Prehistoric Park: Reimagined

by Nathanoraptor

Join Drew Luczynski and company as they travel back in time and save the amazing animals that time has left behind. Their goal? To bring them back to the safety of the present and give them a second chance. Welcome to the Ultimate Wildlife Sanctuary. Welcome to Prehistoric Park.

23. Sea Serpents

Sea Serpents

Drew sat in his office, waiting for his team to arrive. It had been a week since the Kentrosaurus mission and the time had come for a new mission – their first mission using the Ancient Mariner in quite a while, since Theodore had a special target in mind…

The sound of the door opening alerted him to the entrances of Leon Gilbertson and Jack and Alice Denham – he briefly noticed the latter of the two siblings was looking quite sullen but dismissed it. Looking at his team, a grin on his face, Drew cleared his throat. "We're going to the Late Eocene, 38 million years ago," Drew explained, flicking through pages of the file, "the time when mammals got big." He briefly paused and continued, "We're going after a very famous sea monster… Basilosaurus, the first of the great whales." He then looked to Leon, already knowing exactly what his friend was on the verge of asking. "More specifically, the type species Basilosaurus cetoides – not as famous as the one from Egypt" Jack whistled, "Was wondering when we were going to go after that."

Drew chuckled, "Well, now you know it. Let's get to the boat, D-bags! The day's a-burnin'." Alice rolled her eyes and stalked off towards to the dock. Once she had left, Drew noticed Jack and Leon looking at him strangely. He raised his eyebrow. "Is there a problem?" Leon looked to Jack, who shook his head and looked to him. "You tell him," Jack said quietly. Sighing, Leon turned back to Drew, "Alice is looking awfully sullen today." At this, Drew scoffed and said, "Get your own life, bro."

Jack and Leon both mentally facepalmed upon hearing Drew say this. Clearly, he'd learned nothing from Gogo Reef. But at the end of the day, Drew was still their boss, and it would do no good for them to try to argue the point. Hearts sinking, they shook their heads and departed the office alongside him. "This should be nothing short of a disaster," Leon whispered to Jack low enough for Drew not to hear. Jack sighed under his breath. "Yep," he bitterly agreed under his breath.

A few minutes later, with all the preparations made and the info-packs provided to the holding pen teams, the team were at the portal site. An employee entered the time period and location and the portal whirred into life. Drew, Leon and Alice boarded the Ancient Mariner and the boat headed towards the portal, before sailing through.

. . . . .

The Mariner had emerged from the portal. The team looked out at the sight that greeted them; they'd landed near the coast. The coastline for miles and miles was fringed by vast coral barriers; the Mariner sailed towards a deep-water channel that led through a gap in the coral, kept open by the choking silt of a large estuary beyond. "The last days of the Tethys Sea", Leon said, "Soon, it'll all be gone – except for the Mediterranean. And that won't last long anyway…" He realized no-one was listening to him.

Leon looked to see that the rest of the team were surrounding the starboard camera. Noticing him, Jack turned to him and said, "Sorry, we weren't listening. We just picked something up on the radar and found something… interesting. Come take a look." Curiosity piqued, Leon walked over to join his teammates and looked into the starboard camera to see a shoal of ammonite-like cephalopods moved through the water. "Aturia," Leon said. "A type of nautiloid."

Drew rolled his eyes, "Not what I was hoping to start with, but, hey, don't miss an opportunity. Drop a portal grenade." Jack nodded, grabbed a portal grenade and tossed it into the water and, a few minutes later, swallowed up the entire shoal of cephalopods and sending them back to the park.

"Land ho!"

The team turned to see the North American coast, as Leon walked up to Drew and said, "You looking to get some terrestrial stuff? The Mid-Eocene was the point where mammals started to get really big – well, they weren't exactly small before, that's a common misconception, but…" Drew lifted his hand, "Yes, I am. Stavros, pull into shore."

"As you wish Kapetanio."

Leon glared surreptitiously at Drew over the interruption, but stayed silent. Jack nodded his head. "I'll make sure there's a team ready at the terrestrial holding pens," he stated while drawing out his communicator to contact Kyle.

And at that, the Mariner began to sail towards the beach.

. . . . .

"Well, they've started small," Kyle stated, his eyebrow raised at what was the unexpected development. "That's uncharacteristic."

John Willoby chuckled, as the nautiloids floated through the holding tank where the water-based portal was positioned, and the grenade had been fished out by the holding pen team – Nikolai was busy overseeing an attempted integration of Martha and Ellie into the larger mammoth herd. He had become incredibly fond of the mammoth. Therefore, Willoby, as first officer, had taken his place at the holding pens. Tina snorted, "Didn't get the apex predator right off the bat? I hope everything's alright with Drew – you know what they say about sudden behaviour changes…"

Willoby chuckled, "It's uncharacteristic, I know, but, hey, it's something easy to start with. Let's get these guys in the aquarium."

"Agreed," said Kyle, already nodding his head. "And be quick about it now. The sooner this tank is empty..."

His communicator abruptly going off interrupted him and he reflexively drew out his communicator and answering it. "This is Taymor, over?" He listened carefully, the rest of the team,. "I see. Copy that. Good luck out there." He ended the call and looked to the onlookers around him. "That was Jack," he said. "Apparently the rescue team's reached the North American mainland and are planning to rescue some land animals - so we're going to have to keep the land holding pens on watch too. Any volunteers?"

Tina was the first to raise her hand, with Horace and about a third of the others swiftly following her lead.

"Very well then." Kyle looked to John. "You're certain you can keep things under control here?"

"Affirmative." John flashed a salute to the head keeper. "I won't let you down."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, about 15 minutes after the coast had been spotted, the Ancient Mariner came to a stop at the sandy beach and lowered its gangway. Drew nodded and looked approvingly at the Ancient Mariner crew while flashing a thumbs up to them. "Excellent work," he said.

"Anytime," said Stavros.

Jack looked to Drew. "So what's the plan?"

Drew rolled his eyes. "You guys are gonna stay on the Mariner and see if you can find any more marine animals to rescue in the shallows. Alice and I will go on the land and search for terrestrial species. Pick us up when we drop you a line." He looked back at Stavros, and pointed out to the open ocean, "You all have my permission to take the Mariner out to find other animals out in the open ocean in the event that Alice and I still haven't returned. Just remember to come back for us."

"Consider it done," said Leon.

Drew nodded his head. "Come on Alice," he said, already heading over to the lowered gangway. Alice rolled her eyes, but followed dutifully along behind Drew, her eyes narrowed in clear determination at the thought of finding animals – she needed something else to focus on, rather than the issue of the last week.

. . . . .

For several minutes, Drew and Alice trekked through the forest, keeping their eyes and ears wide open for any sign of local animals they could rescue. And as luck would have it, they had come upon a small group of peccary-like creatures, with longer snouts and fanglike teeth instead of tusks. "Brachyhyops," Drew whispered as he and Alice crouched behind a nearby log, "the earliest entelodonts – they don't look very impressive now, but give 'em a few million years…" Alice nodded her head. "Our first entelodonts," she stated, quiet and almost emotionless.

Drew, completely oblivious, carefully began to climb into position on the opposite side of the log, preparing to draw out the meat as bait. "They give off pig-like vocals," Drew noted. "See if there's any pig recordings on that audio device Leon gave you. That might get their attention." Alice nodded, drew out her audio recording device, and played a recording of a loud pig squealing at full volume. As Drew had hoped, this quickly caught the attention of the brachyhyops, who sniffed the air and caught sight of Drew with the meat in his hands. Once the portal had been opened, Drew tossed the meat through and the entire sounder came barreling through the portal. Once the last of the entelodonts had gone through the portal, Alice shut it off. Drew flashed her a thumbs up, "Nice work Alice." Alice merely grunted in acknowledgement, seemingly not in the mood for idle chatter.

A low bellowing split the air ahead of them, and they both looked in the direction the noise had come from. "I'm guessing that noise might be worth checking out?" Alice asked, clear tension in her voice. "Read my mind," Drew responded, still oblivious to how tense Alice appeared to be. "Come on, let's go."

Following the sound, they eventually reached a large clearing, where a herd of strange looking creatures, resembling gigantic rhinos were browsing. Their most distinctive features were large, V-shaped nose horns, which were larger and more prominent in the males than the females. Necklaces of saliva hung from their broad muzzles and their tough hides were caked in mud. They were huge; the largest male was, at about ten feet high at the shoulder, roughly the size of an elephant. Looking at the herd, Drew stated, "I think these are brontotheres; they're the largest mammals of the time. They look like rhinos, but they're only distant relatives; ironically, their closest relatives are, in fact, horses. Megacerops, probably – from the horn shape, however, they're not the ones you're…Alice, what are you doing?"

Alice had gotten up from her position and was now drawing out her airhorn, a stony glare on her face as she did so. With widened eyes, Drew barely had time to gape in horror, before Alice continued blaring the air horn at the brontotheres. The entire herd promptly grunted in alarm at the loud noise, and the nearest animal, a large bull, cocked his head to the side and bellowed loudly in reply. As Alice continued blaring the horn, the animal pawed the ground like a bull – he was going to charge. And in that instant, Drew only had time for one word.

