Beginning of an Age/Transcript

"Dare I ask what's got you so excited this morning?"

It had been two whole weeks since the compsognathus mission, and Jack and Alice were standing in Drew's office, waiting to hear about the new mission. And judging by the shit-eating grin on Drew's face, it was clear that, whatever the target was this time, he was VERY excited.

"If it has anything to do with what today's target is, I hope you don't keep us waiting much longer." Jack sighed. "I tried to ask Dolittle if he'd give a few hints when he was handing out the dossiers and he said no."

Drew nodded his head, still smiling. "Fear not, ye of little faith. Because trust me, today's mission is going to be a real treat."

Alice raised her eyebrow. "And why might that be?"

"Simple." Drew nodded his head. "As you may remember, the last two missions have involved us going back to the Jurassic."

Jack and Alice nodded in the affirmative.

"True enough," said Jack.

"Well this time, we're going even further back."

Drew activated the projector, projecting an image of a marine reptile with webbed feet attached to short legs, a long serpentine neck and tail, and a crocodile-like head on the whiteboard. "To the Triassic period, to be more precise. To bring back Nothosaurus."

Jack nodded to himself, impressed. "Triassic, huh?" He nodded his head once more. "Sounds fun. And I will admit, not a bad choice of target."

"This explains why there were so many tanks in the new area…" Alice noted. She nodded her head, a look of approval on her face very similar to her brother's. "And I'll admit, it's going to be interesting. After all, this is arguably our first mission where we'll get the opportunity to rescue marine animals."

"I had a feeling you would bring that up." Drew nodded his head. "And that's why, not only have Theodore and I made sure that aquatic holding pens have been designed, starting with this one, but there's also a little… surprise in store for you."

Jack and Alice raised their eyebrows.

"What is it?" Alice asked.

Drew chuckled, and clasped his hands together. "Follow me to the docks," he then stated. "And I'll show you."

. . . ..

"Tada! What do you think?"

Jack and Alice gaped at the sight. They were now standing just outside the entrance to a makeshift harbor. For the past few weeks, this harbor had been completely empty. But today, a large green and white ship was docked in one of the berths. It looked vaguely like the ship from Deadliest Catch and it looked magnificent. Emblazoned on the sails was the Prehistoric Park sauropod logo. Upon the stern area were the words 'The Ancient Mariner'.

Jack and Alice eventually managed to get their voices back, and they all shook their heads.

"Someone's clearly spared no expense," Jack managed to say.

Alice whistled. "That's an understatement."

Drew chuckled. "I had a feeling you'd be impressed." He nodded his head and pointed at the ship once more. "Would you believe she used to be a cargo boat? Novum used it when they were starting out – however, as transport got better, this ship was one of the few that didn't end up either sold off or sent to the scrapyard. And as a result, when Theodore happened to find her sitting around in the shipyard, he decided that, with a couple upgrades or so, she'd be perfect for us. And thus… the Ancient Mariner."

"I'm pleased you're so happy to see her."

At the sound of this voice, the rescue team turned around in time to see a dark-haired, slightly tanned skinned, Greek-looking man standing behind them. The man smiled, his white teeth agleam in the light of the sun. "Greetings everyone. I am Stavros Ballas; captain of the Ancient Mariner."

"Nice to finally meet you," Drew quickly responded, extending his hand out for the captain to shake. The captain obliged, and once the handshake was done, he looked to the rest of the team. "So you're the rescue team." He looked back at Drew. "I take it this is everyone?"

Drew nodded, "Yup - Adrian's getting some experience with the pterosaurs. And Leon is… doing Leon things."

Jack and Alice gave each other a look, and Stavros clasped his hands together, a gleeful grin on his face. "When do we start?"

. . . ..

In a flash of light, the portal opened, the Ancient Mariner slowly emerging from the vortex and onto an ocean. Once the ship had exited the portal and it closed, the ship stopped. Stavros nodded his head and turned to Drew. "Alright everyone," he stated. "Now that we are here, we'd all best introduce ourselves."

