggested, and, in some bushes, the four came to a stop. After what felt like an eternity, the brancatherulum came out of the burrow, before sniffing at the insects. It turned its head towards the burrow and chittered loudly, and the rest of the colony emerged.

The colony cautiously sniffed the termite trail, and then slowly started crawling down it, eating the dead insects as they went. Once they were at the trail's end, Drew activated the portal. The mammals recoiled from the vortex, arching their backs and hissing, but slowly calmed. Once they were calm, Cynthia got their attention with a handful of termites, which she then tossed through the portal. Within seconds, the entire colony had darted through the portal, following the food. After the last one had gone through, Cynthia closed the portal.

Jack turned to Drew and asked, "So, I ask again, what's the plan?" Drew sighed, "We go back to the lake and do a stake-out – have our targets come to us."

. . . . .

Kyle nodded his head, a look of approval on his face as he and his currently assembled holding pens team carefully observed the newest arrivals to the park. Of the two species, it was the ostafrikasaurus pair that had everyone's attention. At that moment, the two early spinosaurs were cautiously sniffing around the edges of the holding pen. And as he and the rest of the holding pens team observed, the head keeper found himself privately admitting that, if it weren't for the long crocodile-like snouts and long, sharp fishing claw on each hand, their stocky bodies could easily allow them to be mistaken for being more closely related to the torvosaurus or other megalosaurs. And Kyle wasn't the only one taking interest in this matter.

Khatin had an excitable grin on his face as he eagerly noted down everything he could think of as he too observed the pair of early spinosaurs. This was shaping up to be a good day - he'd gotten to confirm ontogenetic dietary shifts in elaphrosaurine noasaurids (something that had long been suspected), then he'd gotten to study a previously-unknown species of primitive abelisaur, and now he was personally witnessing one of the first spinosaurs! "Interesting," said the park's chief researcher. "Comparisons with later spinosaurs could provide some intriguing insights; Ostafrikasaurus is close to the spinosaurid/megalosaurid split."

Kyle chuckled. "Nice to see you're still as excitable as ever," he then said.

"No kidding," said Nikolai as he nodded his head. He had to admit, he'd been very lucky to get the time to be personally involved at the holding pens this day. Over the last three weeks, the two lone mammoth sisters Martha and Ellie had been undergoing tense 'episodes' at night – Nikolai had been checking on them every night, so he could provide them with some support. "I'll admit though," he then said. "It is nice that this is something we already know about after what we went through with that pair of undiscovered abelisaurs."

John, who just so happened to be present at the holding pens alongside Nikolai, let out a brief good-natured chuckle at the memory of when the newly discovered abelisaur species, which Khatin had very swiftly dubbed eorugops, had come through the portal. "I'm surprised you and Kyle didn't burst a vein at the sight of those two abelisaurs boss," he said. "I mean, last I recall, Drew and the team are supposed to call in and inform you and Mr. Taymor…"

Kyle sighed, shaking his head side to side at the reminder of what the security division's first officer had brought up. "I'll admit," he stated. "An advance warning on the comms would have been appreciated."

"Da, that it would," Nikolai admitted. He then raised his finger as if to prove a point. "However," he said. "To Komandir Drew's credit, the info-packs did mention indeterminate abelisaurs found in the Tendaguru. So we weren't quite caught off guard."

"That's true," Kyle admitted.

Khatin nodded in agreement, his grin widening as he was reminded of the eorugops. "That's a priority for me as well," he stated. He nodded his head. "When we acquire more species of abelisaur, it will be interesting to get an insight into the group's evolution."

The assembled keepers amongst the holding pens team all chuckled. "Never change Dr. Schorzberg," one of them said out loud in amusement. "Never change."

. . . . .

After the ostafrikasaurus and brancatherulum had been sent through the portal, the team had decided to walk up the lake and back to the Jeep – they had planned to stake out by the lake and wait for any animals that came to drink. As they approached, Drew was about to say something when, suddenly, a low trumpeting bellow echoed through the air. The team turned to see a herd of sauropods walk towards the shores of the watering hole.