"Oh Hell..."

The bull bellowed and reared up before charging at Drew and Alice!

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back at the park, Adrian was observing the birds at the La Brea bird of prey aviary, a smile on his face. A goat carcass had recently been put in and the birds had fed. The larger birds – the Clark's condors, the gymmogyps amplus, the Woodward's eagles and the Daggett's eagles – had already had their fill, and the smaller species – the Grinnell's crested eagles, the neophrontops, the neogyps, coragyps and La Brea caracaras were now feeding on what was left. Among them was Hayabusa gingerly eating her share while Gristle and Razor ate some distance away. Adrian smiled at this sight – caracaras were territorial, but Gristle and Razor had come to tolerate the juvenile.

The larger residents, having finished eating, were going about their business. The Woodwards' eagle pair were perched in one of the large trees and preening themselves whilst the Clark's condors were perching in one of the trees and either preening or scouting their surroundings. On the ground, the Daggett's eagles were stalking around the enclosure, in search for any additional morsels, whilst the gymnogyps amplus pair, Mzingo and his mate Mwoga, were collecting sticks for their nest.

The sound of a din from the teratorn aviaries abruptly split the air, at which point Adrian sighed and looked to see Rocco and Laverne hissing aggressively at Gomez and Morticia, the cathartornis pair. The cathartornis were, fortunately, ignoring the teratornis duo in favour of feeding on the goat carcass… which just seemed to piss off Rocco and Laverne more.

At this point, it wasn't really a surprise. The teratornis were highly aggressive – they would frequently try to attack the keepers when trying to do work in their enclosure. The cause of this behaviour was probably due to territoriality – whilst he'd initially thought the bones Cynthia had given them to chew on would help keep them occupied, it didn't seem to work. Adrian sighed. "The Simpsons said it best," he groaned. "Some animals are just jerks."

"Let me guess, Rocco and Laverne are as annoying as ever?"

Eyes widened, Adrian turned his head away from the teratorns to see Colette leaning against the doorway to the La Brea owl viewing area. He raised his eyebrow, slightly bemused at Colette deciding to talk to him – but he thought it'd be rude not to respond. "You could say that," he said.

Colette nodded her head. "I had a feeling," she then said before her eyes darted nervously – at this point, Adrian knew that she wasn't here for small talk. "I know we don't talk often, but… I couldn't think of anybody else. I need to get something off my chest."

Adrian nodded his head – he knew what Collete had wanted to talk to him about. With the memory of how badly things had unfolded between both Leon and Jack and Kyle and Nikolai the previous year, the last thing he wanted was for yet another rivalry. "Shouldn't be a problem," he stated calml, "Just let me finish my rounds here and at Hell Creek – after that, I should have time for a chat."

. . . . .

As the enraged megacerops bull charged, Drew only just barely activated the portal remote in time, causing the portal to whirr into life. Scarcely daring to breath and not wanting to risk getting trampled if the portal malfunctioned, Drew grabbed Alice by the arm and roughly pulled her along as he rushed to get out of the way, just in time for the brontothere to go through the portal. The rest of the adult brontotheres quickly followed him, curious as to where their herd mate had gone, with the calves instinctively following them through the portal as well for protection. Drew gave Alice a look, to which she scowled and said, "What?" Drew opened his mouth to speak, raising his finger as if to emphasize a point...

...only for a chittering sound to split the air and interrupt them. Following the sound, the duo saw a group of small, chevrotain-like ungulates browsing in the undergrowth. "Hendryomeryx," Alice said before looking meaningfully at Drew. "Want to get them?"

Drew sighed, reluctantly let go of Alice's arm, and began slowly making his way towards the small ungulates. "Sure," he grunted morosely as he drew out a bag of fruit and started making a trail. Once the trail had been set, he walked back to Alice and summoned the portal with his remote. The sound of the portal materializing caught the attention of the hendryomeryx herd, and while briefly startled, the herd eventually followed the trail and they all peacefully walked towards the portal - eventually, the entire herd vanished through the portal back to the park, at which point Drew closed the portal.

From there, Drew and Alice had about a minute to consider their next course of action when the sound of rodent-like squeaks and grunts from further ahead caught their attention. "Sounds like our next animals," said Alice, already head towards the noise. "Come on." Drew narrowed his eyes, angered by Alice's attempt to undermine his authority. "Sounds like a plan," he grumbled under his breath as he moved cautiously along behind her. Soon they reached a small pond where a colony of brown-furred vaguely muskrat-like rodents were gathered. "Eutypomys," Alice stated tersely. "Read about them in the info packs. Related to beavers." Drew rolled his eyes. "I trust you have a plan on how to get them through the portal?", he asked sarcastically.

Unfortunately for him, Alice completely missed the sarcasm. "As a matter of fact I do." She cupped her hands around her mouth and let out a clicking noise, her tongue against her teeth as she did so. The noise caught the attention of the eutypomys colony, which looked her way just in time for her to draw out her portal remote and summon the portal behind her. The eutypomys initially cringed in shock at the sight of the portal's sudden appearance, but further clicking from Alice ultimately won them over, and they slowly crawled towards her before eventually crawling through the portal. "And done," she stated once she'd closed the portal. Drew's only response was a withering glare, now starting to wonder if Leon and Jack had been right to be concerned.

The sound of various grunts, snorts and bellows soon split the air from further into the woods before Drew could speak. Gritting his teeth, Drew pointed his finger in the direction the noise was coming from, eager to take charge. "Let's go," he grumbled, "Daylight's a burnin'."

. . . . .

As the Mariner sailed into the open sea, Leon was searching for Jack – the two needed to come up with a plan. However, Jack had gone somewhere – and hadn't told him where he was. Searching, he walked down the stairs into one of the lower decks and found Jack in the holding tanks dangling a fish – he rolled his eyes. This was somehow expected.

Jack and Leon had gone beach-combing prior to leaving on the Mariner – they'd found some crustaceans – a mud crab, a stone crab, a clawed lobster and two species of mud shrimp, which Leon had identified as harpactocarcinus mississipiensis, menippe jacksonensis, oncopareia cookei and two species of callianassa; all of which had been brought aboard the ship and placed in observation tanks in the hold – to avoid the portal burning out from overuse, this would be the policy for smaller marine species in the future.

Before the Mariner had left the bay, they had also found two species of prehistoric conger eels, which had been identified as congeris brevior (the species with light black spots) and conger vetustus (the species with black stripes) respectively. The eels had been quite aggressive, necessitating them to use the chum as bait. Leon now needed Jack's help in figuring out a plan for easing the process of finding the larger stuff, and Jack was so far nowhere to be found...until he finally found Jack inside the area where the crustaceans were being kept.

Upon entry, Leon sighed as he saw Jack dangling a fish into one of the crab tanks, muttering under his breath, "Wait for it, wait for it…" Suddenly, one of the crabs grabbed the fish and pulled it away. Watching this, Jack chuckled, "Cool." Leon sighed again, displeased with Jack's flippancy. "Jack, can we talk about a game plan? We need to get as much as possible before we have to pick up Drew and your sister – and planning helps me stop thinking about what might happen."

Jack turned to Leon and smirked. "Oh ye of little faith – I already came up with something. What we are going to use, my dear Leon, is this." He gestured to a table where a large, underwater loudspeaker was positioned. Smiling, he continued, "I asked the crew to record animal vocalizations – we isolated the Basilosaurus vocalizations and we're going to play them back using the speaker. They'll think it's one of them and come towards the boat." Leon nodded, "They used this to attract whales…though admittedly with mixed results, if I recall correctly." Jack shrugged, "Mixed schmixed. It's worked enough times to be useful."

Leon nodded his head. "True," he admitted, "Well we'd best not waste time - let's get the loudspeaker into position and start playing the recordings."

. . . . .

Back at the park, whilst the nautiloids, eels, aquatic rodents, chevrotain-like ungulates, and primitive entelodonts were certainly interesting, it was the brontotheres – Megacerops kuwagatarhinus, according to Khatin – that had commanded everyone's attention. The size of elephants, the titanic creatures were roaming around the holding pens – even the keepers transferring the smaller animals couldn't help but glance at the giants. At the sight of the giant beasts, Horace muttered under her breath, "Wow – our first brontotheres. The first ever giant mammals. If only Cass was here to see this." Tina, who was standing next to him turned to him and said, "Well, you can't exactly get out of. Speaking of her…Horace – can we talk about you and my sister?"

Horace gave her a curious look. "What do you mean?"

Rolling her eyes, Tina sighed. "What's going on between you? I saw it during the Shutdown – how you interacted with each other and was just wondering…"

Horace's eyes widened at the realization of what she meant and sighed. "I honestly don't know yet," he admitted. He then raised his hands as if to pre-emptively placate Tina. "I know what that sounds like – and I know you're expecting an answer, but I honestly don't know. Why do you want to know?" At this, Tina's tone became icy. "Well regardless of how you feel about her, you'd best be veeery careful – if you do anything to hurt my sister, you will regret it and fast." Horace gulped. "Yes ma'am."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back at the holding tanks, the rescued eels were proving rather difficult to remove from. "Bloody hell," Laura hissed, hurriedly drawing her right hand away from an eel that had snapped at her, "Damn thing almost bit my hand off." Mia sighed. "Just like modern ones," she stated.