"Agreed," said a Japanese man that appeared to be the first mate. He nodded his head before looking at Drew and the Denhams. "You first."

Drew nodded his head. "Hey guys!," he said as he directed a polite wave in their direction, a smile on his face. "I'm Drew Luczynski, leader of the rescue team and your head honcho." He gestured towards the Denhams, A. "These are my teammates Jack and Alice Denham – there are two others, but you'll meet them later." Drew nodded his head, and then looked at the Japanese first mate. "And now that my side's introductions are out of the way and we've already been introduced to your captain, the rest of you are free to go."

The first mate nodded. "I am Kira Nagayoshi, first mate of the Ancient Mariner." He directed a sidelong glance at Stavros, a half irritated and half amused look on his face. "And I'm the one who has to keep everyone on task when Captain Stavros is feeling generous with how we spend our time."

The captain chuckled, unrepentant.

As the rest of the crew introduced themselves, Jack looked out of the window; they'd landed in a bay. The sea was calm, the tide was low and the waves lapped gently on a nearby beach; he could see the indistinct forms of dinosaurs prowling the shoreline. There was no sound, aside from the lapping of the waves and the harsh calls of a distant pterosaur. It looked, for all in the world, like a beach in the Mediterranean; far from what it would look like over 200 million years in the future. It was a tranquil image of peace and serenity; Jack stared out and sighed at the beautiful vista before him. Even Alice couldn't help but smile.

Both their thoughts were interrupted by Drew yelling, "Enough sightseeing, D-bags!" Jack and Alice gave each other a surprised look, whilst Drew scanned the vista, "Right, what should we do first?" Surprisingly, it was Ballas who spoke next, "Well, it might not be my place, Kapetánio, but I'd suggest turning on the radar." Drew turned to him and smiled, "Exactly what I was thinking! Ballas, Nagayoshi, let's get scanning!"

With Drew, Ballas and Nagayoshi gone, Jack and Alice were left alone on the boat. Once Jack was sure Drew had gone, he turned to his sister and asked, "What do you think of him? Honestly – I can tell when you're sugar-coating."

Alice sighed, "Honestly? He's kind of a dick. I mean, the way he talks to people! I honestly don't know how he gets away with it."

Jack shrugged, "It's the charm, I think. Even when he acts like a knob, you sort of forgive him because he's a pretty charming knob. But he's good at what he does – pretty good…"

Alice shrugged, "Yeah. I suppose we can forgive his… flaws a bit."

After a few minutes, Drew emerged from the control room and said, "Alice? We found a bunch of radar signatures in this reef. So, come with me, I need some help."

Alice rolled her eyes, turned on her heel and said, "Sure."

. . . ..

Khatin von Schorzberg was in a good mood as he calmly made his way down the corridor that led to his office, whistling quietly as he did so. So far, things were going rather well for him and the rest of his team. He'd briefly left three of his younger underlings to continue work on studying some of the new species from the compsognathus mission to drop by his office and get hold of some useful material.

He reached his office, hand already extended to grab the doorknob and open the door, which he had made sure to leave open a crack earlier that morning for the sake of airing out the room for a little bit. But right as his hand was about to touch the doorknob, he paused, his eyebrow raised in confusion at a peculiar sound he heard coming from inside the office. Specifically, he could now hear a familiar yapping, chirping sound...

Eyes narrowed, he opened the door completely, unsurprised to see three compsognathus standing on his desk, right nearby the keyboard for his computer. For what felt like an hour, Khatin stood where he was, gaping incredulously at the three small dinosaurs – this had happened seven times in two weeks. The compys eventually realized that they were being watched, and turned their heads inquisitively towards Khatin.

After about a minute, Khatin sighed, shook his head, and drew out his communicator. He entered in the ID for Kyle's communicator. Within seconds, the call went through. "This is Taymor. Over?"

"Hello," Khatin stated. "Quick question, were all the compsognathus in their enclosure when you counted them this morning?"

"That is correct. They were all there."

"You might want to do a recount," said Khatin.

"Why?"

"Because I just found three of them in my office...again."

. . . ..