There was a resemblance between them and the Brachiosaurus back at the park, only slightly lighter in colouration and with golden yellow patches instead of black ones. All creatures nearby went silent as the mighty giants lumbered closer into view. The rescue team could already tell what these were – Giraffatitan. "They're magnificent", Cynthia said, quietly, as so not to disturb the giants. Jack, grinning, turned to Drew and said, "So, fearless leader, you wanna bring those back next?" Drew was just about to answer when additional sauropod bellowing split the air and caused all four of the rescue team members to take another look behind the approaching giraffatitan.

Following the giraffatitan were three other sauropods – a small herd of dark grey diplodocids that looked rather like the barosaurus back at the park, a herd of slightly smaller, lighter coloured sauropods with comparatively longer necks and a herd of tannish sauropods with armoured plates running down their backs. Jack said, quietly, "Tornieria, Wamweracaudia and…Janenschia?"

"There's more," said Cynthia, pointing towards even further back. Sure enough, two more sauropod species had shown up and begun following along behind the other sauropods that had arrived, with one small herd consisting of a species that looked like a brownish gold version of the janenschia with giraffe-like green patches on their bodies and another consisting of a diplodocid species similar to the apatosaurus that were unexpectedly a very dark royal blue with golden tan underbellies. "I read the dossier Leon provided to," Cynthia then said. "And I'm currently guessing that the blue and gold ones are australodocus and the armoured ones with greenish patches are tendaguria."

Soon the mass combined herd of sauropods came to a stop and began to engage in a leisurely drink at the lake. And it wasn't long before two other species of herbivorous dinosaur came into view to join the sauropods. One such group was a herd of stegosaurs that looked vaguely like the dacentrurus back at the park only slightly smaller and a lighter tannish gold in colour instead of brown, and reddish-brown backs. The team looked at each other – this was their target. Kentrosaurus. A group of small ornithopods, looking vaguely like the Dryosaurus from back at the park, but covered in resplendent red and yellow feathers and possessing fiery orange scaled heads, skittered around the larger animals' giant legs, feeding on dropped vegetation. "Dysalotosaurus", Drew said, quietly.

Watching the sizable, combined herd milling about at the watering hole, Adrian turned to Drew and asked the most prudent question. "How are we going to get this lot through the portal?"

Drew was about to speak when, suddenly, a dysalotosaurus looked at something in the scrub and squawked an alarm – and the entire herd immediately went on alert. Jack turned to Drew and said, quietly, "Wonder what spooked them." Drew ignored him to focus on the parched scrub, which he couldn't help but note was rustling slightly…

. . . . .

Back at the park, Leon stood at a balcony-like viewing area for the cave lion paddock, watching intently as Simba lay crouched in a half submissive and half respectful fashion, sniffing hesitantly, as Nala curiously paced up and down the unspoken boundary line separating the paddock half currently considered to be her territory from the paddock half currently considered to be Simba's, sniffing intently at Simba as she observed him. Simba let out a very low growl of respect, trying his best to appear as submissive and respectful as he could in the face of the albino female his age that he clearly genuinely considered worth possibly mating with.

Leon watched intently as the two lions interacted – another addition to the breeding programme. At this, another thought began to swim into his head – the cave lions, as well as many of the Pleistocene animals, had gone extinct in what was, in purely evolutionary terms, a blink of an eye. The world had changed comparatively little – aside from the fact that it was sprawling with humans. Perhaps, once a good enough population had been built up, they could reintroduce these species back into their old haunts.

Anyway. Focus. The two young cave lions seemed to be regarding each other curiously. "That's right Simba," he said under his breath as he watched. "Just stay calm and don't overstep your boundaries. You've got this." And as he said this, a wide smile came on his face. He couldn't deny it, things seemed to be going well. However, he was so deep in thought that he wasn't aware that he was being observed.

