Beasts of the Dreamtime

Drew sat in his office, waiting for his team to arrive.

It had been a month since the opening day… which somehow felt both like yesterday and like an eternity ago. It had gone like a whirlwind – a press conference (done in style, as per both his and Theodore's preferences), chatting to the VIPs they'd flown over (for which felt like thirty seconds each so everyone got a look-in) and then cutting the ribbon on Prehistoric Park (done by Theodore with Drew, Matthew, and Jenny also present). And the month that had unfolded in between that day and now, there had been plenty of ups and downs over the course of the veritable whirlwind of activity that had unfolded as a result of the park now having guests visiting, complete with some staff members having noticeably more difficulty fully acclimatizing to the matter than others.

However, today felt like a bit of a return to old times – the park was closed for the day. The only people in the park were the staff. This allowed the staff to focus on the mission and the new animals, without having to have the general public running round. And so far, this system was expected to remain in place for the foreseeable future – a detail which Drew was honestly quite thankful for.

The new staff members had mostly settled in – there were some teething problems, mostly from his Deputy Keepers… who now found themselves knocked down a rung, since they were no longer reporting directly to Kyle. Percival had suggested this, arguing that 'a greater layer of rigidity would lead to efficiency'. Some of the new security guards had also experienced a few teething problems; with one in particular, a sergeant named Roberto Bratt, having gotten himself into a rather irksome rivalry with Farnsworth and Bristow as a result of annoyance over the former's arrogance and the latter's eagerness to pick a fight.

Drew's thoughts were interrupted by a mechanical creature, about two or so feet long, resembling a cross between a termite, a crab and a beetle, skittering past his office. The insectoid robot turned and chittered at him, and then turned away and resumed its trek down the hall. As the creature departed, Drew chuckled – this was a Novum Assembler, one of the results of the company's advancements in robotics. The Assemblers' test runs had been at the park – building, in collaboration with Novum construction workers, the various exhibits, using materials shipped over from large, solar-powered 3D construction printers.

It had certainly sped things up - months or years of construction could be compressed into a few weeks. Of course, speeds varied depending on the scale of the project – the bulk of the exhibit for the next mission, being simultaneously constructed, had involved massive earthworks, which the Assemblers couldn't do.

Anyway…. more important things to focus on. And as if by magic, he watched as Jack and Alice Denham through the antechamber doorway and then on into his office. Drew nodded, a wide grin on his face as he looked at his two teammates. "Nice to see you've finally arrived," he stated in mock annoyance as the Denhams finally came to a stop inches in front of his desk, Alice nodded her head. "Sorry to keep you waiting," she said, as professionally as she could, "Jack and I had some business to finish up at La Pampa." Jack nodded, a scowl on his face, and grumbled halfheartedly "Yeah". Noticing this, Alice turned to her brother, her eyebrow raised in concern, whilst Drew shrugged non-committally, either not noticing or not caring. "Duly noted." He then clapped his hands together, still grinning. "But never mind that. You're probably wondering what today's target is, right? Well to answer that…"

Drew opened a manila folder on his desk and drew out a picture of a giant lizard that looked like a Komodo dragon, only quite a bit larger. The sight of this was enough for Jack to grin, "Megalania. I was kind of hoping we'd go after it someday." Alice raised her eyebrow quizzically and said to Drew, "Isn't that the one that lived in Ice Age Australia?" Drew nodded, "Yeah. We're going to Pleistocene Queensland to be more specific."

Jack turned to his sister, an enthusiastic grin on his face, and said, "Megalania – or Varanus priscus as it's technically known – was the largest terrestrial lizard that ever lived. It could grow up to twenty feet long and weigh almost a ton – basically, a Komodo dragon after hitting the 'roids. It was the terror of the outback for over a million years – before it went extinct."

Drew watched his breathless monologue, smiling giddily, and said, mock-sarcastically, "I'm beginning understand why you were so eager to go on the mission, Jack…" Jack smiled, "Yup, fearless leader; I'd shovel the sauropod barns with a plastic spade for a week if that was what it took for me to go on this mission." Alice nodded, a smile on her face, "Well, it's certainly got you happy, that's for sure." Drew chuckled, "Well in that case... what are we waiting for?"

And, so, they headed to the portal site. Ramsey Gray, always eager to please, entered the time period and location and the portal whirred into life. Nodding his head, Drew put the remote in his pocket and, after securing it, turned to Alice, who nodded, and Jack, who gave him a wink and a thumbs-up. Drew nodded at them both, and then turned to the portal and pointed his finger at it. "Onward D-Bags!" And at that, they headed through the portal and into the past.

. . . . .

Once the blinding light from the portal had died down, the first thing that hit Drew, Jack and Alice was the heat. Looking around, they noticed that they were in a patchy scrubland, long since dried out. Alice silently whistled, "Fifty thousand years and nothing's changed." Drew rolle his eyes, "Enough sightseeing... we've got animals to find." He turned to his team, trademark grin on his face as he looked determinedly ahead. "Come on D-Bags! Let's get to work!" And at that, the trio headed off further into the patchy outback scrubland, eyes and ears open for any animals they could rescue.

By sheer luck, the team didn't have to travel very long before they came upon their first animals - a medium sized mob of kangaroos of varying sizes gathered and browsing upon some bushes. Whilst some looked like modern kangaroos, the majority of the creatures looked like a bizarre mix between kangaroos and rabbits. Drew snorted, an amused smirk on his face, "I guess it's only appropriate that, even in prehistoric times, the first animals we see are kangaroos." He looked to Alice. "I trust you can identify these guys?" Alice looked at the macropods, "Most of these are sthenurine kangaroos," she eventually stated before she began pointing at each of the different species present. "The greyish tan-furred ones with the rabbit-like faces are procoptodon. The slightly taller rabbit faced kangaroos with brownish orange fur are sthenurus – three species, all of different sizes. And the ones that look like modern kangaroos are an extinct species of macropus."

"What about the giant orange ones with gray stripes?" Jack asked. Alice took a look at the kangaroos in question, taking note of the fact that they seemed, crazily enough, even taller than the sthenurus. "Hmm…" Alice stated, "I have absolutely no idea."

Drew shrugged. "We'll just have to let the research division decide," he stated before ramming his right fist against his left palm. "For now, we'd best just concentrate on getting this lot to the park. Let's get a bait bag and start laying a food trail – it's a drought and I don't think those bushes will last them long."

And so, acting as carefully as possible so as to avoid alerting the creatures, the rescue team successfully laid out a trail of plants that the ancient kangaroos would presumably consider appealing snacks. The joeys amongst the group proved the first to get their attention caught by the food, and the sight of them starting to follow the trail convinced the adults to do the same. And while they all proved briefly wary by the sudden flash of light that occurred when the portal was eventually summoned right as they were nearing the end of the trail, curiosity ultimately ended up winning out over caution; at which point they all went through the portal.

"And just like that," Drew stated triumphantly once all the prehistoric kangaroos had vanished to the safety of the park, "we've got kangaroos." Jack nodded his head. "I'm surprised how the rabbit faced ones were actually walking like some weird dinosaur." Alice nodded her head. "That's the beauty of the sthenurine kangaroos," she stated proudly. "Their sheer size, plus their overall body shape, meant that they were basically too heavy to hop… so they walked like weird dinosaurs." Drew nodded, "Certainly unique, I'll give them that." He then pointed in the direction immediately opposite the way they'd come. "But enough chit-chat. Let's keep moving. The megalania ain't gonna save itself."

And so the trio headed off further into the Pleistocene outback. And within a few minutes, they reached another small 'valley' with animals present. This time, the animals in question were a group of birds – one group of which looked like malleefowl, only the size of large turkeys, while the other looked like a greyish black feathered cross between a goose and an emu… that just happened to be over six feet tall. Jack chuckled, "Giant malleefowl and genyornis – we are spoiled for luck today." Alice nodded her head in agreement, "Best take advantage of this string of luck while we can." Drew chuckled, "Read my mind. Another food trail should do the trick." And do the trick was exactly what the second food trail laid by the rescue team this mission ended up doing, with both groups eagerly gobbling up the free food and going right through the portal for their trouble.

After the birds had gone through, the rescue team noticed the sun was starting to go down. Jack turned to Drew and asked, "Now what fearless leader?" Drew nodded his head. "We make camp," he stated. "We don't want to be blundering around here in the dark."

An hour later, with the sun close to setting, Drew and the Denhams at last finished the preparations required to set up camp. Drew nodded his head in approval at the way the camp looked. "Good job," he said. Alice nodded her head. "I take it, now's a good time to relax and wind down before we set up night watch?"

Drew had just opened his mouth to respond when a jarringly loud raspy shriek suddenly split the air! Drew and the Denhams jolted in fright, visibly startled by the sudden noise, and then they all turned their heads in the direction the shriek had come from just in time for several more such shrieks, plus several equally raspy growls, snarls, and beastly screams to start echoing from that direction. At this, Jack and Alice looked meaningfully at Drew. "Let me guess," Jack muttered. "We're gonna go investigate that ruckus going on first." Drew smiled cheekily, "You know me too well."

. . . . .

A quarter of an hour later, right as the sun was practically inches away from completely disappearing below the horizon, the rescue team reached what appeared to be a ring of dried up eucalyptus trees surrounding a dusty 'clearing'. And it was at the base of one of said trees that the team found the creatures responsible for the unholy cacophony that had drawn them to the area. Specifically, gathered around the base of the tree in question were a pair of aardwolf sized Tasmanian devil-like beasts gathered around the bottom of the tree. Alice whistled silently at the sight of the creatures, "Sarcophilus laniarius. A large subspecies of the modern day Tasmanian devil."

"They certainly look it," Drew muttered. "Wonder what's got them in such a vicious mood."