John sighed as well, shaking his head side to side. "We'd best get a bucket of chum ready," he said. "Hopefully we can use that to lure them to a holding tank." As he said this, he looked carefully towards the area where the portal was designed to materialize, praying like mad that nothing else would arrive – the eels were trouble enough. "Irksome little bastards," he grunted to himself under his breath, "Aren't they?"

. . . . .

Back in the Eocene, the Ancient Mariner sailed through the water, playing the Basilosaurus calls. So far, no basilosaurus had shown up – in fact, not much had. However, Leon, Jack, and the Ancient Mariner crew remained optimistic – the ocean was a big place, after all.

"Let's just keep going everyone," said Jack as he and the others kept their eyes peeled for signs of local ocean animals to rescue. "We'll find something soon, I'm sure." "Your optimism is much appreciated," said Stavros, nodding as he adjusted his cap, "I can only hope that it will soon be rewarded."

Squinting, Leon said, "I think I see something." At this, Stavros chuckled. "Well, what do you know?" and Jack chuckled. "Alright everyone, let's see what Leon's found." Gathering around where Leon was positioned, the entire group looked down where he was pointing in time to see a small flotilla of prehistoric swordfish all lazily floating about as if in search of prey. "Judging by the time period and location," Jack said, "I'd say those are cylindracanthus rectus."

"Didn't think swordfish travelled in groups," Kira noted, "They're usually solitary, if I recall correctly".

"They occasionally travel in very loose aggregations," Leon said, pointing at the cylindracanthus. "Look there. See how there's about several metres or so between each individual? That's exactly how swordfish position themselves in aggregations."

"Makes sense – I'm no aquatics expert," Jack said before looking towards Stavros and the rest of the crew. "Let's throw down some chum by the stern portal," he said. "Should keep them occupied."

"You heard acting kapetanio," said Stavros. "It's time for the old chum bucket manoeuvre."

And so, the rest of the Ancient Mariner crew emptied out a bucket of chum nearby the stern portal. As hoped, the entire flotilla of cylindracanthus eagerly made their way over to where the food had been dropped, and were soon sent through the portal. Jack smiled, flashing a thumbs up to Stavros and the other Ancient Mariner crewmen in the process. "Good job everyone," he stated. "That may not be the main target, but, hey, a prehistoric swordfish…" Suddenly, movement in the water attracted the crew's attention again.

A group of giant snakes, each about fifteen feet long, were swimming through the water. They were bluish grey in colouration and their skin looked almost loose. Squinting, Jack said, "They look like giant file snakes." Leon nodded in agreement. "Pterosphenus," he stated. "A giant marine snake. It's closely related to the file snakes. They may have been attracted by the smell of the chum we just threw down." At the sound of all this, Jack chuckled. "Let's throw down some more chum – this could be exciting."

With a nod of Stavros's head, another bucket of chum was brought up from below deck and emptied out into the water near where the snakes were heading. Hissing in seeming glee, all nine of the mighty prehistoric sea snakes slithered their way through the water to get a bite out of the free food. And before long, they were all eagerly chowing down on the chum. Jack smiled. "This will be like shooting fish in a barrel," he said as he reached into his supply bag for a portal grenade.

"Captain," yelled the lookout as he pointed in the direction that the pterosphenus had come from. "It looks like we've got some more guests!"

All eyes turned to where the lookout was pointing. A group of grayish black skinned great-white-sized sharks moved through the water, attracted by the smell of the chum. The pterosphenus briefly hissed at these new arrivals, but mostly ignored them as the sharks peacefully joined them in feeding on the chum. "Hard to tell – most sharks are only known from their teeth," said Leon. "My best guess is that those are a species of otodus, possibly the auriculatus species." Jack smiled and grabbed a portal grenade. "Two for the price of one," he chuckled before throwing it into the chum pile. No sooner had the portal landed amongst the heartily feasting snakes and sharks when Jack activated it, the resulting vortex of light swallowing up the predators and sending them back to the park.

Once all the snakes and sharks had been sent through (and the grenade had been retrieved), Jack rubbed his hands together and said, "Right, day's a-burnin', so let's head out a bit further and see if we can find some Basilosaurus… wait, what's that?" Leon turned to see a large object that had been detected on the radar – a large creature, moving sinuously through the water. His eyebrow raised, he took a closer look. "From the size, the only thing it could be is a Basilosaurus," he stated quietly, "But the movement...it doesn't seem right."

Sighing, Jack said, "Let's turn on the starboard camera; we should be able to see what's going on that way." Stavros nodded and walked over to the control board and activated the starboard camera. When the camera activated, both rescue team members stared open-mouthed at the screen. "Okay", Jack said, "I don't think any of us were expecting that."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back on the land mass, Drew and Alice had reached a large water hole – however, they weren't the only ones there.

At the leftmost side of the lake was a small herd of vaguely tapir-like beasts with a thin layer of sandy tan coloured fur, drinking next to a small crash of hippo sized brontotheres, with larger horns in the males, were browsing upon some bushes, whilst two herds of small early equines, one of them with okapi-coloured fur and the other with white-spotted brownish orange fur with white spots, were trotting around the area alongside a herd of smaller animals that looked like small ponies with hornless rhino-like faces. Nearby browsed two herds of protoceratids, one of the species being about the same size and colour as modern pronghorns while the other was slightly smaller and brown-furred.

However, the strangest creatures at the lake were a small group of creatures that looked like a cross between a rhino and a hippo, who were currently lazily bobbing about in the centre of the lake. "I read about all these in the info-packs," said Alice, "The tapir-like beasts are colodon, the brontotheres are duchesneodus, the okapi patterned equines are haplohippus, the brownish orange ones are mesohippus, the hyracodonts are hyracodon, the creatures currently swimming in the lake are metamynodon, the larger protoceratids are poabromylus, and the smaller protoceratids are pseudoprotoceras."

The sound of a low bellowing from a nearby tree attracted Drew and Alice's attention in time to see a small group of animals gathered in the branches of a nearby tree. Each of them was about the size of a large dog, with vaguely feline bodies and heads that looked like a cross between a pig and a camel. At the moment, the entire group were resting and gazing curiously at the new arrivals. Trying her best not to alarm them, Alice slowly pointed at them. "As for those," she whispered to Drew. "I think they're agriochoerus, an early tylopod with an arboreal lifestyle."

Drew nodded his head. Already he had a plan of action in mind. "You can handle the tree-camels," he whispered, cautiously starting to creep out from the space between the trees, "I have an idea how I can take care of the rest - I'll need to borrow your audio player. Promise I'll give it back." Alice nodded and handed him both her audio player and the remote. "Something tells me you'll need that," she grunted curtly. "Thank you," Drew replied.

With the plan in place, the duo got to work, with Alice using offerings of fresh leaves from the park kitchens to coax the agriochoerus down from their tree, while Drew attached the megaphone to Alice's audio player and hid it within the foliage behind him, before carefully sneaking into position. Fortunately, all the animals positioned at the water hole were all starting to converge into one position. With this serendipitous opportunity, Drew gritted his teeth as he lifted the audio player's remote, "This had better work," he whispered to himself before pressing the button.

One second later, the sound of a snarling pack of wolves burst from the foliage within the forest, startling all the animals at the watering hole. Acting quickly, Drew swiftly summoned the portal. The sight of this briefly caught the already startled herbivores assembled before him even more off guard and left them feeling wary, but then Drew played the wolf recording a second time, at which point the herbivores decided that they'd prefer to take their chances with the unfamiliar vortex of light. Bellowing and whinnying in alarm, the herd stampeded through the portal, back to the park. Drew smiled, "Perfect," he chuckled, as he closed the portal. "Now to give Alice back the audio played."

And do that he did, walking to Alice, who was leaning against the tree. "Took a page out of my book," she said, "Not bad."

The sound of vaguely hyena-like vocalisations, split the air from somewhere to Alice's right before she or Drew could say anything more. Alice raised her eyebrow. "That certainly doesn't sound like an herbivore," she grunted tersely. "No, it does not," Drew agreed before heading off in the direction the noise was coming from, beckoning for Alice to follow him as he did so. "Come on. Let's see if we can get it to the park as well."

A few minutes of trekking later, Alice and Drew came upon a clearing where a large pack of local carnivores were feasting upon a dead megacerops, presumably dead in a territorial fight. As the beasts continued eating, the duo carefully observed them. At first glance, they vaguely resembled coyotes, with short, sandy brown fur, grading to tan on their bellies and with tan stripes along their backs. The pack ravenously fed on the meat the dead brontothere offered – the carcass was several days old and most of it had been eaten.

