A chained beast was standing in a chamber, barely able to keep itself upright as buzzers and alarms beeped around it.
Pickle stood bound in nearly thousands of chains built of titanium, diamond, and some of the hardest materials in existence. While these would have been no problem to break out of if it wasn't for the poison that the smaller creatures had put into him.
It was like that of the smaller creatures he had killed during his childhood, but instead of causing pain, it was causing him to be drowsy and made him want to sleep.
"It worked against his distant ancestor, so it was a no-brainer that the tranquilizers would work on him as well." a voice rang out through the chamber.
Inside the control room, scientists buzzed around, preparing a chamber for project Zamhareer. Project Zamhareer had taken years of preparation, even after the UN had voted to freeze the reanimated Pickle to preserve him, but the resolution was harder to fulfill than had been expected, mainly due to Pickle himself being surprisingly sneaky for a more than eight-foot-tall caveman.
But after ambushing him on the outskirts of Tokyo, an army of UN peacekeepers was able to sedate him after filling him with enough elephant tranquilizers to kill a blue whale, but regardless it was time to begin the freezing process.
"Beginning the freezing process now." Another voice rang throughout the chamber; even if Pickle could understand their language, he was far too tired to comprehend the meaning until everything started to get cold.
Once he felt the cold, Pickle flashed back to his battle with the T-Rex that had frozen him and led him into this strange new world; at the thought of leaving this world Pickle began to stir. No! I can't leave yet . . .
"W-w-what?! How is he? That's impossible!" The scientists watched in horror as Pickle, despite being heavily sedated, was thrashing violently, breaking through hundreds of the chains in mere seconds.
"Hurry the freezing process immediately!" the head scientist ordered. "B-b-but sir, it could result in the subject being harmed or. .'' before the younger scientist could, a diamond-made chain slammed against the control room window, cracking the glass.
"Just shut up and hurry!" The head scientist barked; the rest of the control crew were scrambling to expedite the freezing process while the beast inside the chamber became faster and faster until almost through the chains.
I can't go away yet! Pickle lamented within his mind; I must see my small friends and the warriors again, at least the young one once more!
"I have no choice . . ." the head scientist mourned, "everyone out here immediately!" All of the other scientists knew what had to be done, and with only a moment's hesitation, began running out of the room, egged on by Pickle's roars and thrashing.
The head scientist took out a key and opened a case labeled boldly in dark blue ABSOLUTE ZERO. He quickly turned the 'lock' just as Pickle had escaped the last of his chains.
"Goodbye, Pickle." The scientist said as his life was ended by the extreme cold while the beast thrashed for a mere seconds before his body rapidly slowed, until freezing completely, his consciousness slowly fading away.
Just before being frozen, Pickle let out two sounds from his voice. It was a name, the name of one he called friend, a young warrior who had truly earned his respect, even more than the red demon that had flipped him over when he first entered this world.
"Bah-Kee . . ." Pickle said as his world faded to black.
An unknown amount of time later . . .
Pickle opened his eyes to a strange sight, a jungle; his body was dripping wet, most likely from the ice, he thought as he took in his surroundings.
What was strange was that it was like his old world, before his first freezing, with no unnatural sights, no loud bangs and beeps, no crowds, only nature. Am I . . . Pickle thought to himself, back home?
Pickle carefully stood as he looked at his body; it lacked the scars of his past, especially the long one that split his body in half; he heard running water nearby and quickly ran toward it. When he looked in the large flowing river, he looked like himself before his freezing, with no scars; he poked at the areas the wound once was to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
Just as Pickle began inspecting himself, he heard something in the water, in fact, multiple things; it was like that one; Pickle imagined a massive crocodile he had fought in the second world he had known, but different; they are smaller, and there are more of them. . .
Just then, the creature hopped out of the water with surprising speed, its elongated snout mere inches in front of Pickle's nose, before he grabbed its neck with his right hand, not even flinching the curious look on his face. He inspected the creature as it squirmed, and its pack looked on, seemingly shocked at what was transpiring.
The creature Pickle was holding was a Kaprosuchus, a crocodilian from the Cretaceous that had elongated legs meant to leap or run after its prey, although it is believed it was a terrestrial and solitary hunter.
Strange . . . Pickle mulled within his mind; I have never seen this one, as more of the crocodilians began leaping after the humanoid creature. Pickle expected this and used the creature in his hand as a shield and a weapon, knocking away or blocking the oncoming onslaught.
Pickle looked around, throwing the now convulsing Kaprosuchus toward a tree, ripping the poor creature in half, thirty-three, excluding the dead one. Pickle let himself with a large toothy grin and let out an inhuman chuckle; this is going to be fun!