"Perhaps them?" Jack said while pointing towards the top of the tree.

Alice and Drew took a closer look at the spot where Jack was pointing, and then made a silent 'oh' in unison at the sight of six noticeably robust looking koala-like creatures clutching the branches of the tree for dear life. "Phascolarctos stirtoni," Alice stated. "The giant koala." Jack nodded, and then looked to Drew. "If we don't do something soon, at least one of those koalas could become giant Tasmanian devil food." Drew nodded his head, "Let's see which of the bait bags have meat in them. I've got an idea."

Said idea, as it turned out, was to draw out some steak from the bait bags and toss them in the direction of the sarcophilus pair, who immediately began eating. Jack shuddered, "Mean little bastards, aren't they?" Drew chuckled, "They've certainly got spirit. I'll give them that." He looked to Alice. "But that shouldn't be too big of a problem for us; right Alice?" Alice nodded, "Nope." She then drew out a portal grenade and primed it. "Shouldn't be a problem at all," she then continued before sending the portal grenade rolling into the midst of the frenzied prehistoric Tasmanian devils. And all of three seconds later, the portal grenade went off, sending the sarcophilus laniarius pair and the steaks they'd been feasting upon away to the safety of the park in a bright flash of light.

Drew nodded his head, approving smile on his face as he flashed Alice a thumbs up. "I knew you had it in you," he said before looking over towards where the six giant koalas were currently still positioned, all of them now looking in curiosity towards the three humans from their position at the top of the tree that had not too long ago been serving as equal parts trap and sanctuary for them in the face of the sarcophilus laniarius pack's attack. He then looked back to Alice and Jack, "You guys remember to pack eucalyptus leaves amongst the bait food? Something tells me those would be our best shot at getting these guys down from there."

Thankfully, the Denhams had indeed remembered to have eucalyptus leaves packed alongside the rest of the food brought along to use as bait. And after about a quarter of an hour, the rescue team managed to finally coax all six of the giant koalas, one of which they noticed appeared to be pregnant, into coming down from the tree and getting themselves a bite to eat. And while they all proved briefly startled at the sight of the portal abruptly getting summoned by Drew while they were in the midst of eating the snack they'd been offered, curiosity soon won out over any fear they might have had; and from there, all six of the prehistoric koalas crawled their way through the portal in curiosity over this mysterious vortex of light. Once the giant koalas were gone, Drew nodded his head and flashed a double thumbs up to his teammates. "Good work team," he said. "Now let's get back to camp and get a fire going, before something comes along and tries to eat us."

. . . . .

Lesedi Venter nodded her head, an approving smile on her tanned face, "They've certainly brought back some real beauties."

Prior to being hired to work at Prehistoric Park, she'd been a member of a conservation group based in South Africa and had quite a lot of experience with various dangerous wild animals - mostly lions and hyenas, but she'd once been forced to climb a tree to avoid an angry hippo whilst trying to apprehend a poacher; she'd survived… he hadn't. Naturally, this had helped get her noticed by Theodore when he'd been seeking out new supervisors for the keeper divisions at the park. And as a result, here she was; whilst she'd been rather curious and confused at first as to what Theodore had meant about 'exploring new horizons', she'd been very excited when she'd learned the true nature of Prehistoric Park.

One of the keepers silently whistled as he observed the giant prehistoric Tasmanian devils. "Those guys certainly look like they'll be difficult," he stated, whilst a female keeper among the group shrugged. "We gotta do what we gotta do." "You can say that again," Lesedi said. She nodded her head and then gestured towards the giant koalas, in a separate pen. "And at any rate, we've probably observed long enough."

"You heard the lady everyone," said Tina. "Let's get to work!" "Yes ma'am," said the team as they got to work. Lesedi nodded. She was pleased with how Tina already seemed to be accepting of the new status quo.

She then let a small smile come back on her face as she thought of somebody else; Alice Denham. She had to admit, she and Alice had gotten along quite well in the days since their initial awkwardness at working together. And considering how she could remember Percival having described the elder Denham sibling as 'stubborn, sometimes unreasonably sentimental over her charges, and prone to blindly siding with her brother', the fact that Alice had proven easier to work with than ercival had made her seem was something that Lesedi was very happy about indeed.

In that moment, she looked briefly towards the area where the portal was stationed to appear at in times of use. Now that Alice was on her mind, she couldn't help but wonder just how the older Denham sibling was doing in her current mission that day alongside her brother and Drew...

. . . . .

At that moment, Alice was in good spirits as she sat at a campfire alongside Jack while Drew was already asleep in his tent. Jack, on the other hand, stare grimly into the wilderness. For at that moment, now that he was in a situation where he could relax, it was nigh-impossible for him not to think about what had gotten him so unhappy prior to his and Alice's pre-mission briefing in Drew's office.

To be honest, the main target wasn't really the only reason he was happy to be on the mission. More specifically, he was also happy with how he'd been given the excuse to leave the park for a while. More specifically, it go him away from some of the new arrivals. Even more specifically one of the new arrivals – his new boss.

Jack sighed. Apparently, Percival had found the old system – where all the Deputy Keepers reported directly to Kyle – too "chaotic" and argued that this had contributed to "fundamental weaknesses"… to be honest, as much as Jack disliked the man, this argument wasn't without merit. And as a result, Percival had decided to add a layer of middle management – giving each division a head curator, who the Deputy Keepers would report to, who would in turn report directly to Kyle, Nikolai and Drew.

And Jack's new superior Conor MacFerran was… an interesting character to say the least. He'd eschewed the uniform (which he was high up enough to do) and instead favored a cowboy's wardrobe – cotton khakis with Texan leather boots inlaid with fancy stitching, a cowboy shirt and a belt with a silver buckle of entwined rattlesnakes. He even had the hat. This strange Western obsession continued to the way he talked – his thick Scottish accent was peppered with aphorisms like "son-of-a-bitch" and "goddamn motherfuckers" – and his favored tipple – a slug of bourbon and milk. But Jack's current issues with the man had nothing to do with his fashion sense, vocabulary, or taste in drinks. Rather, it was more the man's rather forceful and domineering personality.

Jack shook his head and sighed… and he thought he'd had it bad under Kyle – whilst Kyle at least only viewed his abilities with suspicion at best, MacFerran was openly attempting to dominate him into submission. And he wasn't the only one – Drew loathed him with a passion )a sentiment that was entirely reciprocated) and the other heads of staff weren't too keen on him either. His friends amongst the non-herpetology division had been unamused with the new boss's behaviour. Even Leon noticeably did everything he could to avoid directly working with MacFerran during times in which he worked to help take care of animals under the reptile division's purview. Now this should have been a relief.

Unfortunately, in the month since the park's opening, he'd found that he had shockingly few people to confide in. Drew was obviously jealous of his new co-managers, so he wasn't going the best person to talk to about this subject. The chiefs of staff already had enough on their plates these days, so there was no guarantee they'd be able to handle the matter in due time. Even his friends amongst the staff, despite their own distaste for the man, were in no position to help – Leon (still) preferred to avoid confrontation, Jack didn't want to see what would happen if Colette got pissed off at him, and he didn't want to drag his friends among the herper division into a situation that was between him and MacFerran.

As a result, the only person he could talk to was Alice. And so Jack turned to his sister. "Hey Alice?" Alice turned her head to Jack, "Yes?" Jack sighed, "How does it feel, not being your own boss anymore?" Alice shrugged, "It was odd, at first – but Lesedi and I do get on. I respect her, she respects me." Jack gave his sister a withering glare, "You lucked out with yours, trust me."

. . . . .

Conor MacFerran sat calmly in his office. It had been a month since he'd first gotten hired and, whilst there'd been a few growing pains, the new Curator of Reptiles at Prehistoric Park had made himself at home.

A geologist by training, a long and abiding interest in reptiles had led him to move to herpetology and, eventually, he'd been recruited by Novum for their conservation aims. This had gotten him interviewed by Theodore, Percival and Bryce Bennett for a position as a curator at Theodore's secret project. He'd been intrigued by Theodore's enigmatic promise of new horizons – what could that possibly mean? Naturally, the truth behind the park had proven to be a pleasant surprise.

Of course, not every aspect of the hiring process had been enjoyable. Percival's contribution to the briefing had pretty much been him describing (in long, tedious detail) the foibles of the person who would be reporting directly to him most often, Jack Denham. It was a name MacFerran was vaguely familiar with – but someone he'd never met. Percival had, in a panicky, sweaty tone that had made MacFerran want to punch him in the face, described Denham as "erratic, quick-tempered and habitually insubordinate".

Conor snorted – from as far as he could see, the bastard had been overreacting (something he imagined was a regular occurrence). Denham was clever, hard-working and diligent - as far as he could see, Denham simply needed to be reminded who was cutting the cantaloupe now. And once he put Denham in his place, the rest of the team would simply fall into line. Anyway. He had something to do at the Permian Urals exhibit. Nodding his head, he stood up from his desk, stretching his arms and giving off a slight yawn in the process. "Well," he stated as he subsequently left his office. "I suppose I'd best go see what the fuckwads need my help for."

. . . . .

Jackson Nishimura was in a contented mood as he sat on a bench nearby the elosuchus paddock in the Kem Kem Beds Exhibit Zone. He had to admit, in his own opinion, life as a keeper at the park had gone quite well for him… well, so far.

Ever since he was a kid, reptiles had fascinated him, with the fact that so many people feared them proving more of an attraction. And, eventually, he'd ended up working as a reptile keeper at the Ueno Zoo in his aunt and uncle's home city of Tokyo prior to getting hired by Novum. And while Theodore's enigmatic promise about 'new horizons' had certainly intrigued him, he'd been very pleasantly surprised and delighted indeed when he'd found out the park was a collection of extinct animals. And he was going to be working with many weird and wonderful reptiles and amphibians – amphibians bigger than any giant salamander, crocodiles that walked like mammals and lived like small lizards, giant snakes and more different kinds of giant crocodile than one could shake a stick at.