Kyle sighed irritatedly at the sight. He was at the compsognathus exhibit, looking at least seven compys standing outside the boundaries. "This again?", he muttered to himself.

For the past two weeks, the compsognathus had been almost constantly getting out. Granted, they were only a minor nuisance, but the escapes were not a matter to be taken lightly. Kyle was ticked off that he had to round up the compys again when he be at the holding pens aiding the other keepers in handling whatever arrived from today's mission.

"I see you know about the compy escape."

Kyle took a deep breath, exhaled, and then turned his head to see Nikolai standing behind him. "So I have."

Nikolai nodded his head. "It is as I've suspected," said the security chief. "There is clearly some flaw that has missed our notice and is allowing the compys to escape. If we do not find it and deal with it, this could be a recurring problem."

Kyle gritted his teeth. "I. Know. That," he said. As much as he hated to admit it, the security chief's constant paranoia was starting to annoy him.

Kyle and Nikolai then turned to see Khatin come to a stop with what appeared to be a pet carrier in his hands. "I've got the three that were in my office in here," he stated, before looking at the seven compys gathered idly by the boundary for their exhibit. "And I take it you've noticed those over there."

Nikolai and Kyle nodded, and Khatin sighed. "Another mass roundup?"

"What will be, will be, I'm afraid." Kyle sighed, shook his head and glared at the seven compys, who continued to stare inquisitively his way without budging. "We'll have to get these ones back in and do a headcount."

"Da," said Nikolai. "And once that's done, I'll send an order for anyone who sees any compys out to report them on sight, so we can find them." The security chief stepped forward, only for the compys to scatter in all directions.

"Wonderful," Khatin grumbled irritably.

"You said it," Kyle groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. Already he could tell that this was going to be a long day.

. . . ..

Back in the Triassic, Drew and Alice swam through the reef, in search of animals to bring back. They didn't have to swim for long before they found their first animals. A small group of lizard-like creatures were foraging in the seafloor sediment. Each was about seven feet long and looked like a cross between a Galapagos marine iguana and a walrus, with five of them coloured like the former. The other four were a murky green and were somewhat smaller.

Alice turned to Drew, "Any idea what these are?" Drew said, "They're placodonts; distant relatives of the nothosaurs." As Alice looked closer, she realized something else. "They feed like walruses", she said, "They're using their upper lips and teeth to find molluscs in this sediment before hoovering them up." After saying this, Alice turned to Drew and asked, "How are we going to get this lot through the portal?" Drew turned to her and said, "Get the bait bag." Alice grabbed the bait bag and emptied molluscs onto the ocean floor. The whole pod approached the molluscs and began feeding. Whilst they were doing that, Drew approached them and set up the portal. Grabbing some of the molluscs, he threw them through the portal. The pod followed the food through, into the present.

Continuing to swim through the reef, Drew and Alice turned a corner to see a small group of lizard-like creatures catching a shoal of fish near a fan coral. Drew said, "These are pachypleurosaurs, with a couple of small nothosaurs – Lariosaurus and Neusticosaurus I recognize, but I don't know what the others are."

Alice nodded her head. "Leon probably would."

"Yeah," Drew admitted.

Catching the pachypleurosaurs and nothosaurs soon proved to be more difficult than anticipated, presumably due to the many predators that were present. Which was fine from an evolutionary point of view… however, it meant trying to catch them was a bitch. Whenever they got within close range of a few, they would scatter, darting away into the caverns and tunnels of the coral reef. Whilst they varied in appearance and coloration, most of them had a mottled pattern, presumably for camouflage. The Lariosaurus had reddish tan scales, had flipper-like front limbs, and lizard-like back limbs with webbed feet. The Neusticosaurus were much slenderer, coloured in brownish gold scales, and had gecko-like heads. Eight of the pachypleurosaurs had blueish gray scales, lizard-like limbs with webbed feet, and had heads resembling small pythons. The remaining seven were covered in much darker gray scales, had hind limbs that resembled flippers and front limbs that resembled a mix between flippers and clawed lizard-like feet, and were easily mistaken at first glance for small plesiosaurs. As they approached, a Lariosaurus nearby a large spreading fan coral, it suddenly turned and snapped at Alice, inches away from her face, before swimming off, its mottled reddish tan tail seemingly mocking them as the creature swam away. In the end, they resolved to empty the chum bag as bait in order to lure the smaller marine reptiles through the portal.