A poker-faced Alice nodded as she watched – this was a creature she easily recognised. "Those are hyaenodonts," she stated. "Protohyaenodon, probably. Despite the name, they're only very distant cousins to hyenas. They're creodonts – among the first mammal apex predators and ancestors of the carnivorans we know today… well, a line of them were."

Drew smiled, his usual trademark grin back on his face. "Our first hyaenodonts," he chuckled under his breath. "Perfect." Already he could feel the beginnings of a plan cooking up in his mind...

...but then Alice suddenly picked up a nearby pebble and threw it straight towards the protohyaenodon! Drew b before the pebble lightly banged against the head of one of the adults, which promptly stiffened and snarled. The rest of the pack stopped eating and turned to look at Drew and Alice, as Drew surreptitiously directed an aghast side glance towards an unperturbed looking Alice. He then noticed the pack were all looking straight at him – and Drew promptly went pale.

At a whoop from the leader, the entire pack went rushing straight towards Drew and Alice! Mentally swearing, Drew hurriedly started digging for his portal remote, mentally cursing as he desperately tried to get hold of the all-important remote. His heart then briefly stopped when he saw the pack lunging right at him and Alice...

...before the portal suddenly burst into life between them in time for the pack, unable to change direction, to come charging through. As all this happened, Drew directed a withering glare towards Alice. Once the pack had gone through and Alice had closed it, she turned around to direct a firm look at Drew. "Well then, that was swell, wasn't it?"

Drew narrowed his eyes. "Swell?" He pointed at the brontothere carcass, "You call nearly getting us, but mainly me, eaten swell?"

Alice shrugged. "Yeah, Mr. Hypocrite. I do. Last I checked, Adrian and your uptight ex are the only members of the team who don't pull off a reckless stunt for every other rescue." She chuckled, "And I remember you complimenting me about that back in Pleistocene Florida."

Drew's eyes narrowed further. "That was different! Ernesto was just one jaguar and this was an entire pack of protohyaenodon! And these guys were practically right on top of us! What if neither of us had been able to summon the portal in time?"

"But we did summon it in time," Alice stated dismissively, before folding her arms across her chest. "Ergo, everything's fine and dandy." Drew snarled, "What is your deal today?! Couldn't you have at least waited?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Would have taken too long." She turned around. "Come on," she then spat. "That's probably all the land animals we're gonna find. Let's head back to the beach and see if the Mariner's back." And at that, she went rushing off.

"ALICE!" Drew yelled, but Alice was too far away. He grumbled irritably, his fists clenching. "God…and here was I thinking Leon and Jack were being bullheaded in Gogo Reef." But then he rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I might as well play along for now," he grumbled to himself. "I'm gonna have some serious words for her though." And at that, he went hurrying off after Alice.

. . . . .

At the La Pampa Plains exhibit zone, Colette was standing by the argentavis aviary, waiting patiently for Adrian to arrive for their chat. A throaty grunt caused her to look to see Hannibal looking curiously in her direction. She let a small smile come on her face at the sight. "Nice to see you too," she said under her breath.

"Sorry if I kept you waiting."

Colette looked back ahead of her in time to see Adrian slowly coming into view. "My work at the quetzalcoatlus aviary took slightly longer than I expected." Colette nodded. "Fair enough," she admitted. Adrian nodded his own head before then directing a curious gaze towards Hannibal. "Any particular reason you wanted us to meet here?"

"Not really," Colette responded, before looking at the giant birds, with a smile, "But let's just say that we all enjoy company at times."

"I suppose I can't argue with you there," Adrian said, before turning to Collete, "However, you said there was something you wanted to discuss something with me. Care to tell me what?"

Colette nodded her head, before sighing "You may have already guessed this… but it's about me and Alice." Adrian nodded, "I've heard Alice's account of what happened… but I'm open to hearing your side of the story."

Colette sighed. "Look, I'll admit, I'm not the most sociable of people, and maybe I got off on the wrong foot with Alice by waiting so long. And I'm not trying to force her to like me – but with how I've come to… care very deeply about Jack, I'd like for us to have some kind of relationship." She then hung her head sheepishly. "I can see why – Jack hasn't got a very good history with girls, apparently. I'd like to prove to Alice that I'm not who she seems to think I am. And, since we've all been working together for the last sixteen months, I'm sure we should have moved beyond this shit by now."

Adrian sighed, and said, "To be completely honest, I've found that Jack doesn't like talking about his personal history – I mean, he hasn't disclosed anything to you..." However, he smiled reassuringly, "But you don't have to prove that you care about him to me."

"That's reassuring to hear," Colette said, smiling slightly, "But how can I get Alice to understand that? I know you know her quite well…"

"I think I have an idea…," Adrian began, "However, before I can say anything else – does Jack know about what went down?" To this, Collete said, "He suspects that something might have happened, but I haven't really told him anything yet – and I don't think Alice did either."

Adrian nodded his head. "Then I suggest you and the Denhams have a meeting and talk things out from there," he suggested. "I'd recommend you have Yolanda around to mediate - she's friends with all three of you and if I'm available, I'll help as well."

A sudden grunt from Hannibal caused Colette to look towards him to see that Adrian's words seemed to have made sense to him. Collete sighed, "Worth a shot," she admitted before smiling slightly, "I can see why Drew and the bunny hugger like you – you're ."

Adrian chuckled, "Leon's more of a friend to Drew than I am…", before he smiled gratefully to Collete, "But I appreciate the compliment. Thanks."

"De rien," Colette responded, nodding before checking her watch. "And on that note, I think we should get back to business." "Yeah," Adrian agreed. And at that, the two parted ways, both relieved that they'd come up with a solution.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back in the Tethys Sea, Jack, Leon and the Ancient Mariner crew stared in shock at a huge, greyish-blue coloured marine reptile, long and serpentine, with a crocodile-like head and two curved horns and two small wing-like back fins. As it swam closer to the starboard camera, they could make out more details – it had heavily webbed flippers with barely visible claws, with the back flippers being ridiculously small, and a long tail with a single vertical fluke at the end. As Jack and Leon watched the huge marine reptile, Jack said, his voice tinged with awe, "Is that… a dragon?"

At Jack's statement, Leon gave Jack an almost incredulous look. "Of course, it's not a dragon!", he snarled. "There's no such thing as dragons!"

Jack rolled his eyes, and then directed a mock-patronising glare at Leon, "Need I remind you I was nearly strangled to death by a yeti, Leon? Maybe we should be putting Mr. Sceptic back in his box. So, anyway, what are we going to do about the dragon?"

Leon suddenly snapped. "Don't say that!", he said, irritatedly. Faux-confused, Jack said, "Say what?"

Rolling his eyes, Leon sighed, "That!", to which Jack said, mock-confused, "What?" Leon replied with "That! The D-word. Don't say it." Jack smiled and said, mock-confused, "Why not?" Leon gave him a flabbergasted look "Because it's ridiculous!" At this, Jack smiled, rolled his eyes and said, "All right. So, anyway, what's the plan for the dragon?" He emphasised the last word and gave a toothy smirk at Leon, who rolled his eyes.

Stavros fondly chuckled, "Can I say I'm surprised I missed this?". Rolling his eyes, Nagayoshi said, "Whatever it is, it's huge – must be fifty, sixty feet. If we want a closer look at this thing back at the park, we need to work out a way to get it through the portal." Jack sighed – Khatin would probably be able to know what it was.

After Jack sent a message to Nikolai, warning him of a large carnivore 'he really needed to see to believe', he sighed again. "Drop one of the sharks." Nagayoshi nodded, drew out a remote control and pressed a button. With a mechanical groan, a large crane with a dead shark dangling from the hook extended above the water before letting the carcass fall into the ocean with a loud splash.

Jack snorted. This was the power of being owned by the eighth richest man on Earth. Theodore had, secretly, entered an agreement with the Florida government that the dead bodies of large sea animals, such as sharks, manatees and dolphins, mostly beached, be sent to the park to keep the larger sea animals fed.

This shark, a fifteen-foot great white, had been washed up on a beach and had been transported to the park, kept as bait for any larger marine predators the team might encounter. The giant marine reptile swam towards the sudden shark, hungry – which enabled Jack to drop a portal grenade, at which point both shark and reptile were consumed by the portal. The portal grenade floated back to the surface as several of the crew members lowered fishing nets into the water to retrieve it. "Another new discovery," he stated. "Wonder what Khatin will think of this."

Jack's thoughts were interrupted by Leon. "I just got a message from Drew," he stated. He then winced and directed a grimace towards Jack. "And he doesn't sound happy." Jack rolled his eyes. "I can already guess why," he grumbled.

. . . . .

About 30 minutes later, the Ancient Mariner had picked up Drew and Alice and returned to the sea. At the moment, no animals had yet been sighted and with Alice at the starboard edge of the ship and looking for animals, he could try to discuss her behaviour with Leon and Jack. Surreptitiously gesturing for the two to join him by the port side edge, the trio met up; at which point Drew began to explain what had happened back on the mainland.

"So she's started taking a few pages out of your book huh?" Jack said, nodding his head in slight approval. "I'd have thought you'd be impressed. I mean, from what she told me, you seemed to like it in Pleistocene Florida."