Of course, the animals were hardly the only things he'd found appealing about life at Prehistoric Park. For starters, his division had proven to be incredibly welcoming – their standard procedure seemed to be treat everyone like they'd known them for years. And whilst his superior, Jack Denham, currently seemed a little too distracted with by issues with the curator, most of the interactions they'd had had been pleasant. And, whilst there weren't any people amongst any of the other staff divisions at the park that he'd necessarily call his friends, he was at least able to get along with them.

A low crocodilian rumbling from within the elosuchus paddock caught his attention, and he got up from the bench and walked over to look inside. Upon reaching the railing and looking into the paddock, he smiled at the sight of one of the adult males bobbing along peacefully in the water closest to the paddock's front wall and staring straight at him. In general, he preferred not to play favourites amongst the animals he cared for; but this adult male elosuchus, named Tick-Tock, definitely came close... mostly due to the obvious attraction of being one of the Cretaceous supercrocs "Good to see you dude," he said, a companionable smile on his. The philodosaur briefly looked at him before then turning around and swimming back towards where the rest of the elosuchus were basking. Jackson nodded his head, smile still on his face. He had no idea why, but it always felt strangely comforting to talk to Tick-Tock every now and then.

He took a look at his watch, noting the time. It would probably be wise for him to end his current break in the near future. And with a nod of his head, he tipped an imaginary hat towards the elosuchus paddock. "Be back later," he said before turning around and strolling along in the general direction of the Belebei Formation exhibit zone – between this, Kem Kem and Maeverano, it'd be a busy day.

But even as he exited the Kem Kem Beds zone and started on his way to Belebei, he looked up towards the sky, a half proud and half sad smile on his face as he observed the bright sunny sky and fluffy white clouds currently in the sky this fine first day of July. And as beautiful as this factor was in its own right, he also had a far more sentimental and personal reason for looking up towards the sky – it was a very special anniversary. 'Mom, dad,' he thought to himself, thinking of his parents, who'd both died in a tragic boating accident when he'd still been in elementary school age. 'If you're really up there watching over me, I hope you're proud of me.'

Immediately after having this thought, he lowered his head to face directly ahead of him, determined to continue doing his best. If he was lucky, perhaps he'd even get the chance to get a glimpse of some the new animals set for rescue today to their new home paddocks. And considering how the main target for today's mission was Megalania….

. . . . .

The next morning, the rescue team was very quick to get back to work after waking up and having a quick breakfast of apples and cheese sticks. And while the entire trio was in good spirits, Jack's smile was noticeably more subdued compared to Alice and Drew's.

Coming over a nearby hill, they saw a carcass lying upon the middle of a large valley at the bottom of the hill that looked like a wombat the size of a rhino lying with a massive wound in its side. The corpse had begun to bloat, indicating it was several days old, and the stench of rotting meat filled the air as a swarm of flies buzzed around it. Drew said, quietly, "Diprotodon – one of the largest marsupials ever." Jack snorted, "An ex-Diprotodon, evidently."

As the team subsequently descended into the valley and got closer to the carcass, they noticed that there were already scavengers gathering around and feasting upon it. For the sake of their own safety, the rescue team came to a stop about a yard away from the carcass and crouched behind a large rock from which they could observe without too high of a risk of alerting the scavengers just yet. And as they watched, they noticed that at least two groups of marsupial were ripping off chunks of semi-rotting flesh – whilst they recognised the sarcophilus laniarius, the other group also looked familiar… albeit, for a completely different reason. "Are those… thylacines?" Jack asked. Alice said, under her breath, "Yup."

The marsupials, naturally, weren't the only animals present scavenging upon the diprotodon carcass. Also present were ten birds of prey – six of which looked like brownish gold feathered and wedge-tailed eagle sized lappet-faced vultures while the other four looked like serpent eagles… only bigger than golden eagles and covered in dusty gray feathers, with two of them having jet black feathers on their heads while the remaining two had golden yellow feathers on their heads, possibly as a form of sexual dimorphism. Jack looked at them curiously, "The vultures I think are Cryptogyps…and the eagles are Dynatoaetus."

Drew grinned, "Perfect animals to add to the roster." Alice raised her eyebrow, "Including the extra sarcophilus?"

"Especially including the extra sarcophilus," Drew admitted. "Nothing wrong with a little extra after all."

At that very moment, the birds and marsupials all started squabbling and snapping at each other, seemingly in a disagreement now over who got to eat which portions of the carcass. Jack sighed, "We should probably get to work on rescuing them real soon then..."

Suddenly, a low, reptilian hiss split the air. The sound proved swift to alarm the scavengers, which all tensed up in alarm, their squabbling interrupted, before then hurriedly departing the carcass and gathering at least three yards away. At the sight of the still wary looks on the scavengers' faces , the team turned their heads to see a giant, tan-scaled lizard, almost fifteen feet long, walking down the hill they'd just entered the valley from, striding determinedly towards the dead diprotodon. And as the lizard strode regally along past the rock he, Alice, and Drew were hiding behind, Jack said, quietly, but giddily, "Megalania – in the flesh." Alice nodded her head, "Certainly impressive. I'll admit that much." Drew chuckled, trademark grin growing immense on his face as he observed the mighty lizard making its way towards the hastily abandoned carcass. "We're lucky today," he chuckled as it finally came to a stop, its jaws already opening wide to take a bite out of the carcass.

Before the Megalania could begin to feed, however, a low grunt suddenly split the air from the left. The Megalania went rigid and hissed, snapping its head indignantly to its left as a lion-sized creature that looked like a cross between a puma and some demented rodent, accompanied by three cubs, came striding into view. And within seconds, both of the large predators began to face off against each other, with the megalania hissing and swinging its tail side to side in an intimidation gesture while the large cat-like marsupial bared its teeth and roared, with her three cubs silently watching from behind their mother. Alice whistled at the sight of the face off unfolding, "Thylacoleo – the marsupial lion. The other apex predator of the area." Drew chuckled, already drawing out his communicator and entering in the appropriate number for a call to the park, "I know how we can get six species for the price of two."

After Drew had contacted the park, and the appropriate preparations for his current plan had subsequently been set up, he ran towards the carcass, making sure to avoid rousing the wrath of the Megalania and the mother thylacoleo and carefully hooked the winch into the thigh of the dead animal; the winch was attached to a park jeep on the other side. Drew ran back through the portal and gave the thumbs-up signal and the winch began pulling the diprotodon carcass away. The squabbling megalania and thylacoleo were quick to take notice of this, and they immediately began to rush after it, hissing and snarling in rage, with the latter's cubs hurriedly rushing along behind their mother for protection and the assembled scavengers hurriedly joining in the chase, all united in a desire to not lose their meal. Within minutes, the diprotodon carcass was yanked through the portal by the jeep dragging it. The scavengers, moving too fast to stop and eager to avoid losing their meal at the same time, dove through the portal after the carcass and into the present.

No sooner had all the scavengers gone through the portal when Drew stepped back into the past trademark grin on his face, "Woo! This is a new record! Anyway, we'll need to find a male eventually, so let's get searching. Onward, D-bags!" And at that, he closed the portal and went marching off to continue searching for more animals, not even looking back to see if Jack and Alice were following after him.

As it so happened, both Denham siblings were currently standing exactly where Drew had left them, shaking their heads in bemusement. At that moment, they weren't even entirely certain how Drew even knew if the megalania they'd just rescued was actually a female as he currently appeared to assume. But at the same time, they also had an arguably far more concerning matter on their minds. "He's in an awful hurry, don't you think?" Alice asked. Jack snorted, "Perhaps I'm not the only person who needs some time away from the park."

Alice nodded her head, for what her brother had just mentioned was indeed exactly what she'd now been starting to suspect. Ever since the day his new co-managers Matthew and Jenny had first arrived at the park, Drew had possessed a noticeably large chip on his shoulder in their regard, with Matthew in particular being the one that Drew seemed to resent. And to really drive the point home, the current time they were spending with him on this mission was by far the first time they'd seen him behaving in any fashion that didn't involve him resentfully obsessing over his two unwanted 'partners' and distancing himself away from the staff whenever he didn't absolutely have to directly interact with any of them.

In that moment, Drew finally noticed he'd left his companions behind, and he promptly came to a stop and turned around to face their direction. "Yo," he yelled while vigorously beckoning for the Denhams to follow after him. "What are you guys still doing over there? We've got animals to save!"

Sighing, Jack looked to Alice. "I'm getting the feeling we might need to have a little talk with him today," he stated. "If you catch my drift." Alice nodded, "Agreed."

And at that, the two siblings resolutely marched over to catch up with Drew.

. . . . .

Snarls and hisses of delight filled the air as the dakotaraptor pack feasted heartily upon a cow carcass that they'd been allowed to 'chase' prior to eating it. At that moment, pack leader Pecos Bill and his mate Slue-Foot Sue were chowing down upon the especially choice meat in the center of the carcass while the rest of the pack were each chewing on a leg.

Edgar nodded his head as he observed the massive Cretaceous dromaeosaurs engage in their feast. He had to admit, throughout his experiences in paleontology, 'raptors' were the dinosaurs that had always intrigued him most. Naturally, the discovery of the dakotaraptor had been a very exciting event for him to hear about indeed. And now, here he was, observing living breathing dakotaraptors in the flesh. Prehistoric Park was doing the world a truly great service by allowing these magnificent animals, plus so many others, to walk the Earth once more, even if in a limited capacity.

A sudden ringing from his communicator snapped him out of his thoughts, and he hurriedly answered the incoming call. "This is Miller," he stated. "Who is this?"

"Come now, surely you recognized my comm ID?"