Yolanda sighed dreamily, an adoring smile on her face as she watched Leon from several yards away behind what would eventually be a planned minor food stand for the Ice Age Mount exhibit zone. At the moment, she was very much on a break. And naturally, she was currently spending this break taking part in an activity she'd found herself engaging in quite often over the previous week; watching Leon from afar. And she was finding just as much joy in her current vicarious observation of him that she'd found in all the previous times she'd observed him in this fashion over the past week. She chuckled, an embarrassed blush forming on her face as she rubbed her hand across the back of her head and through her gleaming golden hair. She didn't quite fully understand why she was feeling the way she currently was in regard to Leon. After all, she'd hung out with Leon around the park plenty of times before without undergoing any emotions all that much stronger than would be expected between good friends. But nowadays, for some reason that so far still continued to elude her, she was starting to feel very...different now towards Leon then she'd ever felt towards him before. She thought very carefully to herself, eyes still remaining entirely on Leon as she did so. In times like this, part of her honestly couldn't help but wonder, was this how it felt to be in love? When she really thought about it, there were a surprising number of details she could think of that heavily hinted at such a possibility, and the idea certainly held a decent level of appeal.

She then briefly hung her head, a look of regret forming on her face as memories that she'd kept bottled up since veterinary school began to rear their ugly heads. Trying to banish them from her mind, she began thinking about Leon . As much as the idea of her starting a relationship with Leon seemed appealing (he was quite a nice guy after all), she had to admit that she wasn't entirely comfortable with the notion. For starters, now was very busy for them both – with the park's opening in the near future, everyone was working round the clock to get things ready. And even without all that to consider, a romantic relationship could come with a lot of hurdles that she wasn't sure she was ready for yet. And that was without considering… what had happened in veterinary school.

She shuddered, gritting her teeth and clenching her hazel eyes shut tight at the harrowing memories that were now reawakening in her mind. In all honesty, she'd never really had any romantic relationships per se herself prior to her work at Novum. While she'd admittedly been perfectly open to the idea of having a boyfriend at some point or other in her life while she was in school, most of the boys she'd known had been either not really her type or straight up not interested in her. And while she had technically engaged in an 'intimate' relationship of sorts in her college years, she could even now remember all too well how, quite frankly, the relationship in question had hardly been what she would have called loving. And that was lowballing. She shook her head, trying her best to clear her thoughts even as a small tear started to slide down her cheek from her right eye as she remembered her single disastrous sham of a relationship back in college, the almost debilitating aftermath that had ensued immediately after it had ended, and even the less then encouraging reactions that had been expressed by several other boys she'd initially considered trying to pursue a relationship with afterward when said boys had themselves found out about the whole mess. Simply put, she was honestly terrified now of even bringing up that part of her past to anyone other than Theodore, her family, or her fellow park veterinarians. She hadn't even told Jack or any of her friends outside the veterinary division yet; and as such, she sure as Hell didn't yet have the courage to even consider telling Leon about it yet.

She took several deep breaths. "Happy place, happy place, happy place," she thought pleadingly to herself as she worked to rein those ever so painful memories from her life before Novum to the back of her mind. Today was such a beautiful day, and she really didn't want it to be ruined by something she really wanted nothing more than to move on from. Eventually, once she felt like she had the memories in question wrestled back into submission, she looked back in Leon's direction; at which point she promptly found her earlier warm smile returning as she saw him still intently watching Simba and Nala engage in the natural antics that came with Leon's current efforts at playing Cupid for them. She sighed dreamily once more, her golden hair billowing lightly in the breeze and her hazel eyes narrowing adoringly as she watched from her hiding place several yards behind Leon. Already she could feel the comforting memories of her time she'd known Leon so far and how good of a friend he'd consistently been to her ever since they'd first started properly getting to know each other on the day of the dimetrodon mission and her near fatal incident with the crassigyrinus rising to the forefront of her mind. And even with her painful past before Novum well on the backburner and her own confusion as to the exact nature of how she felt about him still well on her mind, she couldn't help but feel hope that, in the event that romance between her and Leon was indeed in the cards, then just maybe Leon would be where she finally got it right. "Never change Leon," she affectionately whispered under her breath. "Never change."

. . . . .