Once this was done, Jack's voice crackled in through the radio, "By the way, fearless leader, the radar picked some large signatures up over a fan coral. I'd recommend you check it out." Drew and Alice went to see what was over the coral. What they saw was several large lizard-like creatures searching for food in the reef. Their main diagnostic feature was their incredibly long necks; it took up over half the length of their body. Each had dark green backs, with tan underbellies, brown limbs and a long, striped tail. Looking at them, Drew said, "Tanystropheus. Bit more sedentary than other marine reptiles."

Sure enough, the Tanystropheus had no interest in Drew and Alice whatsoever, which made luring them through the portal a lot harder. Without other options, Alice got the bait bag and began emptying it into the water near the portal, deliberately making sure the reptiles couldn't reach the food from their current positions despite their long necks, which caused them to follow it, heading through into the present for their troubles.

After the last one went through the portal, Alice suddenly pointed to something, "Drew, over there!" Drew turned to see a small reptile swimming through the water; it was about two feet long and covered in mottled green scales. The little creature looked like it was fleeing something. Drew knew what it was, "A Nothosaurus. And a little one by the looks of it." Drew suddenly swam up to the little reptile, just as it was about to surface, and grabbed it, restraining its thrashing form. Drew smiled, "Let's get back to the boat."

Returning to the boat, they found out that Jack and the Ancient Mariner crew had fished out a dead placodont. "Felt it might come in handy," Jack explained. "Could be useful as bait."

His sister examined the corpse, thinking carefully to herself. She then looked to Drew. "Good idea?" Drew was about to respond when the sound of pterosaur-like shrieking filled the air.

"Incoming!"

This shout from the lookout was enough to get everyone else onboard the ship to look in the direction the crew member was pointing in time to see a large flock of pterosaurs descending from the sky towards where the dead placodont lay. As this happened, Drew was able to quickly take note of how the flock consisted of two different species – twenty of them were covered in dark brown fuzzy fur while the remaining twenty-one were coloured similarly to seagulls. The pterosaurs came upon the placodont corpse, at which point they started tearing into it.

"Well, we know it works," said one of the crew members, clearly amused.

"I'll need to ask Leon for confirmation," Drew stated, pointing at the feasting pterosaurs in the process. "But I think the fuzzy brown ones are eudimorphodon and the ones coloured after seagulls are preondactylus."

"Fascinating," said Stavros, clearly now in awe of the pterosaurs.

"Indeed," Kira agreed before he then pointed at the feasting animals in question, a firm look on his face. "Doesn't change the fact that, unless we either scare them off or send them through the portal, we risk losing our bait."

At this statement, Jack grinned - he'd already had a plan.

"Alice," he stated. "Do you think you and Drew could get the portal ready without spooking out the pterosaurs? Also, are there any extra buckets of chum available that I could use?"

One of the crew members carefully picked up one of the extra chum buckets and passed it over to Alice, who in turn passed it over to Jack. Drew, meanwhile, carefully drew out his portal remote so that it would be ready, setting it to the holding aviaries. Acting as carefully as he could so as not to alert the pterosaurs, Jack slowly lifted the lid from the bucket. Within seconds, the scent of the chum caught the attention of the nearest pterosaur, who lifted its head and chirped before looking in Jack's direction, with the rest of the flock following suit.

Jack smiled. "That's right, little guys," he whispered, drawing out a small handful of the chum and sprinkling it across the deck, whilst slowly moving backwards towards Drew. "A chum buffet."

As this happened, Drew, Alice, and the Ancient Mariner's crew stood as still as possible, whilst the pterosaurs cautiously departed from the dead placodont and crawled after Jack, gingerly snapping up the chum trail as they did so. Once Jack was in position, he flashed Drew a thumbs up. Drew nodded and activated the portal – in a flash, it whirred into life. The pterosaurs briefly recoiled from the unexpected vortex of light suddenly popping into existence in front of them.