At this, Edgar couldn't help but chuckle, an amused smirk forming on his face as he swiftly recognized the voice of who was now calling him. "Nice to talk to you to Marisa. What do you need?"

"Nothing big," Marisa responded, a slight chuckle escaping her immediately afterward. "Just wondering if you have time to meet up with me at Aguja while we're on break."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Edgar said. "I'll see you there."

. . . . .

Fifteen minutes later, Edgar and Marisa were seated upon a bench in front of the Aguja herbivore paddock, watching contentedly as the herbivores milled about. At that moment, they could also see Khatin's young assistant Kaisumi observing the parasaurolophus herd intently. They both nodded their head. So far, all was well. "Life's certainly been interesting since we started working here," Edgar stated. "Hasn't it?"

Marisa chuckled, "You can say that again. I certainly know I'm not regretting agreeing to Theodore's offer to work here. And I'm sure Khatin and the other chiefs of staff appreciate the extra manpower." She then took a brief glance in the direction of the main staff office building, her eyes narrowing briefly into a slight glare. "Though I will admit, it's rather irksome that there's currently so much tension at the top."

Edgar sighed, a glum look of resignation appearing on his face as he nodded his head, "Can't say I disagree." He looked in the same direction Marisa was looking. "Honestly, with the way Drew's been acting for the past month, I can't help but wonder how the Hell this park didn't end up self-destructing."

Marisa silently whistled, "You'd best hope Drew never hears you say that." She nodded her head. "And to think we also still have the drama between Matthew and Jenny on top of all that..." The sight of a brief wince from Edgar caused Marisa to wince as well before directing an apologetic look towards Edgar. "Sorry," she said. "Probably shouldn't have mentioned that..."

"No it's fine," Edgar said. "Probably best not to pretend it never happened." He then sighed and hung his head. "Still stings though. I mean, there are honestly still times I believe I could have prevented it. I was there – I could have…"

Marisa nodded, a sympathetic look on her face as she placed a comforting hand on Edgar's right shoulder. "I wasn't there when it happened," she said. "But don't beat yourself up." She sighed. "Especially in light of how, for what it's worth, Jenny seems to blame Matthew more than she blames you."

Edgar sighed again, "Too true."

"No, no, no, no, NO!"

The sound of Kaisumi's sudden distressed yell, plus an equally sudden cacophony of high pitched hadrosaur bellowing, caused Edgar and Marisa to direct their gaze back towards the Aguja herbivore paddock in alarm; just in time to see a truly horrifying sight. At that moment, one of the juvenile parasaurolophus, and a noticeably small one for its age at that, was lying on its side and flailing its legs and tail, quaking and wincing in agony as its four larger siblings kicked, headbutted and tail-whipped it.

Edgar and Marisa both silently swore at the sight of this. The luckless youngster, named Ducky, was part of a clutch that had hatched at the park… and had, unfortunately, been the runt of her clutch, which had led her to be susceptible to bullying by her larger siblings. Whilst the bullying had usually been limited to shoves and food monopolisation, it seemed that it had escalated. "No! Stop! Don't!" Kaisumi screamed, nearly in hysterics as she helplessly watched from her current position.

Fortunately, she, Edgar, and Marisa weren't the only staff members at the paddock. As it so happened, Cass was also there on keeper duty, with Horace just so happening to be present as well to watch Cass work while he himself was on break. And already the duo were hurrying into action to see if they could help get Ducky safely extracted.

Silently wincing, Edgar and Marisa looked into each other's eyes. "I get the feeling someone had best inform Kyle of this in the near future," said Edgar. "Agreed," said Marisa.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back in Pleistocene Australia, Drew and the Denhams had reached a large cluster of incredibly dry and sparsely foliated eucalyptus trees. And much to Drew's glee, there were already animals. At that moment, half a dozen horse-sized animals with tannish brown and white fur that resembled ground sloths with moose-like heads, were currently milling about in curiosity. "Palorchestes," Alice said while pointing her finger towards the creatures. "A weird kind of diprotodont."

As the team continued to watch, the six palorchestes remained determinedly digging through the ground with their clawed forelimbs or standing on their hindfeet to check the tree branches for leaves, with not a single one of them currently showing any interest in each other aside from occasional disinterested grunts of acknowledgement whenever one happened to move close enough towards another. "Strange… I thought they were solitary… Alice explained. "Presumably they're only tolerating each other's presence right now because of the drought." Jack snorted, "They're certainly hungry." Drew chuckled, "Well good thing we've got plenty of food." He slipped a bait bag containing vegetation onto the ground and started reaching into it. "Come on mates," he said. "Let's see if a food trail will be enough to get them to come to the park."

As it ultimately turned out, a food trail was indeed enough to get the palorchestes through the portal, with all six of the odd sloth-like marsupials gingerly eating the plants making up the trail leading to the portal. And while they all briefly paused, grunting in slight curiosity at the unfamiliar vortex of light, it wasn't long before curiosity won out over fear and they all leisurely shambled along through the portal and to the safety of the present. Nodding his head, Drew closed the portal the instant the last of the six palorchestes had vanished through to the present. "Well then," he said before turning around to face Jack and Alice. "Shall we move onward?"

Jack pointed towards a nearby tree, a blank glare on his face. "And leave these guys over there behind?"

Drew looked to the tree Jack was pointing at, and allowed a silent 'oh' to come on his face as he caught sight of eight tannish gold furred, grey striped, and black faced tree-kangaroo-like marsupials, all of them about twice the size of modern day tree-kangaroos, gazing groggily towards him and the Denhams from atop the branches of said tree. At that moment, it appeared as if the creatures had been woken up from a nap. "Congruus congruus," Alice whispered loud enough for Jack and Drew to hear. "A semi-arboreal macropod marsupial, but not quite as fully adapted for the lifestyle as modern day tree-kangaroos." Drew nodded his head, "Hopefully, some fresh food will be enough to get them nice and awake for their trip to the park; and perhaps some fresh water too while we're at it."

About fifteen minutes later, after a decent amount of coaxing with food and a small freshly dug up makeshift pool of water, the rescue team managed to convince the eight prehistoric tree kangaroos to come down from their tree and help themselves to the water and vegetation being offered. And once the congruus group had all eaten and drank their fill, they didn't take too long to end up gently scooped up one by one and carried through the portal.

"Right then," Drew said once he and the Denhams had finished escorting the congruus group through the portal and subsequently returned to the past. "Now we can move onward...right?"

Alice and Jack nodded. "Yep," Alice stated. "100%," Jack droned.

And at that, the team departed from the 'forest' and trekked further into the Pleistocene Australian desert, eventually reaching another small valley, where twelve tannish gold furred and grey underbellied wombats, six of which were adults and the remaining six of which were juveniles, were gathered. Currently, all six of the adults were digging at the ground, seemingly searching for food or water, while the youngsters all sat patiently and watched the adults. Naturally, having already seen a carcass of a creature almost exactly like them earlier that very day, they were quick to recognize the beasts for what they were. "Diprotodon," Alice stated. "A whole mob of them. Alive and well." Jack nodded his head, an almost approving look on his face, "Bunch of females with their offspring, probably." Drew clasped his hands together, fingers intertwining as his trademark grin appeared on his face, "Perfect." He looked to Jack and Alice. "Get the bait bags ready. I'm thinking a nice food trail should do the..."

A sudden rustling in the bushes alerted both the team and the diprotodon… before a male thylacoleo pounced out of hiding. The Pleistocene wombats snorted and bellowed at the predator, standing in front of their babies, as the Thylacoleo snarled, scanning the group for a loophole, before, eventually, they began to move away, making sure to keep their babies in the middle. Drew was quick to adapt to this development, drawing out his portal remote and summoning the portal just in time for the entire mob of diprotodon to walk through to the present, the male thylacoleo following close behind. Once the last creature had gone through, Drew closed the portal, chuckling gleefully. "Definitely getting a good haul today… but the day is still young". At this, Jack rolled his eyes, "Whatever you say fearless leader."

And so the team resumed their trek. Eventually, they reached a small lake. Turning to Drew, Jack asked, "What now, fearless leader?" Drew turned to him with a smirk, "We station ourselves here – let the animals come to us…" He was interrupted when the water began to churn, and some dark creature began to swim towards them. "Let me guess, crocodile?" Drew asked. Narrowing his eyes, Jack said, "No… movement doesn't seem right." The sound of splashing water, followed by an almost opossum-like hissing, caused the team to look back towards the water just in time to see that the creature had already arrived at the edge of the lake and was starting to climb out of the water...

. . . . .

Conor, Kyle and some of the other keepers were at the titanophoneus paddock. All the dinocephalians had begun doing mating displays in the past few weeks. The juvenile titanophoneus had gradually distanced themselves from their mother in the past few weeks – and she had become more aggressive with them. It seemed the juveniles had reached the age where they and their mother would naturally dissociate, and the mother would breed again.

The five juveniles had been kept separately – but anyone was aware that this was only a temporary measure, especially if their mother had a new… litter? Brood? Really, what was the term? A solution needed to be found – and not just because of overcrowding.

For many of the species the park had, inbreeding was going to be an issue – for the young male titanophoneus, their only options would be their sisters or their mother. Most of the larger animals were represented by single breeding pairs or family units and, until recently, Custer had been the only one of his kind. More had to be brought back at some point for a viable population to be built up. Nevertheless, it would all be something to address at a later date. For now, it was best to focus on what was immediately going on.

Conor, standing nearby, nodded to open the gate to the adult male's pen. The keeper positioned at said gate gave Conor a nervous look and lifted the fence, and a dark shape darted into the exhibit. The dinocephalians had posed a pretty bizarre grey area – an intermediate between reptiles and mammals. And the mother titanophoneus had been no different - whilst she had begun scent-marking, the female titanophoneus hadn't shown any signs of oestrus, as a female mammal might, but her apparent receptiveness hadn't seemed to coincide with any environmental factors, the way it would with a reptile.