Drew sighed irritably. 'First she brings that up, now her brother', he thought ruefully to himself before glowering at Jack. "That was the old me – I'm trying to be a bit less reckless lately. Learned my lesson in the Shutdown. But the simple fact is she's been taking risks – and telling me what to do, which I don't like."

"In other words, she's been acting like a pain in the butt?" Jack asked bluntly.

Drew sighed irritably. "Yes. Jack," he grunted. "She has."

Leon sighed. "Don't say we didn't try to warn you."

Drew groaned. "I'll freely admit, I probably shouldn't have dismissed your warnings about her back in my office," he grudgingly stated before placing his hands on Leon and Jack's shoulders. "But right now, the point is, she's starting to get very problematic. It's not looking good when I'm the voice of reason. And right now, I'd prefer not to find out how much worse this situation could get… for reasons you two should understand."

Leon and Jack both winced. "You're certainly not wrong there," Leon grumbled.

"Oof, low blow there fearless leader," Jack hissed bitterly before shaking his head side to side. "That being said though, point taken."

"Agreed," said Leon before he looked back to Drew. "For now, let's just focus on finishing the mission and leave all this until we've gotten back to the park."

"I can work with that," said Drew. "But let's just hope that Alice doesn't cause too much trouble…"

Almost serendipitously, Stavros came running up to them and said, "We have found some new animals, kapetiano… whales, we think." The whole team gathered around where Stavros was standing in time to see a pod of early whales with greyish skin. Whilst they were clearly a type of basilosaurid, at thirty feet long, they weren't quite big enough to be basilosaurus. "Judging by the length," Leon stated. "I'm guessing these are cynthiacetus."

Jack whistled, and then looked cheekily at Drew. "Boy, your ex'd like that," he chortled. Drew rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up," he teasingly grumbled, before looking to Leon. "Leon," he stated authoritatively. "You and Alice stay here on the boat with Stavros and the crew. Jack and I will go down and see if we can lure the cynthiacetus to within range of the stern portal with our sonic emitters. And do try to keep Alice on her best behaviour while we're gone." As he said this, he was unaware of how Alice, who had managed to overhear this, was now glaring witheringly at him. Leon noticed this, and gulped nervously, but nodded his head in acknowledgment of what Drew had said, not wishing to come across as disobedient. "I'll see what I can do," he said. "That's all I need to hear," said Drew. He looked to Jack. "Let's get suited up. We don't want to lose our chance to rescue those whales."

Ten minutes later, Jack and Drew dove into the ocean, clad in their diving gear and armed with a sonic emitter each. As they swam towards the cynthiacetus, the two nearest to them, their attention briefly attracted, turned to look at them...only to then ignore them. Nodding his head, Drew drew out his sonic emitter and got it ready. "Let's see if we can get their trust," he said. Jack nodded, and promptly got his own sonic emitter ready. "Ready when you are."

Aboard the boat, Leon and the Ancient Mariner crew watched as the cynthiacetus pod was gradually drawn closer and closer towards the stern portal's location via Jack and Drew's work in attracting their attention with the sonic emitters. "So far so good," Stavros said.

Leon nodded in agreement as he to intently observed Drew and Jack's efforts in enticing the early whales over to an ideal position for getting sent through the portal. So far things were going well – and Alice hadn't done anything to potentially screw things up or similarly make life difficult...

...his eyes widened. 'Shit', he thought to himself. In the excitement that had come from watching Drew and Jack working to rescue the cynthiacetus, he'd forgotten to keep watch over Alice. He hurriedly looked in the direction of where she had been and his heart sank when he saw that she wasn't there. "Crap, crap, crap," he muttered under his breath. "Where could she be?" He then raised his eyebrow in confusion when he caught sight of a seemingly minor detail about the table where the chum buckets were positioned. "Odd," he whispered under his breath. "I could have sworn there were three buckets of chum left on that table when Alice and Drew first got back aboard the ship, not two..."

"Miss Denham," said the voice of Lumpy, the ship's galley officer. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Eyes widening, Leon looked to where Lumpy had been looking and saw a stony-faced Alice standing right above the stern portal, holding the bucket of chum. Realising what she was about to do, he hurriedly ran towards her. "Alice! Don't you dare!"

Back beneath the ocean, Jack and Drew were seconds away from getting the cynthiacetus into ideal position when they suddenly saw a bucketload of chum crash into the water and right amongst the cynthiacetus pod! Drew and Jack had barely any time to react before the early whales noticed the chum and promptly went into a frenzy! Mentally swearing, Drew began to let off more bursts of noise from his sonic emitter, trying desperately to get the whales' focus, but they were now distracted.

Jack looked nervously to Drew, "What should we do now fearless leader?" Drew grumbled, weighing his options up...right up until a cynthiacetus's tail almost hit him in the face. Growling angrily, he drew out his communicator. "Leon," he snarled. "Throw down a portal grenade and send the cynthiacetus to the park that way. Jack and I are coming back up."

"Will do," Leon responded from the other end. "And for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I tried to stop Alice when I saw her preparing to empty out the chum bucket. I honestly did."

"It's alright Leon," Drew stated. "You're not in trouble. But dear God, Alice is DEFINITELY going to be once Jack and I get back up there."

Ten minutes later, Jack and Drew were back aboard the Ancient Mariner and the entire cynthiacetus pod had been sent to the park via Leon's dropped portal grenade. And at that moment, Leon was looking sheepishly towards Drew and Jack, who were giving withering glares to a stony-faced Alice, who had her arms folded across her chest, before Drew snarled, "What was that all about?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "What was what all about?"

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about," Drew growled, "Seriously Alice, we had this under control and you almost got us both eaten."

Alice lifted her hand dismissively. "You were taking too long," she stated curtly.

"You seem to really like using that excuse," Drew hissed spitefully.

"Doesn't make it any less true," Alice hissed before pointing her finger accusingly at Drew. "You should be grateful for my help – we'll have a lot more time to find basilosaurus. You know, our target."

"Yeah, and in the process, I've nearly gotten trampled by a megacerops, nearly ripped to shreds by a protohyaenodon, and gotten my face bashed in by the tail of a cynthiacetus!" Drew pointed an accusatory finger at Alice, "Does more time matter if one of us gets eaten?"

"I gotta agree with Drew, Ally," said Jack. "I understand you're not in the best of moods right now; but you're letting it interfere with the mission – and you're putting us all in danger."

Alice directed her glare towards her brother. "Oh, it's alright when you and Drew do it, but not me? Is that right, Mister Hypocrite?"

Jack gritted his teeth, clearly quite annoyed at how unreasonable his sister was currently acting. "The times I've done that are different, Ally. When I do it, I'm usually the only one at risk of actually getting hurt..."

"Oh, and that's supposed to make me feel better?" Alice hissed.

Jack clenched his hands into fists, now even more annoyed than before. At this point, Leon stepped in, eager to try to defuse the situation. "Alice, please," he said. "Try to be reasonable here..."

Alice promptly snapped her head towards him. "Oh, so now I'm being unreasonable?" She pointed at Drew. "Ain't that rich considering how you and Jack suffered the most from when this crazy-head punished you two for what happened at Gogo Reef?"

Leon took a deep breath, trying desperately to keep his temper, "That is beside the point Alice." "I agree," said Drew. "And for the record, I really don't appreciate you calling me crazy-head." At this, Alice rolled her eyes and glared stonily at Drew again. "Yeah, that was the point", to which Drew snarled and opened his mouth to speak...

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

In a flash, all four rescue team members turned to see an aggrieved Stavros standing nearby alongside a similarly miffed looking Kira. "It's been months now you last took my ship on a mission," Stavros spat, "And that mission ended with an argument that almost got somebody killed. And, believe me, I'm not in the mood for a repeat."

Leon and Jack gulped, and slowly stepped away, whilst Drew winced and hung his head awkwardly. Alice, however, was angrily glaring at him "This is between me and my teammates," she hissed before pointing her finger at Stavros. "Stay out of this!" At this, Stavros narrowed his eyes. "I am the captain of this ship," he stated firmly, but calmly, "i will make this my business if I have to"

Suddenly, he stepped forward until he was only inches away from Alice. At this point, Alice was reminded by how much Stavros was taller than her, which caused her to go pale. The Mariner captain pointed his finger accusingly at her. "And I don't care whatever shit you're pissed off about, but I doubt it's worth risking getting anyone hurt or killed." At that last statement, he narrowed his eyes, "Yes, you heard me, Miss Denham. Killed. Is that what you want to happen?"

At this point, Alice gulped and then hung her head. "No," she managed to say weakly. "It isn't." Leon and Jack couldn't help but direct sympathetic looks in her direction, whilst Drew sighed in relief, before directing a thankful look at Stavros and Kira. After all, whilst it hadn't been very gentle, it had needed to be said.

Nodding, Stavros placed his left hand firmly on Alice's right shoulder. "Then do us all a favour," he growled. "And stop acting like it is what you want." He then looked pointedly at Drew, Leon, and Jack. "All of you," he hissed.