"Hey!"

The pterosaurs all looked back at Jack, as he positioned the bucket towards the portal. "Want some more?", he yelled, before thrusting the bucket towards the portal, sending the remaining chum through. "Come and get it!"

The entire flock shrieked in unison before leaping off the ship's deck and flying straight through the portal. Once they were all gone, and the portal had closed, Jack looked to Drew. "How did I do?"

"Not bad." Drew nodded his head. "Not bad at all."

At the sound of a low hiss, the group turned their heads to see the juvenile Nothosaurus poke its head out of the canoe, gazing inquisitively at the group of unfamiliar creatures around it.

"Oh," Drew said nervously, giving the crew a sheepish look. "I forgot to mention we found this little guy."

"I assume this is the target species?" Kira asked.

"Yup," Alice confirmed. "We figured it wouldn't hurt to keep it here until we got more."

"Sounds reasonable to me." Stavros nodded his head. "As long as it doesn't cause trouble."

"If you say so," said Kira. He then pointed at the young nothosaurus. "However, if it starts acting aggressively, it should be sent through the portal as soon as possible."

"Fair enough," Drew stated.

"Yup," Alice and Jack agreed in unison.

"Excellent," said Stavros, clasping his hands together. "With all that said, are you going to search for more nothosaurs?" He then pointed at the island up ahead. "Or are you planning to head to that island and see what's there?"

Drew looked towards the island, thought to himself, and then looked back at the people on the Mariner. "Go to the island," he stated. "We've got time – there's nothing wrong with a little detour."

"No species left behind," Alice stated.

"Then that settles it." Stavros clapped his hands. "You heard them! Full steam ahead to that island!"

"Should be fun," said Jack optimistically, before turning his head towards the nothosaurus, reaching his hands towards it. "Let's get you somewhere safe, little buddy," he said aloud. However, the nothosaurus snapped at him, causing Jack to recoil in surprise, much to the amusement of the playful nothosaurus, who climbed out of the canoe and slipped onto the deck, much to the amusement of the gathered humans.

. . . ..

Back at the park, Linda and Yolanda were standing by the allosaurus europaeus paddock. They were primarily observing the adult male, who'd first arrived at the park with his jaw set at an awkward angle - the vets had corrected it in surgery, leaving him with a slight underbite. As a result, he had been named Broken Jaw.

Linda smiled at the sight of Broken Jaw eating the remnants of a cow carcass alongside his mate, son, and daughter, his eating unaffected by his underbite, whilst a small flock of pterosaurs, perched on nearby tree branches, waited for the opportunity to feast on the scraps.

Linda smiled. She always prided herself on the devotion she showed to the animals that ended up under her care, and she was always happy whenever things turned out well.

"Nice to see he's doing well," Yolanda stated, smiling warmly and eyes agleam. Like her boss, she was devoted to the animals that ended up under her care. She then looked back at Linda. " So… Arlo's going to be ready to be integrated in a week…"

"Yeah, I'm a little worried about it." Linda nodded her head, directing her head briefly back towards Broken Jaw and his family, before nodding solemnly. "Just hope things go well - if Gertie says no, Bron'll chase him away without hesitation."

Yolanda nodded her head in agreement. While the old Apatosaurus female Gertie was technically the leader of the apatosaurus herd, an adult male named Bron seemed to act as her enforcer. If Arlo was rejected…

Linda shook her head side to side to get the thoughts out of her head. "Let's not be pessimistic," she thought to herself. "It's a week away. We'll be ready." She then looked to Yolanda. "Just going to have to hope for the best."

"I suppose you're right," Yolanda admitted, before smiling at the sight of the younger allosaurs playing tug-of-war with a piece of meat. She couldn't help but giggle at the sight – it was impossible not to.

. . . ..