The herd became more and more agitated as large, bipedal shapes stealthily moved through the bushes. There was a brief pause – before a pack of large theropods burst out and sprinted towards the herd.

Now, the team could get a good look at them – each was about thirty feet long and covered in tannish scales with dark green stripes across their backs. There was a vague resemblance between them and the allosaurus back at the park, but more heavily built. Drew whistled quietly and said, "Veterupristisaurus – the first carcharadontosaurid. Apex predator of these lands".

The herbivores stamped and bellowed as the veterupristisaurus advanced towards them snarling. "Jack," he stated calmly, but authoritatively, "you and Cynthia handle the carcharodontosaurids – Adrian and I will get the herbivores through the portal. Whatever you two have got planned, do it fast." His three companions nodded and rushed into action.

The veterupristisaurus were circling the herd, snarling again, before the sound of a loud burst of noise caused them to tense up in surprise and turn to see Jack, who had just blared out that bugling call from his airhorn. "Yeah, that's right," Jack yelled as he then blared his airhorn a second time. "Come and get me!" Bellowing in rage, the pack began to rush towards Jack, who started to run to draw them away from the herbivores. The theropods were about halfway to reaching Jack when an identical blaring split the air to their right, causing them to skid to a halt and look to see Cynthia standing in that direction holding another airhorn high in the air. "You heard me, you ugly bastards" said Cynthia as she blared the horn a second time. "Come on!" Hissing in rage, the veterupristisaurus started charging Cynthia's way. Once they were close enough, Jack blared his airhorn again, causing the carcharodontosaurids to turn their attentions back to him. And from there, Jack and Cynthia continued attracting the veterupristisaurus back and forth between them, leading them on a merry chase.

As this happened, Drew and Adrian got close to the herd, the confused but wary herbivores all staring perplexedly in the direction of Cynthia, Adrian, and the carnivores that mere moments ago had been about to try to eat them. Staring determinedly, they got into the Jeep, lowered the window and leaned their heads out. Immediately after doing this, Drew moved his left arm, holding the portal remote, into position, before slamming his right hand repeatedly upon the horn function in the steering wheel. The sound of the blaring horn from the jeep attracted the attention of the herbivores, who all turned to the source of the sudden noise was coming from, just in time to see the portal burst into life. "Hey!" Drew yelled, honking the horn repeatedly, "Follow me!"

The desire to escape from the veterupristisaurus quickly overrode any fear of the portal. With an ear-splitting bellow from the giraffatitan matriarch, all the herbivores started charging towards the portal. And just like that, the entire massive combined herd, moving as if a single gobsmackingly vast entity, followed Drew through the portal in the Jeep.

The sight of the herbivores go through the portal was all Jack and Cynthia needed to see. As the pack tore closer to her, Cynthia activated the portal and the veterupristisaurus ran through the portal, moving as if a single entity. Jack, however, could see that one veterupristisaurus had been left behind and currently appeared confused as to why its pack was suddenly no longer there – and he began slowly advancing towards it before blaring the horn at it. The theropod turned to see him and snarled, clearly irritated by the loud noise, before walking towards him. Jack walked backwards, muttering "Come on, keep on following me. Just need to…" Suddenly, he slipped in a dust pocket and ended up sprawled on his back in front of the veterupristisaurus. Jack looked up as the theropod advanced towards him, eyes agleam with hunger. He screwed his eyes shut as the predator, jaws dripping with drool, prepared to strike…

When suddenly, a portal grenade landed between them and went off, putting a portal in-between them right as the carnivore was about to lunge – unable to change its trajectory, the veterupristisaurus pounced through the portal, into the present. As the portal closed, Cynthia walked up towards him, smiling. Jack sighed and said, "Thank you – I was a goner back there." Cynthia smiled at him, "Like you said – we're a team. We watch each other's backs." Jack sighed, "Yeah. I think it's time we went home."

. . . . .