Eventually, the male had followed the scent-marks to the female… and the size difference between the two became appreciable. Now, at ten feet long, the female titanophoneus was by no means small. The male, however, was four feet longer and almost twice as heavy. Next to him, she looked downright puny.

The male took a few steps towards her… and began bobbing his head and rumbling. A few seconds later, he followed it with a forebody push-up motion. At this display, the female looked blank-faced… but at least she wasn't making any attempt to leave.

So far, so good, they supposed.

"Just keep a close eye on them everyone," said Kyle as he calmly observed, "This could easily go either way." Even as he said this, he was already hoping that this introduction would unfold smoothly. Aside from the incident at Ajuga, it had been a comparatively slow day, the last thing he wanted was something to deal with.

Jackson silently whistled, an excited grin on his face. "This is certainly exciting," he stated.

Hugo snorted, "Easy for you to say."

"Just be quiet now," Conor stated tersely. "We can't risk spooking the beasts."

Hugo rolled his eyes and directed a brief side glare towards Conor, but otherwise did as ordered.

At this, Kyle raised his eyebrow, a slight glare of his own now on his face. He'd heard several complaints from some of the reptile and amphibian keepers about MacFerran over the course of the last month; but seeing it in person really put it into perspective. Jack Denham seemed to be – uncharacteristically – reserved about this… his colleagues were very much not. He shook his head. He could worry about how best to handle MacFerran later. Right now, the titanophoneus required his full attention.

. . . . .

Back in Australia, the team watched as the creature moved sinuously onto land – as it did, they could get a closer look at it. It was about six feet long, covered in dark mossy brown and grey striped fur that looked almost green when the light struck just right, and looked like a cross between a seal, an otter and a dog. Its head was round, vaguely resembling a bulldog, but with shaggy, dangling-ears, a pair of small yet vicious looking canines sticking out of its jaws, and whiskers like a seal or an otter. Its forelimbs were large and vaguely flipper-like, whilst its hind limbs and tail were significantly smaller.

As the animal sniffed around, Alice stared at it with a strange curiosity, "Is that… a bunyip?" Jack shrugged, "Well, we've had dragons and yetis… so why not bunyips?" Drew chuckled, "Research will FREAK having this back at the park. Pass me the freshwater crabs, Jack. He's definitely going to the park." Alice raised her eyebrow, "How do you know it's a he?" Drew directed a brief glare at Alice, "Does it matter?" Alice shrugged, "Just curious." It was at that moment Jack handed Drew the bait bag containing freshwater crabs, "Here you go fearless leader." Drew nodded and accepted the bag, "Thank you." He opened the bag and started drawing out the crabs inside, "Here goes nothing, D-bags."

Within minutes, despite a brief moment of threatened hissing from the beast when they seemingly got a little too close to it for comfort, the team managed to place a small heap of freshwater crabs upon the ground directly ahead of it for it to eat. And despite still looking quite visibly wary, it did not take long for hunger to win out, moving, sealion-like onto land and beginning to feed. Once it was distracted enough before Jack drew out a portal grenade, primed it for the park's freshwater holding tanks, and rolled it into position just in time for it to send the still happily feasting bunyip and the remainder of the offered crabs straight to the park in a flash of light. With the 'bunyip' thus sent to the present, Jack looked to Drew, nodding his head with a firm look on his face. "Now what?"

Drew was just about to answer when distinctly wombat-like grunts and clicks split the air to the team's right, and they turned their heads in time to see three different groups of large wombat-like creatures, 18 adults and 9 youngsters, heading towards the lake. As the team observed the new arrivals, they took note of how one group were covered in dark reddish brown fur, another were covered in sandy yellow fur, and the third were covered in greyish black fur with dark golden yellow spots. Alice was quick to start identifying them. "We may need help from Leon or the research division to know for certain," she said as she started pointing at the three prehistoric wombat species. "I think the reddish ones are phascolonus, the yellowish ones are ramsayia, and the black ones with golden spots are sedophascolomys." Soon all of the wombats came to a stop at the lake and started drinking. Drew nodded and looked to his teammates. "We'll let them enjoy their drink for a while," he said. "And then we'll see how they feel about coming through the portal right when they're otherwise about to leave the area." The Denhams nodded in approval. "Works for me," said Alice. "What she said," Jack agreed.

With this plan agreed upon, the rescue team watched as the Pleistocene wombats all drank their fill from the lake. And once they'd finished and seemed about to turn to leave, Alice drew out her portal remote and summoned the portal while Jack and Drew drew out vegetation from the bait bags and tossed it towards the wombats. And while the wombats briefly squealed in surprise at the sight of both the sudden appearance of the portal as well as of the vegetation abruptly flying their way before landing on the ground to their left, curiosity and hunger ultimately won out, at which point the mighty beasts leisurely walked over to the portal, pausing only long enough to briefly snack upon the food Jack and Drew had thrown their way before they all vanished, one by one, into the portal and to the safety of the park.

Alice closed the portal, nodding her head in approval before looking to her brother and Drew. "Now what?"

Jack looked to Drew, who silently thought to himself before the sound of lightly rustling foliage caused him and the Denhams to turn their heads in time to see some dried bushes lightly rustling in a breeze from where they were positioned nearby what appeared to be the entrance to some kind of local swamp to the right of the lake. Drew smirked, trademark grin agleam on his face, "We explore that there swamp mates. Let's see what sort of beasties we'll find in there..."

A sudden kangaroo-like grunting split the air in the distance from the direction immediately opposite that of the swamp entrance. "Ok, strike that earlier plan," Drew abruptly said before turning around and pointing his finger in the direction the kangaroo-like grunting had come from. "We go that way first, then explore the swamp!"

Alice raised her eyebrow. "We could split up" she stated, "Cover more ground." Drew sighed, "Perhaps." His thoughts, however, were clearly elsewhere. Alice sighed - perhaps it was better to rip the plaster off. "This gung-ho attitude is getting pretty strange... and look we all know why." Nodding, Jack said, "We know what you have a problem with..."

"Don't it," Drew said, quietly, "Don't you dare say it..." "Matthew," Jack said quietly, "It's Matthew. Look, we all have issues with the new team - you know as well as I do that I can see that. If you ever want to just talk things out..."

At this point, Drew sighed, "I will be fine on my own, thank you." And at that, Drew turned around and walked off the kangaroo-like grunting had come from. Jack and Alice stared at him, equal measures sympathetic and exasperated. Once Drew was well out of earshot, Alice looked to Jack, "Well. That went well." Jack sighed, "You said it. Something's handing over him"." Alice sighed, "In all fairness, we could have handled it a bit more diplomatically"

And at that, the two siblings marched resolutely into the swamp. But as they entered the swamp, with Drew himself continuing to head furiously off in the direction he was certain the kangaroo-like grunting had come from, not one member of the rescue team was aware that eyes were following them out of the clearing...

. . . . .

Khatin was in a very quiet mood, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he observed the creature swimming, otariid-like, through the water of the tank. Whilst the creature vaguely resembled a yapok – the water opossum of South America – it was more likely a dasyuromorph, the same family as the Tasmanian devil, the quolls and the thylacine.

One of his new direct colleagues in the research division, none other than the infamous Prehistoric Soup blog founder Bernie Evans himself, had done the preliminary examinations on the creature ("called dibs" as Henry Ogden had later bitterly remarked). He'd even already gone ahead and beaten them to giving it an official scientific name; 'bunyippus billabongensis' – unoriginal, but somehow fitting.

Of course, he'd had good reasons for calling "dibs" – he'd long theorized about the existence of what an amphibious or aquatic member of the Australian marsupial lineage might be like. It had long been wondered why marsupials had seemingly never evolved a flying or aquatic species, as placentals had bats and whales. Some had theorized that the need to have super-developed grasping forelimbs at birth led to a fundamental constraint on the evolution of the specialized forelimbs needed for such lifestyles.

Whilst the yapok had solved this by using its forelimbs to grab prey and using its tail and back feet as a propulsion tool, this creature seemed to have gone in the complete opposite direction, propelling itself with large front limbs. Unfortunately, the animal Drew, Jack and Alice brought back had been a male – they'd need a female to definitively answer this question. He, Bernie and Ogden were agreed on that point – if nothing else.

Nodding his head, Khatin jotted down some final notes for the time being before turning around to head in the direction of the main portal site. As it so happened, three separate species of Pleistocene wombat had just arrived at the main portal site, and he'd now been requested to drop by to see if he could assist in identification. And knowing Drew, it was entirely likely there was a lot more by now. And for the time being, it seemed he was at a good stopping point in his current observations of the peculiar aquatic marsupial.

As he walked through the freshwater holding tanks area, he managed to take note of some of the keepers amongst the assembled team for the tanks looking over some small aquatic animals that had recently arrived while he'd been busy observing the aquatic marsupial. Currently, he could see two groups frogs that he had a strong feeling were gastric-brooding frogs and eight turtles that looked vaguely like Fitzroy river turtles, only coloured green instead of brown.