Meanwhile, at the Torvosaurus paddock, Harold 'Harry' Carver, co-chief veterinarian of Prehistoric Park, was intently observing them, his green eyes narrowed in concentration as he worked to paint a picture of them. He was a very patient man, and always slow to anger, qualities that helped him as a painter and a veterinarian. Much like Yolanda and Linda, he was also devoted to the animals that ended up under his care. Since he had three children, who had remained with his wife in Ireland, he was also very good at working with the younger staff members.

Eventually, he took a final look at the torvosaurus to make sure he'd got the details correct, he finished his painting, before 'framing' it with his hands, and smiled at the artwork - the torvosaurus pair standing over a lusotitan carcass, whilst illuminated by a sunset. "Perfect," he whispered to himself.

The sound of the lourinhanosaurus snarling caused the torvosaurus to turn their heads and bellowed and hiss in reply. Harry sighed – a territorial display.

As this happened, Harry thought carefully to himself. For many of the animals, there were few representatives; sometimes only a single pair – inbreeding would become a serious problem in the future. There had been discussions about bringing back more animals in the future…

However, that was in the future.

. . . ..

Meanwhile, in the forest zone that housed the smaller Morrison animals, another one of the vets, a woman named Bethany Williams, was relaxing on a bench as she observed some of the forest's denizens. Currently she was watching the Eilenodon and Opisthias. The eilenodon were currently browsing on some vegetation while the opisthias were basking on a rock in the sunlight to rest after being recently fed insects. She sighed in contentment, running her fingers through her hair, half of which was black and the other half of which was red. She had to admit, she often liked being on her own. Granted, she certainly got along decently enough with her colleagues in the veterinary division. However, she preferred not to interact with the other staff. Around people she didn't know that well, she tended to act very mysterious and often came across as rather morbid and intimidating. Now around people she knew well, and especially around kids, she was very friendly and easy to like. But for now, she mostly preferred to be on her own amongst the animals, especially amongst small reptiles and invertebrates.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Williams?"

Bethany turned her head, a small smile on her face at the sight of the Malaysian- American rescue team member, Adrian she believed he was called, standing by the mesadactylus aviary, a slightly nervous look on his face. "Well, hello," she said. "Is there something you want me to help you with?"

"You could say that," Adrian stated. He pointed once again at the area where the small pterosaurs lived. "Notice anything unusual?"

Bethany took a closer look, and her eyes widened. Standing on the ground, staring intently at the Mesadactylus eggs, were four compsognathus. She sighed. "The compys have escaped. Again."

"Yeah," Adrian agreed. He nodded his head, not keeping his eyes off the compys. "Think you could help me get them out of there? I don't like the way they're looking at the eggs."

. . . ..

Having left the boat, Drew, Jack and Alice were walking through a scrubby area, searching for animals. Jack said, "Hmm, don't seem to be seeing much", to which Drew said, "Yeah, I know." Alice rolled her eyes and said, "Be patient, I'm sure we'll find something eventually…"

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a loud chittering. A small group of creatures that looked like bipedal, lizard-like crocodilians; some of them reddish brown, some of them lime green, and the rest yellow-and-black, accompanied by some small bipedal dinosaurs and a flock of small pterosaurs, were nosing through the nearby foliage. Drew said, "Some small crocodillians of the time – and Procompsognathus, a small dinosaur. No relation to the compys. The pterosaurs, on the other hand, I'm guessing are Peteinosaurus." Using a trail of insects, they managed to get all of them through the portal.

After their encounter with the small crocodiles – and Procompsognathus and Peteinosaurus – Drew, Jack and Alice headed over the hills to see a large lake and a group of theropods, some ten feet long, ripping into the body of a dead prosauropod, its ankles mired in quicksand. Drew looked curiously, "I'm not sure what any of these are – Leon would probably know…"

Jack snorted, rolling his eyes. "I'll bet," he grumbled under his breath.

A few minutes later, from the nearby lake, several large crocodile-like creatures, about the size of alligators, emerged and advanced towards the dead Plateosaurus. The small theropods hissed and snapped at the new arrivals, who bellowed in response. "I think these are Nicrosaurus," Drew muttered.