The three rescue team boys gulped at this – Stavros really didn't like drama unfolding on his ship.

"Got it."

"Understood."

"Will do."

Stavros maintained his glare for two more minutes, before nodding and looked to Kira, who turned to Drew and said, "There was something else we thought you should know."

Drew immediately perked up. "We're listening."

Jack chuckled. "That's our fearless leader for ya," he whispered to Leon, who rolled his eyes in half annoyance and half amusement. Alice, meanwhile, hung her head, still too chastened to dare try to respond. Kira raised his eyebrow at Drew's sudden change in demeanour, but nevertheless continued. "We've caught sight of another pod of early whales."

"Are they basilosaurus?" Drew asked. "No," said Kira. "They were smaller – about twenty feet, give or take."

Leon nodded his head. "In that case," he then said before looking straight at Drew. "Most likely zygorhiza."

Drew nodded his head. "Well, any animal's worth saving." He looked back to Kira. "Where did you see them?"

Kira gestured towards the port side of the ship. "They were a good couple yards to port," he said. "And they were heading away from us."

Drew looked to Stavros, who nodded his head. "We're willing to set a course for the zygorhiza if you think you're up to the task. Are you confident that you and your team will be able to bring them back without getting anyone killed?"

Drew, Leon, and Jack looked expectantly at Alice, who nodded weakly. Drew looked back to Stavros. "I think so." Stavros raised his eyebrow. "Well, that better mean yes," he said curtly before looking to Kira and the rest of the crew. "Set a course for where the whales are heading!"

"You heard the captain," said Kira. "Full steam to the whales!"

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back at the park, Khatin looked curiously at the gigantic marine reptile, which he'd determined to be a male, swimming leisurely in the holding tank. "A giant choristodere – interesting," Khatin stated as he observed the mighty creature. He nodded his head, and then sighed. "It seems Bernie Evans was right about something." He rolled his eyes at the other man's name – a paleontologist whose "bounded speculation" approach on his blog Prehistoric Soup had made him an Internet celebrity in paleo-circles.

On one of his speculative-zoology posts, he had speculated the possibility that choristoderes had evolved oceangoing forms, similar to the thalattosaurians and mosasaurs – and further elaborated that if the whales had not evolved, these may have become the dominant marine vertebrates (and implicitly argued for a re-interpretation of possibly reworked plesiosaur fossils, pointing out the high degrees of convergence in the osteology of large marine tetrapods – however, he had pointed out that this particular idea was especially speculative… their existence was, if plausible, purely hypothetical).

Khatin had initially scoffed, but seeing the giant creature moving sinuously through the water, he had to admit himself wrong. And it had been founded in, it transpired, choristodere biology – the champsosaurus were almost fully aquatic, with the males being completely tied to the water and the females only coming to land to lay their eggs, which they would then guard for the incubation period. It wasn't hard to imagine the evolution of viviparity being far off – perhaps these giant choristoderes were viviparous. It was certainly hard to imagine such a giant creature being able to support its own weight out of water.

"Even a broken clock is right twice a day," Khatin remarked ruefully.

Several of his underling researchers, meanwhile, stared rapturously at the creature. "Man, what a beauty," said one of the other researchers. "It looks so dragon-like," said another. "I can only imagine what people in medieval times would have thought if they'd seen this," said a third.

Meanwhile, even as he worked to help the other keepers present at the holding tanks round up the newly arrived cynthiacetus, John couldn't help occasionally take a glance towards the giant marine reptile. "Wonder what the boss would think of this creature," he whispered to himself before shaking his head, reasoning that Nikolai would probably have plenty of time to react to this new discovery once he was finished at the woolly mammoths, particularly since he'd authorized the creature's presence.

And at that, he returned his attention to the cynthiacetus, just in time to notice that one of the calves was at risk of getting separated from the rest of the pod. Picking up a nearby squeegee, he proceeded to gently tap the calf and coax it back into the midst of the pod. "No need to be afraid now little one," he said, "Things may look scary right now, but this place is your new home. And once you've had time to settle, I'm sure you'll love it here."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, the team had been following the Zygorhiza for several hours, long enough for tmpers to calm down. The speaker had been put back on the boat – the consensus had been that the Basilosaurus could wait; finding out where the Zygorhiza were going was more of a priority. They had followed the Zygorhiza from the open sea to the coral that lined the coast.

Throughout the journey they had noticed that the clouds were getting thicker and the wind was getting faster. Leon looked at the sky and said, "Looks like a storm's on its way." Drew nodded, already getting a sense of déjà vu. "Which means we have to get this done fast." However, as they soon discovered, they had reached a dead end; the Zygorhiza had swam through the coral to a large, shallow bay on the other side.

Stavros sighed, "We've hit a problem, kapetanio – the Mariner can't get through these corals. You want to go any further, you'll have to swim there yourselves." Drew turned to Alice and said, "Alice, you go down with me – I want to be able to keep an eye on you. Jack, Leon, stay on the Mariner and radio us in case anything turns up." Alice nodded, turned on her heel and headed to get her diving suit.

A few minutes later, Alice and Drew dove into the water. Like they had done in previous diving sessions together, they took a cattle prod with them, in case the Zygorhiza got too close for comfort. They navigated the coral slowly; it would be far too easy to get themselves seriously injured if they weren't cautious. Eventually, they entered the bay. What they saw amazed them.

Eventually, they entered the bay. What they saw amazed them.

At least thirty Zygorhiza, from large adults to tiny calves, were swimming in this oasis. They could get a look at the Zygorhiza in better detail. The adults were dark grey in colouration, albeit to a lesser degree compared to the almost black cynthiacetus, fading to white on the underbelly, whilst the calves were much lighter coloured. They were far less serpentine than the Basilosaurus, looking more like a modern whale or dolphin; however, they lacked a dolphin's prominent melon. Two, tiny, useless-looking hind flippers jutted out at the base of the tail. Drew and Alice smiled; they were actually rather cute.

Suddenly, the nearest adult Zygorhiza began to convulse a couple of times, before paddling lowly to the surface and hanging motionless as a small cloud of red exited its body, followed by a tiny grey tail. Its body suddenly convulsed again, releasing a plume of blood and a small Zygorhiza. The baby swam, quickly, to the surface, encouraged by its mother, to take its first breath.

Drew and Alice realized what this was; it was a birthing ground. A nursery where Zygorhiza pods could come and raise their young. Which meant it was time to get this lot through the portal. Approaching the Zygorhiza, Drew and Alice found that they had a modern dolphin's manic curiosity. They were swimming close, but keeping their distance, some even allowing themselves to be petted, curious at these new creatures.

Suddenly, Leon's voice came up from the communicator, "Guys, the storm's getting pretty intense. Get this over with as quickly as you can." Drew answered, "We're in a bay; we're sheltered and we have enough air to last us a couple of hours. Moor up along the coast and we'll contact you when we're done." Leon sighed. "I should probably also mention that the storm's not the only thing you'll need to worry about right now…" Suddenly, a long, low, mournful-sounding call echoed through the water. The Zygorhiza went rigid and arranged themselves in a defensive circle; Drew and Alice looked at each other.

Turning around, Drew and Alice saw several Basilosaurus, resembling their smaller relatives in colour, ranging from a thirty-foot adolescent to fifty- and sixty-foot adults, a shiver of large, thirty-foot sharks that looked vaguely like a sleeker version of the otodus that Leon and Jack had described rescuing while they'd been on the land mass, and several long, serpentine, and vaguely draconic looking marine reptiles, the largest being roughly sixty feet long, waiting patiently by the coral that barred the bay; the last of these three species were swiftly identified as the same huge marine reptile that Jack and Leon had told them about (and argued over whether it was correct to call it a "dragon"). And soon, as the storm caused the water level to start noticeably rising, Alice's eyes widened as she realized a crucial detail. "That's why they're here," she stated. "The Zygorhiza birthing ground. They've come all this way to feed on the baby Zygorhiza. Like the Mariner, they couldn't navigate the coral; however, when the sea rises in the storm, they'll be able to get in." She took a deep breath, and then looked firmly at Drew. "And if that happens, it'll be a massacre."

. . . . .

Nikolai watched intently, his eyes narrowed as he observed the gathering going on ahead of him in the main Ice Age Mount herbivore paddock. He and Linda were currently there for a very important task; the first effort at getting Martha and Ellie properly integrated with the larger woolly mammoth herd. At that very moment, the herd of woolly mammoths were gathered in the centre of the paddock with the elderly matriarch at the head while Martha and Ellie stood before the matriarch in a slightly submissive fashion as if trying to make themselves look nonthreatening. Nikolai nodded as this happened – it was very important for the sisters to make themselves look as nonthreatening as possible.

In the month after the mammoth mission, Ellie and Martha had mostly kept to themselves – rarely interacting with the larger herd, who mostly returned the sentiment. But now, with both sisters trying to integrate into the herd, any sign of them being a threat could set their chances of success back by weeks at best.