The sound of the portal suddenly being summoned caused Khatin and the keepers observing the frogs and turtles to turn their heads in time to see the other keepers assigned to the area getting straight to work as six large gharial-like crocodilians came sliding through the portal and into the waters of the fresh water holding tanks' main portal site. And as the keepers who'd been observing the frogs and turtles swiftly went rushing over to provide assistance, Khatin nodded his head in mild amusement. "Gunggamarandu," he whispered under his breath. "Figures that bugger would end up coming here today." Chuckling, he turned away and resumed his trek towards the terrestrial holding pens. For better or worse, life was certainly never boring at Prehistoric Park.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, at the main portal site for the holding pens, the assembled keepers and guards making up the holding pens team for the day were likewise hard at work in rounding up a sizable number of small mammals, plus about thirteen quite extravagantly coloured parrots. Amongst the mammals were eight short beaked echidnas with slightly longer than normal forearms, twelve light grey furred and white underbellied gerbil-like rat-kangaroos, eighteen palish yellow brown furred and almost rabbit-like rat-kangaroos with sooty brown backs and dusty white underbellies, fourteen greyish brown furred rats with furry white-tipped tails, nine sandy tannish gold furred and white tailed bilbies, ten tawny brown furred and white underbellied mice with slightly kangaroo-like long hind feet and almost comically long pink tails, eight sandy grey furred and tawny gold underbellied mice with equally sized hind feet but shorter and furrier tails, thirteen dull orange furred bandicoots, and nineteen pale blue-grey furred rodents that looked almost hilariously similar to ordinary house mice. Aaron couldn't help but chuckle, "Mr. Taymor sure would have loved to see this." Tina nodded her head, "No kidding."

Lesedi nodded in agreement, "That certainly sounds like him." She then clasped her hands together. "But further chitchat can wait till later. Let's get to work!"

. . . . .

Back in Pleistocene Queensland, Jack and Alice were finally heading back to the billabong after having managed to rescue a respectable collection of frogs and turtles, plus six gunggamarandu, over the course of an entire half hour they'd spent searching through the swamp. "How much do you want to bet that Drew didn't even find the kangaroos he was getting his knickers in such a twist over?" Alice asked. Jack snorted, "I'd rather not," he stated, "I." Alice shrugged, "If you say so."

Soon, the two siblings reached the swamp's exit through which they'd previously entered; at which point they raised their eyebrows at the sight of two large sandy gold scaled pythons with a dark sky blue stripe each positioned horizontally along both sides of their bodies basking. "Well," Alice said. "This is certainly a spot of good luck." Jack chuckled, "You can say that again Ally. Just got back from a swamp full of frogs, crocs, and turtles and now two wonambi." He then started confidently walking in the direction of the serpents, "Do allow me", before throwing a portal grenade at the wonambi just in time for both the serpents to be sent to the safety of the park in a flash of light.

Walking through the billabong into the next clearing, they came up on roughly half a dozen juvenile Megalania, each about six feet long, stalked around the clearing in search of food. Jack muttered under his breath, "Like Komodo dragons – they must stick to the billabongs until they mature. Less risk of predation that way."

Suddenly, there was a rustling in the bushes and Jack and Alice looked to see a thylacine skulk into the clearing, advancing towards the juvenile Megalania, with a purposeful stride. Watching it, Alice noted that there was something odd about its behaviour - perhaps it was removing competition... getting rid of a potential threat before they got big enough to threaten it. Jack muttered to Alice, "You distract the thylacine, I'll get the Megalania through."

Alice walked towards the thylacine, lifted the horn and began blaring it at it. However, when she had gotten too close, the thylacine lunged towards her, snarling and, reflexively, she kicked it. Yipping in outrage, it moved backwards, before lunging closer… as Alice punched it in the snout. Standing its ground, the thylacine snarled at her… before a low, ominous, sinister-sounding whistle echoed through the clearing. At the sound, the thylacine stepped back and skulked away.

Alice looked to Jack, who had managed to get the juvenile Megalania through using bait, "Now what?" Jack, panting still, managed to get to his feet and climb atop the boulder. "Let's just sit here while we wait for Drew to come back." Alice nodded and soon sat down atop the boulder alongside Jack. "Sounds like a plan," she then said before continuing to think about their encounter with the thylacine "That was weird – the thylacine giving up on the fight that quickly. It's almost like someone called it back…" As they sat and talked, Jack couldn't help but notice a large, bipedal shape watching them with aggressively curious eyes.

. . . . .

For what felt like an hour, the two siblings sat upon the boulder, slowly recovering from their heart stopping ordeal. Once they'd fully recovered, they managed to notice several mobs of previously unencountered Pleistocene kangaroo and giant wombat were now strolling over to the lake to take a drink. Alice was quick to identify them all to the best of her ability. "The wombats with the grizzly bear-like fur are zygomaturus," she stated as she pointed at the animals in question. "The zebra colored wombats I'm currently guessing are warendja. The gray furred and white spotted wombats I'm likewise currently guessing are nototherium. As for the kangaroos, the reddish brown furred ones with gray furred weasel-like faces are most likely the omnivorous kangaroo propleopus and the unusually slender and long necked ones with numbat-like faces and fur coloring are probably protemnodon." Jack nodded his head, "Should we…"

"I see you guys beat me here."

Alice and Jack turned their heads in time to see a visibly panting and gasping Drew laboriously make his way past the combined mob of Pleistocene kangaroos and wombats and trudge his way over to where they were currently sitting. "I managed to send a bunch of small fry to the park," he said as he got closer to the boulder. "But the bigger guys got spooked before I could get close to them, so I had to follow them here. By the way, did anyone hear… never mind, what did you guys find?"

Alice shrugged, "Oh nothing much." Jack nodded, "Just a bunch of frogs, a nice bale of turtles, a small float of gunggamarandu." He pointed towards where the wonambi had been. "Plus we also helped take care of a couple of wonambi and some juvenile megalania." Jack and Alice had left the strange encounter with the thylacine out – didn't need to bother him.

"Well at least our time split up proved fruitful for all of us," Drew stated before nodding his head and directing a meaningful look towards the siblings. "And for what it's worth, I'm sorry for being so dismissive earlier. I needed some space to think - and I shouldn't have phrased it so rudely" He extended a hand for the Denhams to shake. "Let bygones be bygones?"

Jack and Alice looked pokerfacedly at each other, well aware that this problem wasn't going away - it was an apology for now. But eventually, they decided that was better than nothing, and they both shook his hand in unison. "No problem fearless leader," said Jack. "Let's get back to work," said Alice.

It was at this moment that a slight movement in the water caught the trio's attention, and they turned their heads in time to see seven additional bunyip rise to the water's surface and seemingly turn to face the drinking terrestrial marsupials. The sight of this caused the trio to look back into each other's eyes. "You go ahead and take care of the kangaroos and wombats," Drew said, a noticeably humble looking smile on his face as he gestured for Jack and Alice to go to the marsupials in question. "I'll see if I can get them to come at me." Jack chuckled, "No need to tell us twice."

And at that, Drew and the Denhams enacted their plan, with the former enticing the seven bunyips into swimming over towards him by tossing pebbles at them and then subsequently currying their favour with freshwater crabs before sending them through the portal while the latter got the combined mob of prehistoric kangaroos and wombats through the portal with a simple food trail of vegetation, plus bits of beef jerky to serve as extra incentive for the propleopus. Once all the marsupials were through the portal, Drew flashed a thumbs-up to his teammates. "Good job everyone," he said, "We still need a male megalania and a bull diprotodon at least... so let's head out into the scrub and see if we can find them." Jack and Alice nodded their heads, "Sounds reasonable enough to me mate," said Jack. "What he said," said Alice.

And so the team left the billabong once more, trekking through the desert for about five minutes before they eventually came upon another dead Diprotodon. A small group of ten-foot long crocodiles that looked vaguely like the Langstonia back at the park, only slightly taller and covered in sandy greenish gold scales with slate grey stripes, were gathered at the carcass. And they were also currently having a stand-off with a megalania larger than the one they had seen before, with all the reptiles hungrily hissing and snarling at each other. Jack silently whistled, "Quinkana – last of the mekosuchines. We really have struck gold – what's the plan with these guys, Drew… Drew?"

At this point, Jack and Alice noticed that Drew was walking, as stealthily as he could towards the warring reptiles while also drawing out an airhorn from his backpack. Sighing, Jack said, "Tell me he isn't…", to which Alice said, "Oh yes, he is." And indeed, even with his current level of stealth, it was not long before Drew came to a stop right by the head of the carcass and started blaring the horn at the reptiles, who hissed at him in rage before swiftly barrelling at him. Naturally, it wasn't long before Drew managed by sheer luck to summon the portal in time for all the angry reptiles, moving far too fast to stop, to barrel right through the portal, moving as if a single entity. No sooner had the reptiles all disappeared through to the park when Drew closed the portal and turned to his team with a triumphant smirk on his face. "How was that?" Jack chuckled, "Yep, definitely back to your usual self." Alice rolled her eyes, "Need I answer?"

At this Drew shrugged and said, "I would still really like to bring back a bull Diprotodon…" Suddenly, the grunts and pained bellows of some large animal suddenly alerted their attention. Alice said, "That sounded like a Diprotodon." Drew smiled, "Why yes, it did."

A sudden rumble of thunder from above caused the team to look up towards the sky in time to see thunder clouds starting to take shape. The sight of this detail caused the team to look warily at each other, well aware of just how bad things could get if lightning struck just the right area in the current dry season conditions. "We'd better find that diprotodon quick," said Jack. "Agreed," Alice and Drew both said in unison.

. . . . .

"'If I ever see you again, it'll be a hundred years too soon'. Your last words to me."

These were the words Jennifer Aratuk was greeted with when she entered her co-manager's office – which in retrospect, hadn't been the best.

She snorted, "Were they? I hardly even remember what you said to me. Depending on how drunk you were, I don't think they would have made much sense. Is there any reason you called me here?" At the barbed criticism, Matthew sighed, "I want to nip any current drama between us in the bud - I've already got enough of that dealing with Drew…" Jenny gave him a look, "Dealing with? I thought you and I were supposed to have equal rank." Matthew sighed, "You know what I mean. We've been walking on eggshells for too long – perhaps we can start clearing the air."