"They're phytosaurs." Jack nodded, "They look like crocodiles, but they're not really."

After the phytosaurs, a stranger group of animals emerged from the nearby scrub. They looked like a cross between a crocodile and a monitor lizard, with slate-grey scales. Jack turned to Drew, "Those look awfully like rauisuchians to me. Probably Ticinosuchus." Four larger rauisuchians emerged after them and began feeding from the carcass. Jack said, "I'm guessing those are Teratosaurus."

Drew nodded, "Just what I was thinking". A small flock of pterosaurs circled the carcass, waiting for the other scavengers to finish.

Alice pointed her finger at them, recognizing them from a book she'd read. "Those are Caviramus," she stated. "Another common pterosaur around this part of the world. You can tell from the crests."

Drew smirked, "I've got an idea…"

Sneaking past the feeding carnivores, Drew hooked the winch into the dead prosauropod's leg; the winch was attached to a park jeep on the other side. Drew ran back to the portal and gave the thumbs-up signal and the winch began pulling the prosauropod carcass away. The carnivores took notice of this and began to move towards it, hissing and snarling, all united in a desire to not lose their meal. As soon as they got close enough, Alice activated the portal, which the Jeep dragging the prosauropod carcass with it, tore through. The scavengers dove through the portal after the carcass, like dogs after a tennis ball.

Approaching the lake, the team found themselves briefly skidding to a halt, eyes widening at the sight of eight large amphibians basking in the water. They were all a dark green with tannish yellow underbellies, had yellow eyes and had small pointy teeth in their jaws. One of them turned its head, its yellow eyes boredly gazing at the three humans before it resumed basking.

As this happened, Jack let out a silent whistle. "Holy shit, these things are huge," he managed to say.

"No kidding," Alice agreed.

"I think I know what these are," Drew stated. "They're mastodonsaurus."

"Appropriate," Jack stated, staring awestruck at the large amphibians. "Though, getting them through the portal is going to be a bitch."

"You said it," Alice agreed before she looked at Drew, eyebrow raised. "But let me guess, you have an idea?"

Drew smiled. "You're starting to catch on. Awesome." He nodded his head, took his backpack off his shoulders, reached inside, and drew out several cans of tuna. "Studies indicate they were likely piscivores," he explained. "So let's see if they like some Holocene fish."

His plan revealed, Drew and the Denhams got to work on getting the attention of the mastodonsaurus. It took a while, as the temnospondyls initially barely registered the fact that the fish was being thrown to them. However, after a few exasperating minutes, the amphibians noticed the fact that there was food in the water and began to feed. Drew, Jack, and Alice, using more fish, managed to lure the large amphibians through the portal.

"Finally," Jack grumbled once the last of the mastodonsaurus had gone through the portal.

"Yeah," Alice hissed, shaking her head side to side. "I've met cows that were easier to get moving."

"Well look on the bright side," Drew sighed. "At least we've finally gotten them through."

Suddenly, at the sound of a low sauropod-like bellow, the trio looked to the opposite side of the lake in time to a small prosauropod cautiously approaching the water. As the trio watched, it tentatively moved closer and closer to the lake...only to then be sent running a large greenish-coloured, gharial-like creature hissed at it.

"Mystriosuchus," Jack stated while pointing at the phytosaurs, "Another local phytosaur. Given they look like gharials, they're probably piscivores."

Drew smirked. "Let's get to work."

Jack picked up one of the spare tuna cans before the team made their way over to the phytosaur float, whilst preparing more tuna as bait. However, after a twig snapped, the mystriosuchus all looked in their direction, hissed, and charged towards them, intending to scare them away. But Alice had been prepared for this, and she summoned her portal in time for the entire float, maintaining their trajectory, to come charging right through to the present. Jack whistled once the portal had closed. "Well, that was easy."

"Yup," said Alice. She looked at Drew. "And I'm guessing we follow the prosauropod?"

"Correct, Alice," said Drew, "There could be more."

"Well in that case, let's get moving," said Jack. "These prosauropods aren't gonna rescue themselves."

. . . ..