Just before Pickle could begin, a cacophonous roar came from behind him, and all the crocodilians ran away, both from the creature in front of them and the creature coming towards them, which was now loudly stomping its way toward the intruder near its territory.
Pickle looked behind, his face full of ecstasy; he knew what was coming, the stomping made it obvious, but something was different; it made him excited, it made him very excited.
IT'S JUST LIKE THAT ONE, BUT BIGGER! Pickle thought as the creature let out a grand roar in front of the beastman, getting saliva all over the area around Pickle.
In response, Pickle readied his fighting stance, his arms stretched wide and open hands a little above his head, and let out a noise that sounded between a human shout of anger and a roar of a savage beast.
The theropod recoiled slightly, surprised at the puny thing that had just yelled at him; this surprise was quickly replaced by rage as the creature stood its ground and continued to roar. The anger got the better of the dinosaur as it began rushing to the caveman, its head low and wide open to eat the foolish creature in one bite.
But Pickle was ready; he twisted his body so that his right hand grabbed the beast's horn and his left grabbed the bottom of its jaw; this both closed the dinosaur's mouth and caused the monster to lose its balance as it slowed down and couldn't keep its exaggerated posture.
The beast began wildly thrashing as Pickle began to heave his entire body to lift the roughly 20-ton creature in the air and slam it down on its back.
Pickle let go of the creature's maw as it coughed up blood and continued to thrash on the jungle floor in pure fury, trying to right itself. Pickle tried to get under the creature's throat but was kicked by the beast, slamming through multiple thick redwood-like trees before landing on the ground.
The theropod stood back up as Pickle made his way back to the clearing where the two had made their arena; once more, they took battle stances, this time both crouched low to the ground, Pickle ready to leap as soon as the red beast moved.
As soon as it did, Pickle leaped into action, only moving past the beast's half-open jaws by mere millimeters in the blink of an eye. Before it could react, Pickle stopped next to the creature's right leg and slammed his fist into it, bending it to the point that a bone stabbed out of the creature's scales as the open fracture began bleeding profusely.
The creature roared in pain as it fell once Pickle with a massive smile on his face towards the creature's face. Appearing right in front of the creature's left eye, the caveman raised his right leg above his head before slamming his foot down on the orb, causing it to burst into white and red liquid as the creature thrashed in pain, its mouth foaming with saliva and blood.
But Pickle wasn't done yet; he went towards the front of the therapod's face one more time, barely avoiding getting bitten multiple times, and grabbed onto the red beast's horn, heaving with all of his strength. It only took roughly two seconds for the bone and scales to give way, and the horn was free from the beast's head.
As the creature attempted once more on its one good leg, it looked around desperately, trying to find its assailant after it had removed its horn. It looked to see the thing standing there; its face contorted into an inhuman smile as it ran at the theropod with its massive horn clutched in its arms. The caveman madly laughed; or let out animalistic noises that were equivalent to laughter; as it ran towards the beast's chest, stabbing it right where its heart was. The beast gave one final desperate roar that quickly faded as its life withered to nothing.
As the beast bled out from the massive horn that stabbed its heart and other wounds only a few seconds later, Pickle stood on-top of his victory as lightning appeared in the sky and rain began pouring down. The caveman looked up to the sky, raised its arms high, and let out a roar so loud it seemingly shook the earth. As it roared, it cried. They were both tears of joy and sadness at the same time. On one hand, this world was just like his own, except with even greater beasts to fight, but on the other, his friends and rivals from his old world were nowhere to be seen; he wanted them to join in this world; he wanted to fight alongside them, hunt with them, they were the only ones that he had known that were like him.
He missed them . . . he missed them a lot already. . .
Meanwhile . . .
Sauron stirred in his cave full of bones; he heard something he hadn't heard in millennia, a challenge truly worthy of his attention.
Thousands of birds and other flying creatures hurriedly began rising out of the treeline from all over the massive valley he inhabited.
His hunger flared, not his physical hunger, as that was constant. His hunger for an opponent, another being to truly fight him and be a challenge for him to conquer.
Only the other gods gave him a challenge anymore, and none of them ever desired to fight, as they sought to make some half-assed 'status quo' in this world. But as the challenge continued to roar throughout the valley, Sauron smiled and surmised within his mind, THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN!
Sauron soon stood and let out a challenge of his own as the valley became a warzone of noise between two great beasts that knew nothing of each other were soon to clash for the very fate of the world itself.
For in this age of beasts, there is only one law, one reality, one rule that governs existence, one principle that all beasts of this world follow like a holy truth, for it is the only truth, the truest truth. The ones who will survive in this deadly world will do so not off of genetics, intelligence, or even strength but instead by pure, primal savagery.