Jenny's look turned angry, "I'm sorry… are you looking for forgiveness? After all this time? I can't forgive you for what happened. Nothing's changed there." Matthew sighed, "I'm not looking for forgiveness – that doesn't concern me. I know I don't deserve forgiveness… but I also know it can't be undone – and hating me will not change a thing." "I know, I know", Jenny sighed, "Sometimes I wish it had been you that day. But… for everyone else's sake, I'll try." To this, Matthew sighed, "Fine."

"Good", Jenny nodded and placed a manila folder she'd been carrying under her right arm onto her ex-husband's desk. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be leaving these files from Theodore. Right now, I've got some bullshit to mediate on amongst the security division – honestly, I don't know which is madder…"

And at that, she turned on her heel and stormed out of the office, grumbling irritably as she did so. The instant his ex-wife had departed, Matthew sighed again, shaking his head side to side. "You wish it had been me that day? Believe me, sometimes I wish that too", he grumbled, before turning towards a drawer in his desk where he privately kept a framed photo from happier days.

. . . . .

Following the sounds, the rescue team swiftly found a large bull Diprotodon standing in a clearing, wheezing and with deep wounds on his back, with broken spears. Drew said, quietly, "Aboriginals?" Alice shook her head, in combination of alarm and confusion, "Not a prayer." Jack looked closer at the wounded marsupial and said, quietly, "Those look awfully… familiar."

"HOOWAH!"

The team jumped at the shriek as it was followed by strange vocalisations that almost straddled the boundary between words and ape-like chattering. Jack went rigid in fear, as his eyes widened in horrified familiarity, and was about to say something when several large, sandy brown-haired bipedal shapes entered the clearing and loomed over them. Jack stood rigid to the spot, eyes wide with fright, as Drew and Alice stared in shock at the new arrivals – the bunyip had been a surprise, but these were unlike anything they'd seen before. They were covered in sandy brown hair and shaped like massively built humans – all, uniformly, over six feet tall and heavily muscled. They all carried large and sharp wooden spears and wore lap-laps made from lizard skin. Some of them had thylacines standing by their sides, stood to attention like hunting dogs. Jack said, in a voice from beyond the grave, "Oh no…"

The hunting party stared down the team, clearly unhappy at these pale, puny newcomers standing between them and the diprotodon. Drew and Alice stared back in confusion… whilst Jack stood, rooted to the spot and eyes wide in terror. One of the younger members of the hunting band scrutinised them, in seeming familiarity, before he gave them an icy glare, as his thylacine snarled. Noticing Jack's demeanor, Drew turned to him in confusion, "You've met these before?"

Nodding so hard his head looked like it was going to fall off, Jack gulped, "Yup… I mean, Nikolai and I met their European cousins back in the Ice Age mission last year." Alice then pointed at one of the thylacines, eyes widened with horror and realisation, "The thylacine at the billabong… we were being stalked." Her eyes widened again, "These are the ape-men? Oh my god."

The young hunter standing nearest to them growled and gestured to the hunt leader, speaking a few words in their chattering language. At this, the hunt leader gave the subordinate a glare, lowering his spear with his hand. At this, Drew gulped. "Well," he managed to say. "That guy seems to know you." Alice said, quietly, "I think I whacked his thylacine." "Well shit," Drew growled, "Just when I was starting to think things couldn't possibly get any worse..."

A loud boom of thunder split the air from above… and was then swiftly followed by a single bolt of lightning striking a patch of dry gras nearby. The team and the yowie hunt party could only watch as the dried vegetation was consumed by a growing blaze ad, minutes later, the scrub was an inferno. The bull diprotodon rumbled in fear and the thylacines whimpered fearfully as the team and ape-men watched, mute with horror. At this point, Jack and Alice looked meaningfully at Drew. "We are going to die," Jack grumbled.

. . . . .

Nikolai stood by the holding pen, as the giant Megalania roamed round, curious at its new surroundings. The team had brought back a male Megalania and a small float of Quinkana a few minutes ago – Drew had clarified that they were staying in Pleistocene Australia a bit longer to get a bull Diprotodon.

"Big bastard, isn't he?"

Nikolai turned to see Conor MacFerran walking towards him. He gave the man a glare – he and the rest of his team hadn't quite got on in their errands around the park today, primarily due to Farnsworth and Bristow proving just plain unable to take a hint and resist the urge to goad Sergeant Bratt, who had reacted about as well as any of the other times they'd taken advantage of his open distaste for them… and MacFerran's attitude was something he really didn't need to have piled upon his plate. Especially not after hearing what Kyle had told him.

Nikolai decided to raise the topic, "I've heard… concerning news about your management of your division. Especially your deputy." At this, MacFerran snorted, "Oh come off it! I'm just giving him a firm hand." Nikolai gave him a stony-faced glare, "Be careful you don't give him too firm a hand – otherwise there will be consequences." MacFerran muttered, under his breath, "Bring it on, ya bastard."

Colette, standing nearby, narrowed her icy blue eyes hatefully at him from behind his back before moving to go follow Nikolai. You had best hope that you don't push it too far, she thought venomously to herself, because, if you do, they'll be burying what's left of you with a teaspoon.

. . . . .

As the fire ripped through the scrub, Drew, Jack and Alice looked at the ape-man hunting party with trepidation – were they going to finish the diprotodon off and kill them while they were at it? Abandon them all to the blaze's mercy? Somehow they didn't know which of these options was the worst.

After what felt like an eternity, the ape-man hunt leader lowered his spear and gestured to the bushfire, before turning back to Drew with a withering glare. Drew didn't need to speak yowie to know what the hunt leader was offering… a truce. They would help Drew and his team herd the Diprotodon – and themselves – away from the bushfire. Drew sighed and nodded – a truce until then. He then looked to Jack and Alice, "You guys ready?" The Denhams gulped but nodded in the affirmative. "Born ready," Jack said, nervously.

At the hunt leader's signal, the ape-man holding the trained thylacines nodded and barked a command, and the dog-like marsupials yipped and whooped, snapping at the diprotodon's heels… and a chase began. Every time, the bull diprotodon attempted to turn a corner, one of the team or the ape-men would block its path. Eventually, they managed to herd it some distance from the blaze.

Tired, coughing and covered in soot, Drew turned to the huge, intimidating leader of the ape-man hunting party. At the ape-man's glare, Drew knew that it was time to make themselves and the diprotodon scarce. With an awkward grin on his face, Drew managed to nervously say to the ape-man hunt leader, "What a win for interspecies co-operation – we really must do this again sometime…", to which the ape-man hunt leader simply grunted as Drew, with an awkward grin, continued, "But, sadly, this is where we must part company. Kay, thanks… byeeeeee!", as suddenly, he whipped out a portal grenade and slammed it onto the floor, where, in a sudden burst of light, it swallowed up him, Jack, Alice and the Diprotodon.

The ape-man hunt leader stepped back, confused. Where the bull goolun and the three pale-faces had been, there was now nothing. They had vanished into thin air. Perhaps this was an illusion – as the witch doctors performed, claiming they were miracles from the gods. If so, it was a strange one.

He shook his head – working out the nature of their magic trick would not change reality. Tracking down the newcomers was out of the question – it seemed that what illusion the pale-faces had made had masked their scents to even the lagunta. Losing a bull goolun was a harsh blow, but ultimately, they had lost their quarry, fair and square – and, besides, there would be plenty of other animals, disoriented from fleeing the bushfire. The younger members of the hunting party would probably be angered, but he would rather not waste time on what was likely to be a wild mihrung chase. They'd just have to allow the pale newcomers their retreat. And with a single command, the ape-man hunt leader ordered the rest of his band to turn away from the fire and rushed off further into the scrub.

Meanwhile, Drew, Jack, Alice and a very bemused looking bull Diprotodon were coming round, dazed in the park's holding section, with the portal grenade at their feet and the entire holding pen team, plus Matthew and Jenny, looking down at them with confused expressions. Turning to Drew, still dazed, Jack said, "Please never do that again, fearless leader." Drew said, quietly, and with his usual trademark grin, "I shall make no such promises." Drew and the Denhams looked to the gaping holding pens team and newly hired co-managers of the park. "A little help here?" Drew asked, gritting his teeth at the fact that he was asking Matthew and Jenny for assistance.

This seemed to swiftly spur the onlookers into action. "You heard him everyone," Matthew said. "Let's get to work!"

. . . . .

Two hours later, after quite a decent while of careful work, all the newly rescued animals had been successfully transferred over to their new homes within the newly constructed Pleistocene Walkabout exhibit zone. And for the time being, they all currently appeared to be settling in well.

Positioned at the front entrance of this exhibit zone was a large building themed after the Pleistocene Australian outback. And it was in this building that most of the smaller animals now dwelled. A large pit themed paddock in the very center of the building's interior contained a sandy outback themed island surrounded by water which now served as home for the quinkana, which were all currently exploring as they scouted their new territory and seeked out their next meal. Three small terrariums built in the wall to the left of this pit served as home for the frogs and turtles, with the latter living in a terrarium much larger than the two containing the former. And at that moment, all the frogs and turtles were currently swimming leisurely about in the waters within their respective terrariums. A noticeably larger desert themed terrarium built into the wall to the right of the quinkana pit and divided into six segments, meanwhile, now served as home for the wonambi, which were all currently slithering through their respective segments in search of their next meal. An aviary exhibit built into the paddock's rear wall and directly to the left of the building's back exit served as home for the parrots, which had been swiftly recognized as paradise parrots and were exploring their new surroundings in curiosity. And finally, all the small mammals were currently doing whatever they pleased within their respective exhibits, all of which were arranged in a circle around the quinkana pit, and had been likewise swiftly identified by Khatin and the researchers.