"Just stay calm and keep watching," Linda whispered as she, Nikolai, and a couple other vets, guards, and keepers stood by keeping watch on the proceedings. "And remember," she said. "We are to stay quiet – we only intervene when things start getting violent. We don't want to screw this up." She looked meaningfully at Nikolai. "And this especially applies to you Nikolai. I know that Martha's happiness means a lot to you, but for her sake, try to keep your emotions in check the way you usually do." Nikolai nodded his head in acknowledgement, understanding how important it was.

And the staff weren't the only ones – the other herbivores were tensely watching the proceedings. After all, if elephants were any indication, the integration could turn violent. The rest of the herbivores knew that (even the saiga and bison had millennia-old instincts) and knew to keep their distance. And, just to be sure, the staff working at Ice Age Mount had made sure to allow for unrestricted access to the barns.

The sound of a low elephantine rumbling caused Nikolai to direct his attention back to the mammoths to see Martha slowly extending her trunk towards the matriarch, with Ellie tentatively following – an offer of acceptance. All the staff present, including Nikolai and Linda, went rigid, scarcely daring to breathe. This was a key moment – it all depended how the matriarch responded. And for what felt like an eternity, every living creature in the vicinity seemed to be looking to the matriarch in anticipation of her final decision. One could cut the tension with a knife as the period of waiting unfolded...

Then the matriarch placed her trunk on Martha and Ellie's trunks and gently lowered them down. The message was clear. For now, Martha and Ellie would be tolerated, but not accepted yet. Most of the adults didn't seem to care of the matriarch's decision while the female calf Lyuba and her adolescent male companion Mamut trumpeted playfully. Martha grunted and then turned around to go have a drink at the lake, with Ellie following close behind her, making sure to position themselves some distance away from the larger herd, who headed to the lake, mostly ignoring them. The atmosphere in the paddock calmed almost instantly.

Nikolai sighed, equal mixes disappointed and relieved, "Someday," he said in a low voice, almost to himself, "Someday, for sure." At this, Linda nodded and looked to her colleague. "Hope still remains, Nikolai," she said. "There's going to be other attempts – and it could have been worse."

Nikolai nodded his head. "I'm still hopeful," he admitted. He looked once more to where Martha and Ellie were drinking, a warm smile of hope on his face. "And at the very least, they'll have each other for company while we're all waiting. Not to mention me."

David Doody pointed to the left side of the paddock, his eyes widened in equal mixtures surprise and awe. "I don't think that will be the only company they'll have, boss," he said as he did so.

Curious, Nikolai, Linda, and the rest of the assembled staff looked where the private was pointing in time to see Achilles the coelodonta slowly and calmly making his way over towards where Martha and Ellie were drinking, coming to a stop directly next to Martha. At this, Martha let out a low grunt, and briefly paused her drinking to place her trunk against the woolly rhino's back before resuming drinking. Ellie, meanwhile, seeing that her sister wasn't reacting negatively to the presence of Achilles, simply continued drinking without interruption.

Nikolai couldn't help but stare with intrigue – it was rather interesting to see the strange companionship starting to form between Martha and Achilles. THE coelodonta had mostly kept away from the mammoth herd – tolerating them, but keeping their distance. However, here, it seemed that another strange friendship in the history of Prehistoric Park was brewing. At the sight, Linda nodded her head and looked to Nikolai, a seeming look of approval on her face. "Certainly wouldn't be the first time?" Nikolai nodded his head. "There are worse animals she could befriend," he admitted.

The sound of additional rhino vocalizations attracted the assembled staff members' attention to notice that the female coleodonta and their calves had come to drink as well, some distance away from Achillies. The elasmotherium crash, in contrast, only bothered to take a brief glance in the direction of the moving coelodonta before snorting in disinterest and resuming either browsing on nearby bushes or sharpening their horns against nearby rocks or trees.

That too made Achilles' gesture of companionship unusual. Coleodonta, it turned out, worked a little like white rhinos – males tended to stay solitary, whilst females formed small, loosely associated groups. The elasmotherium, conversely, were more solitary – tolerating each other, but only interacting rarely.

Almost serendibitously, Nikolai soon heard a low bellowing from both George and Rataxes going off within the paddock's rear forest in perfect synch. His attention caught, Nikolai looked closer towards the forest and could just make out Rataxes vigorously rubbing the tip of his horn against a tree while George inspected the makeshift punching bag that was positioned in the forest's centre for him to beat up in the event he felt the need to blow off steam. Nikolai couldn't help but privately feel relieved that neither of the two ornery bulls had come to blows – they mostly kept to themselves, which was honestly a relief. They had enough trouble.

And with that thought in mind, he took one last look at Martha, Ellie, and Achilles, noting in relief that so far, things were peaceful, before then looking back to Linda and all the other keepers, guards, and vets gathered at Ice Age Mount. "Well everyone," he said. "It seems to have started well."

. . . . .

As the water rose, due to the storm, the channel deepened, allowing the predators to swim through the gap in the coral, into the bay. Perhaps they had been here before; maybe this was an annual thing. The terrified Zygorhiza bunched closer together, attempting to protect their young from the larger predators. The predators, paying them no heed, swam, slowly, but remorselessly towards the Zygorhiza pod. Drew turned to Alice, "Get the Zygorhiza through the portal! I'll keep these guys occupied!" Alice turned to him and said, confused, "What are you going to do, poke them?!" Drew smiled, "I got an idea."

At this statement, Alice smiled and nodded, before saying, "I knew you would." And at that, she turned and swam towards the Zygorhiza. The terrified whales bunched closer together as she approached. As Alice got closer, she said, trying to sound as soothing as she could, "Don't worry, don't worry, we're here to help you. My friend is going to scare off the basilosaurus, sharks… and giant reptiles, whilst I get you somewhere safe." She lifted the portal remote, pressed a button and the portal whirred into life directly between her and the nervous pod of early whales. The Zygorhiza approached hesitantly, as if uncertain about whether or not to approach this strange new object. To some further encouragement, Alice grabbed the bait bag and emptied it through the portal. With this, plus the sight of the predators, the Zygorhiza did not need much encouragement. They swam through the portal, after the bait and into the present.

Meanwhile, as Drew swam towards the predators, he activated his in-suit communicator and said, "Leon! I need you to transfer the Basilosaurus calls you guys recorded to my handheld." Leon's voice rang in from the other end, perplexed, "Why?" Drew smirked, "A distraction." Leon mumbled over the communicator, "Okay…" After a minute or so, Leon said, "It's been transferred." Drew smiled, lifted his handheld, pressed a button and a long, low, mournful-sounding call echoed through the water. The predators all stopped in their advance and turned around, almost in unison; there was another apex predator here, but where was it? Slowly, remorselessly, they began to advance towards the source of the sound.

Once they had gotten close enough, Drew took off, swimming as fast as his legs could carry him. The predators followed him, their prey drives activated. As the predators pursued him, Drew smirked; this was just what he needed after having to deal with Alice's little tantrums. Escaping some prehistoric predator armed with nothing but his wits. And, he had to admit, he could certainly see the appeal in Leon's favourite tactic.

If he had been in any serious danger, he would not have attempted this plan. The bay was too restricted for the predators; they were too big and cumbersome to safely navigate. Their great size was turning from an advantage, into a handicap; a fact that became especially apparent when one of the sharks briefly collided with one of the massive dragon-like reptiles, causing a brief hold up as the two snapped at each other. And besides, they were all focused on the recordings indicating there was another Basilosaurus on their turf, not the strange little creature that was swimming in front of them.

Suddenly, Alice's voice rang in from the in-suit communicator, "The smaller whales have gone through; it's done." Drew smiled, "Perfect. You get back to the boat; I'll get these guys through the portal." Alice's voice was tinged with worry, "But what are you going to do?" Drew smiled, "Don't worry; I know what to do." There was a brief pause and then Alice replied, "Fine." Drew looked to see Alice swimming away in the distance, towards the boat. Once she was gone, Drew lifted the remote, activated the portal and flung the communicator in.

Unchanging their trajectory, the predators followed the communicator, still emitting the call, through the portal, moving as if a single entity – once the last one had gone through, Drew sighed in equal parts triumph and relief; the adventure was over. Alice's voice crackled over the radio, "We're sending down the shark cage to pick you up. After that, I think it's time we all went home." As she said this, the shark cage was lowered into the water, and Drew swam into it. Once he was in and he closed the door, the shark cage was lifted above water and it returned to the Mariner. Drew nodded his head with a look of approval on his face as he subsequently got out of the cage and back onto the ship's deck. "Good job," he stated. Leon smiled, "Think nothing of it, Drew." Jack pointed at Leon. "What he said fearless leader." Drew then turned to Alice, glaring, and said darkly, "Once we get back to the park, you and I are gonna have a little chat." No sooner had he said this when he activated the portal and the Mariner sailed through to the present.

. . . . .

Three hours later, everyone was well and truly at home, with all the rescued animals successfully transferred to their own brand-new homes within the freshly constructed Serpent Whale Lagoon exhibit zone. Appropriately, the exhibit zone was designed in a style thematically similar to an island, with the paddocks and enclosures for all the terrestrial animals placed within the very center of the zone while the enclosures for all the aquatic animals were positioned in a relative circle around the cluster of land based animal exhibits.