Three hours later, once the dust had settled, all the newly rescued animals had been successfully transferred to their new homes within the recently constructed Tendaguru Formation exhibit zone. As per unspoken tradition, the enclosure in the very centre of this zone was what served as the large main herbivore paddock for the formation. And within this paddock, all of the herbivores were either refreshing themselves at the paddock's water hole, browsing upon the shrubs or trees, or basking in the sunlight or shade. A very small paddock located considerably closer to the exhibit zone's main entrance now served as home for the brancatherulum, which were all currently scurrying around the ground of their new paddock and sniffing for food of watching out for any sign of danger. A medium sized paddock to the left of the main herbivore paddock, which came with a large pool of water, was now the dwelling for the new small crocodiles, which were all currently lazily basking in the waters of their new pool. An aviary enclosure to the right of the main herbivore paddock, meanwhile, naturally served as the new home for the two dsungapterid flocks, which were all currently flying about their new habitat in curiosity over their new surroundings, with the Tendaguru azhdarchids, which Kaisumi had eagerly dubbed impunduludactylus, in a second aviary next door.

Finally, three large paddocks not too far behind the main herbivore paddock served as home for the Tendaguru Formation's three rescued large carnivore species, with the ostafrikasaurus pair viciously chowing down on a heaping portion of fresh fish that had newly been thrown into a feeding mechanism positioned within the river inside their new paddock, both of the eorugops curiously exploring their new territory within their own paddock, and the veterupristisaurus all feasting upon a freshly provided cow carcass together in the centre of their own brand new paddock.

All in all, things were largely going smoothly now for the park as all the staff simultaneously engaged in business as usual *and* worked to prepare for the eventual grand opening of the park. But even so, the atmosphere in the park was not without elements of tension and drama. Neither Alice nor Colette had come anywhere close yet to forgetting about their recent less than pleasant encounter, something that Jack, despite so far still being unaware of exactly what had happened, had not failed to notice. Yolanda was herself currently still feeling slightly confused as to just how she was now feeling in regards to her bond with Leon even while privately watching him from afar as he interacted in recreational fashion with the rest of the rescue team, an action that had not escaped Linda's attention. And of course, all the tasks to be done at the park remained expansive and fraught with busy work as ever. And that was before taking into account what sort of craziness would rear its ugly head when the very next mission came along the very next week.

Rescue Tally:

* Australodocus bohetii (14; 8 adult, 6 youngsters; 7 male, 7 female)

* Brancatherulum tendagurense (17; 10 adults, 7 youngsters; 8 male, 9 female)

* Dicraeosaurus hansemanni (13; 9 adult, 4 youngsters; 7 male, 6 female)

* Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki (19; 12 adults, 7 youngsters; 9 male, 10 female)

* Elaphrosaurus bambergi (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

* Eocrocodylus tendagurensis (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

* Eorugops africanus (2; both adults; 1 male, female)

* Giraffatitan brancai (9; 5 adults, 4 youngsters; 4 male, 5 female)

* Impunduludactylus nimbosus (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

* Janenschia robusta (13; 9 adult, 4 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)

* Kentrosaurus aethiopicus (12; 9 adults, 3 youngsters; 5 male, 7 female)

* Ostafrikasaurus crassiserratus (2; both adults; 1 male, 1 female)

* Tanzanopteryx robustus (9; all adults; 5 male, 4 female)

* Tendaguria tanzaniensis (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)

* Tendaguripterus recki (14; all adults; 7 male, 7 female)

* Tornieria africana (12; 8 adults, 4 youngsters; 6 male, 6 female)

* Veterupristisaurus milneri (10; 6 adults, 4 youngsters; 5 male, 5 female)

* Wamweracaudia keranjei (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 4 male, 5 female)

Next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined:

The team go back and bring back one of the first whales.

(A fluked tail hits the water.)

And with some big surprises along the way.

(Jack and Leon look at something on a monitor as Jack says, "I don't think any of us were expecting that.")

But not without Alice unexpectedly making things very difficult.

(The sound of an airhorn loudly going off in the distance behind him causes Drew to tense up while seemingly in the midst of sneaking towards something, and then a horrified look comes on his face and he manages to say, "Oh Hell," before a loud bellowing erupts from something in front of him.)

All next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Sea Serpents!