Right behind the building was a large Australian desert themed paddock that served as home for the large herbivores. And at that moment, all the kangaroos and wombats that lived there were either scouting for nonexistent threats, browsing upon bushes within the paddock, or taking a drink from the paddock's lake. The six apparent South Walker Creek giant kangaroos, currently being informally referred to as 'colossal kangaroos', were scouting for threats. The sthenurus, meanwhile, had all proven much easier for the researchers to identify, with the nine that had gray spots turning out to be the stirlingi species, the ten with black ears turning out to be the tindalei species, and the eight with yellow stripes on their backs turning out to be the andersoni species. The palorchestes were mostly keeping to themselves as they browsed upon the trees planted in the back of the paddock. While the bull diprotodon hadn't yet been deemed fit for release from the veterinary facility, the plan was to attempt to integrate him with the larger mob of his kind as soon as he was deemed fully recovered.

Located directly in between the main herbivore paddock and the outback desert building was an appropriately designed paddock that now served as home for the giant koalas, all six of which were now currently napping peacefully in the branches of their brand new fresh eucalyptus tree homes within the paddock. Another paddock directly to the right of the koala paddock served as home for the propleopus, which had been deemed necessary to keep separate from the other kangaroos due to their omnivorous nature, and were all currently feasting upon a freshly made mixture of hay, herbivore pellets, and chicken meat from the park's kitchens. An even larger paddock to the left of the koalas, designed with flight capable occupants in mind, served as home for the genyornis and giant malleefowl, all of which were now either scouting for nonexistent threats or searching for their next meal.

Positioned to the left of the main herbivore paddock were two appropriately sized paddocks designed for aquatic animals, both of which contained massive billabong style lakes. The largest of these two paddocks, divided into two sections, served as home for the gunggamarandu, which were all currently basking upon the shores of their respective sides of the paddock as they waited for their next meal. The other paddock, undivided, was home for the bunyips, all of which were currently happily swimming along through the waters of their new home. Positioned to the right of the main herbivore paddock, meanwhile, were two large aviaries that served as home for the two rescued species of Pleistocene Australian birds of prey. One, divided into two sections, served as home for the dynatoaetus, which were both currently resting within newly built nests as they surveyed their new territories, whilst the other one, which was undivided, served as home for the cryptogyps, which were all currently feasting upon a freshly provided cow carcass.

Finally, five paddocks located behind the main herbivore paddock served as home for the five other rescued Pleistocene Australian carnivores. The leftmost paddock in this arrangement, which had been designed with arboreal animals in mind, served as home for the congruus, which were currently napping in the branches of their new homes as they waited for their next meal, whilst the rightmost paddock, attached to a small barn at the back, served as home for the sarcophilus laniarus. The paddock to the left of the giant Tasmanian devils, itself divided into two sections, served as home for the thylacines, which were all currently napping in their outdoor dens. The paddock to the right of the congruus, likewise divided into two sections, served as home for the thylacoleo, with the male taking a nap in his den within the right half of the paddock while the female and her cubs feasted upon a freshly provided pig carcass in the left half of the paddock.

The paddock in the centre of this arrangement, and by far the largest, was home to the megalania, with the two adults – whom MacFerran had already decided for some odd reason to name Fenrir and Nindhogg – basking on rocks, whilst the small group of juveniles had a smaller exhibit nearby.

All in all, life was going well so far at the park. However, the staff all knew to savour the lull. But for now, everybody would greatly appreciate the opportunity for a breather.

Jenny in particular was feeling especially grateful for the opportunity for a breather as she stood at the main viewing area for the giant koala paddock, sighing in equal parts relief and exhaustion as she watched the arboreal bear-like marsupials peacefully sleeping in their new homes. 'They're so lucky,' she thought to herself, feeling a brief flash of envy for the slumbering giant koalas – after all, they

She hung her head, visibly struggling with all her willpower to keep her composure as the devastating memory of what had ultimately caused her and Matthew's marriage to fall apart reared its ugly head. And even with that effort, she was unable to stop herself from letting a single tear leak from her right eye and slide down her cheek. 'It's not fair,' she thought to herself. 'It's just not fair.'

A sudden squeak from in the paddock caused her to look up, wide eyed in surprise, just in time to see one of the koalas, a male named Stitch, appeared to have woken up from his nap and was now staring drowsily in her direction. "Sorry for waking you up," she eventually said. "I have places to be anyway. You can go back to sleep." The koala simply grunted, shifted his position upon the branch he was resting on, and soon went back to sleep. Once Stitch was asleep once more, Jenny sighed once more before lifting her head to face the sky, a sentimental look on her face - the memories hurt

She shook her head, turned around, and started making her way back towards the main staff office building. Right now, she really needed time to think.

Meanwhile, in Drew's office...

"So everything went well today you say?" Theodore asked, a half proud and half concerned look on his face as he contacted Drew via Zoom call.

Drew nodded his head, a slight smile of pride on his face. "The mission unfolded pleasantly with minimal incident. And while there was an issue or two to unfold at the park today while my team and I were gone, there wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed." Even as he said this, it took all his willpower to maintain a straight face.

"Well that's good news to hear," said Theodore. He nodded his head. "And I trust you've read over those files I sent to the park detailing the plans for next month's mission? Matthew and Jenny have already read them and voiced approval."

At this, Drew directed an awkward look towards the folder containing the files in question, ruefully realizing how he'd been procrastinating reading them as a result of it being Matthew who'd first delivered the folder to his office in between his arrival back home from Pleistocene Australia and this current moment. "Uh...let's just say I got a bit preoccupied."

Theodore chuckled. "Well no time like the present. Go ahead and read them."

Nodding his head, Drew grabbed the folder, opened it up, and started reading the files. And while he initially had a pokerfaced glare on his face as he read through them, it didn't take long before he found himself unable to resist letting an approving grin come on his face and nodding his head in acceptance. "I'll admit," he said once he'd finished reading the files. "This certainly sounds like just what he need to combat the current low attendance at the aquarium compared to all the other exhibit zones at the park."

Theodore chuckled, "I had a feeling you'd think so. I trust you, Matthew, and Jenny will get the necessary info spread to the right people as required?"

Drew flashed Theodore a thumbs up, too excited by the target Theodore had selected for next month's mission to care about the shared duty he had with Matthew and Jenny on the matter. "I know I'll do my part."

"Excellent." Theodore nodded his head, "I'll contact you again at the end of the week for a further status update. Enjoy the rest of your day!"

And at that, the Zoom call ended.

Rescue Tally:

Bettongia penicillata penicillata (south-eastern brush-tailed bettong/woylie) (12; all adults; 6 male, 6 female)

"Bunyip" (bunyippus billabongensis) (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Caloprymnus campestris (desert rat-kangaroo) (18; 10 adults, 8 youngsters; 9 male, 9 female)

"Colossal Kangaroo" (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

Congruus congruus (8; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

Cryptogyps lacertosus (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

Diprotodon opatum (13; 7 adults, 6 youngsters; 4 male, 9 female)

Dynatoaetus gaffae (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)

Genyornis newtoni (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

Gunggamarandu maunala (6; all adults; 2 male, 4 female)

Leporillus apicalis (lesser stick-nest rat) (14; all adults; 7 male, 7 female)

Macropus pearsoni (17; 10 adults, 7 youngsters; 7 male, 10 female)

Macrotis leucura (lesser bilby) (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

Megalibgwilia oweni (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Notomys longicaudatus (long-tailed hopping mouse) (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

Notomys mordax (darling downs hopping mouse) (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Nototherium mitchelli (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Palorchestes azael (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

Perameles eremiana (desert bandicoot) (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

Phascolarctos stirtoni (giant koala) (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

Phascolonus gigas (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 4 male, 5 female)

Procoptodon goliah (13; 8 adults, 5 youngsters; 4 male, 9 female)

Progura gallinacea (giant malleefowl) (14; all adults; 6 male, 8 female)

Propleopus oscillans (17; 9 adults, 8 youngsters; 6 male, 11 female)

Protemnodon sp. (10; 6 adults, 4 youngsters; 4 male, 6 female)

Psephotellus pulcherrimus (paradise parrot) (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

Pseudomys glaucus (blue-gray mouse) (19; all adults; 9 male, 10 female)

Quinkana fortirostrum (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)

Ramsayia magna (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 4 male, 5 female)

Rheobatrachus silus (southern gastric-brooding frog) (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

Rheobatrachus vitellinus (northern gastric-brooding frog) (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

Rheodytes devisi (DeVis' river diver turtle) (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

Sarcophilus laniarius (18; all adults; 3 male, 15 female)

Sedophascolomys medius (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 4 male, 5 female)

Sthenurus stirlingi (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 3 male, 6 female)

Sthenurus tindalei (10; 6 adults, 4 youngsters; 4 male, 6 female)

Sthenurus andersoni (8; 5 adults, 3 youngsters; 3 male, 5 female)

Thylacinus cynocephalus (the thylacine, Tasmanian wolf or Tasmanian tiger) (11; 4 adults, 7 youngsters; 5 male, 6 female)

Thylacoleo carnifex (the marsupial lion) (5; 2 adults, 3 youngsters; 2 male, 3 female)

Varanus priscus (megalania) (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)

Warendja wakefieldi (11; 6 adults, 5 youngsters; 4 male, 7 female)

Wonambi naracoortensis (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

Zygomaturus trilobus (12; 8 adults, 4 youngsters; 4 male, 8 female)

Next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined:

It's back to the seas for the rescue team.

(A pod of hissing and snarling plesiosaurs raise their heads and necks out of the ocean water around the Ancient Mariner.)

Where they will find some of the most glorious rulers of the sky.

(A flock of crested pterosaurs dive at the ocean water for fish, shrieking in hungry glee.)

As well as some of the most vicious monsters of the deep.

(Drew and Jack gape in panic as four massive mosasaurs surround them underwater, their jaws gaping open and ready to devour them!)

All next time, on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Beyond the Sea!