Of the land based animal exhibits, the largest of the paddocks in the exhibit zone's center was the paddock that served as the combined living space for all the larger herbivores, with the colodon and metamynodon drinking and bathing at the paddock's lake, the duchesneodus and megacerops browsing upon shrubs or sharpening their horns against provided tree stumps, the hyracodon and the two Eocene equines grazing on the grass available amongst the otherwise largely sandy paddock environment, and both protoceratid species curiously exploring their new surroundings. Several smaller paddocks surrounded the large main herbivore paddock. There was a coastal forest themed paddock to the very left serving as home for the agriochoerus colony, which were currently all either exploring their surroundings on the ground or resting within the branches at the tops of the trees. Another smaller paddock directly in front of the large main herbivore paddock that came with a small pool and several trees served as home for the eutypomys colony, which were all currently relaxing peacefully in the water of their pool. A third smaller paddock to the right served as home for the hendryomeryx, which were all currently grazing on the grass in their new home. Finally, two grassy medium paddocks behind the large main herbivore paddock served as home for the brachyhyops sounder and protohyaenodon pack, with both groups searching for food in their new homes.

Positioned at the 'front gate' of the formation was a comparatively small aquarium building separate from the main Prehistoric Park Aquarium that came with tanks containing the aturia, both callianassa species, both Eocene eel species, the cylindracanthus flotilla, the two Eocene crab species, and the oncopareia. Positioned at the right side of the 'ocean circle' were two tanks. The smaller of these two tanks was a shallow ocean themed tank that served as home for the pterosphenus, which were all currently slithering around through the waters of their new home as they explored their new surroundings. The larger and deeper of these two tanks, was divided in half by a sonar barrier and served as home for the Eocene sharks, with both otodus shivers calmly swimming along through the waters of their new home as they explored their brand new territories. Two larger tanks were positioned on the left side of the 'ocean circle', and these two tanks served as home for the cynthiacetus and zygorhiza pods, with the twenty-foot zygorhiza curiously exploring their new surroundings while the thirty-foot cynthiacetus all relaxed lazily at the top of their pool. The two largest tanks, however, were positioned at the very back of the exhibit zone and served as the rear of the 'ocean circle', with the one on the left serving as home for the basilosaurus, whilst the latter served as home for the newly discovered giant choristoderes, which Khatin had, much to Leon's chagrin and Jack's smug glee, dubbed dracosuchus poseidonis.

Whilst the new arrivals were settling in, in Drew's office, he felt that history was repeating himself. Once more, Drew found himself holding a meeting with his team in his office after returning home from an ocean-based mission.

Drew glared firmly at Alice, as Jack and Leon sat on opposite sides of him. Sighing, Drew pointedly asked, "You are aware of why you are here? Alice gritted her teeth and winced, before she sighed, "I am."

"Good," Drew responded. "Because as established, you acted incredibly recklessly multiple times almost getting yourself, Jack, and especially me, killed or maimed." He pointed at Leon and Jack. "I am not in the mood for this behaviour. You have the 'privilege' of being the first person brought before the internal disciplinary committee – unnamed as of yet. "

Alice sighed. "I know that Drew," she managed to say. "And, yeah, the way I acted today was unacceptable."

"Then why did you do all that crazy stuff?" Jack asked. "Not to be a smartass about it, but you're usually the responsible one." He pointed at Drew. "But as fearless leader pointed out… it ain't good when he's the voice of reason. No offence."

Alice groaned, and shook her head side to side. "Does it matter?", she asked. "I did what I did, and I'm in the nick as it is. Shouldn't we just get this whole business over with? I mean, the reason I did it is pretty stupid anyway, all things considered."

"Try us," Leon stated. He nodded his head. "Believe me Alice, Jack and I? We've been in your shoes. And I honestly believe that it could at least help us have a better idea of what happened with you. It helps, owning up – trust me."

Jack nodded his head. "He's right Ally. At least just try to give us a slight idea as to what happened. We really want to help you."

Drew silently nodded and looked at Alice, before saying, quietly, but forcefully, 'They're not wrong. I'd follow their advice if I were you'.

Alice sighed once more. She really didn't want to tell the full truth… however, she supposed her brother and Leon had a point – they deserved an explanation. She hung her head, "Let's just say that, last week I had a disagreement with someone – and it got pretty ugly."

Jack and Leon both raised their eyebrows. "It didn't involve a fight, did it?" Jack asked, "Or… anything untoward?"

"Oh no," Alice stated, realising what her brother meant, "Definitely nothing like that. Just some lame argument over a petty subject."

"Well, wasn't as bad as expected," Leon stated, trying to be the voice of positivity.

"Agreed," said Drew. "With everything already on our plates, the last thing we need is...", he paused, "One of those incidents." He looked back to Alice. "But even so, why didn't you tell anyone about this? This is the first I'm hearing of it – I would have done something."

"Like I said," Alice responded. "It seemed like something too petty for you to have any concern over. And even it hadn't...", she sighed, "Well, we've all got a lot on our plates right now – I didn't want to risk piling on more drama to anyone's plate when we've all got so much other stuff to deal with. And I know she's a professional like me - I get the feeling that's why she didn't tell anyone."

Drew, Jack, and Leon raised their eyebrow in unison at the pronoun - Drew rapidly processed the info, knowing that this detail would help him narrow down the suspects. Alice had also had a point in another sense – the pressure was weighing down on everyone.

Nodding his head, he took a deep breath, and then exhaled, before looking to the calendar – he'd never appreciated how short the timeframe really was until now. "I suppose we have an awful lot on our plates at the moment. I'm going to check with Theodore and see if he's got a target for next mission - because I think we need a break; a couple of weeks or so." However, he then looked back at Alice and pointed his finger at her. "But you, missy, are suspended from rescue mission duties for a month. Be glad that's all you're getting."

Alice briefly tensed up as if about to protest...only to then wince, grit her teeth and nod. "Fine," she said, tied and regretful, before. getting up from her seat and leaving the room, her head hung in shame. She had a lot to think about – and a lot of time to do it in.

Rescue Tally:

* Agriochoerus antiquus (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

* Aturia alabamensis (36; all adults; 18 male, 18 female)

* Basilosaurus cetoides (13; 7 adults, 6 youngsters; 4 male, 9 female)

* Brachyhyops wyomingensis (19; 13 adults, 6 youngsters; 9 male, 10 female)

* Callianassa alpha (54; all adults; 27 male, 27 female)

* Callianassa ulrichi (43; all adults; 21 male, 22 female)

* Colodon stovalli (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Conger vetustus (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

* Congeris brevior (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Cylindracanthus rectus (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

* Cynthiacetus maxwelli (27; 18 adults, 9 youngsters; 13 male, 14 female)

* Dracosuchus poseidonis (9; all adults; 5 male, 4 female)

* Duchesneodus uintensis (7; 5 adults, 2 youngsters; 3 male, 4 female)

* Eutypomys inexpectatus (13; 7 adults, 6 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)

* Haplohippus texanus (13; 10 adults, 3 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)

* Harpactocarcinus mississippiensis (30; all adults; 15 male, 15 female)

* Hendryomeryx defordi (27; 19 adults, 8 youngsters; 13 male, 14 female)

* Hyracodon medius (16; 12 adults, 4 youngsters; 7 male, 9 female)

* Menippe jacksonensis (18; all adults; 9 male, 9 female)

* Megacerops kuwagatarhinus (13; 10 adults, 3 youngsters; 4 male, 9 female)

* Mesohippus texanus (14; 10 adults, 4 youngsters; 7 male, 7 female)

* Metamynodon chadronensis (9; 7 adults, 2 youngsters; 3 male, 6 female)

* Oncopareia cookei (12; all adults; 6 male, 6 female)

* Otodus auriculatus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Otodus angustidens (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

* Poabromylus kayi (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

* Protohyaenodon crucians (13; 9 adults, 4 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)

* Pseudoprotoceras minor (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

* Pterosphenus schucherti (9; all adults; 5 male, 4 female)

* Zygorhiza kochii (31; 20 adults, 11 youngsters; 10 male, 21 female)

Next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined:

The team travels to Cretaceous Mongolia.

(A group of large bipedal dinosaur with massive claws on their hands gathered at an oasis bellow defensively at a pack of tyrannosaurs, which bellow and snarl right back in response.)

To rescue the famed velociraptor!

(A pack of small dromaeosaurs snarl and bark at a herd of small hornless early ceratopsians in a sandy desert landscape.)

All while a tense family reunion unfolds at the park!

(Rexy, Tyrannor, Terrence, and Matilda snarl and bellow at each other while Kyle, Nikolai, and Linda observe alongside multiple keepers.)

All next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Storm in the Desert!

NOTE: … And I'm back!

Seriously though, the reason why it's been almost six months is because, until about a month ago, I had to dedicate all my time to working on my Masters' thesis – and these past few weeks, I've had a backlog of stuff to go through. Don't worry – things should be back on track now.