Kyle stood over the holding pen, thinking about what was going on. At the moment, the holding pen he and his team for the land-based holding pens were standing in front of was occupied by ten theropods that he recognized from Leon's dossier as Lophostropheus, six Nicrosaurus, four Teratosaurus and eight Ticinosuchus. All of them were currently feeding on a dead prosauropod that Drew had used as bait for the carnivores. The Caviramus had been transferred to their new aviary. Right now, however, transferring the carnivores, as well as for the mastodonsaurus and mystriosuchus was on hold due to the keeper who had towed the dead prosauropod keeping himself stuck inside the jeep due to five stowaway compsognathus. They had to wait until somebody came and secured them – and catch the twenty-five more running around the park. "This is going to be a long day," Kyle thought bitterly to himself.

. . . ..

Meanwhile, Drew, Jack and Alice walked over a hill to see a herd of prosauropods, of four different species, drinking from a lake, accompanied by a herd of large dicynodonts. And just as suspected, the one juvenile from earlier was amongst them. Scanning the herd, Drew said, "Two species of Plateosaurus, Thecodontosaurus and Efraasia, whilst the dicynodonts are Lisowicia…" Suddenly, an Efraasia screeched an alarm, and all the prosauropods went on alert.

Drew, Jack and Alice squinted to see theropods moving stealthily through the bushes. Their necks were long, and their heads had a short, rounded pair of crests. Their bodies were counterbalanced by a long tail. They were covered in sandy brown feathers, with black stripes along their sides and a small tuft of red feathers on their heads. They were stockier than the theropods they'd seen feeding on the dead Plateosaurus. Jack turned to Drew and asked, "Liliensternus?" Drew nodded.

The Liliensternus advanced towards the prosauropods, scanning the herd. The herd bunched together, keeping the younger animals in the middle, whilst the larger adults began stamping their feet and bellowing to drive off the predators. The Liliensternus, undaunted, snapped and hissed at the prosauropods. Drew turned to Jack and Alice and said, "You bring back the prosauropods – I'll handle the Liliensternus."

Jack and Alice turned to each other and ran up to the prosauropod herd, which was now browsing some distance away. Once the herbivores had gotten close enough, the two tossed the vegetation through the portal, which the herbivores followed. Meanwhile, Drew turned to the Liliensternus and began blaring his airhorn. The theropods turned to him and snarled – to this, Drew smirked and began slowly moving backwards, blaring the horn again. The Liliensternus pack slowly started following him, now completely focused on him instead of the prosauropod herd. When the predators had gotten close enough, they charged towards him; Drew dived out of the way and activated the portal remote, and the theropods dove through the portal into the present. Drew turned to his team and smiled, "Let's get back to the boat." Jack looked, almost impressed at Drew's bravado, whilst Alice looked quizzically.

. . . ..

Back at the park, while the liliensternus, and prosauropods were being handled at the holding pens, Kyle, Nikolai, Khatin, and the junior technician Ramsey Gray were gathered in the security camera room watching the footage of the compsognathus prior to the escape. The whole pack of compsognathus had been recaptured and were all chirping inquisitively from within their respective pet carriers. It had taken a while, but all of them had been rounded up. Right now, they had a theory, based upon blueprints for the exhibit's design – they needed to check it was true.

After what felt like an hour, a tiny gap in the exhibit's boundaries where a pre-existing stream was flowing through the exhibit, they saw three compys gathering around the gap, and squirming their way through it, briefly submerging themselves in the process before resurfacing and rushing over to the main entrance to the exhibit zone.

"So that's how they've been getting out," Khatin stated, happy to finally know the answer and slightly annoyed that the idea hadn't occurred to him sooner.

"Indeed." Kyle nodded his head, a look of solemn acceptance on his face. "I wasn't anticipating they could swim. That's how we overlooked that gap."

"Da," Nikolai agreed, also nodding his head. "Hopefully, you can take this lesson to heart for next time."

Kyle directed a tight grin towards Nikolai. "Fear not," he managed to say, just barely keeping his voice calm. "I shall."

"Well," Ramsey stated, now clearly happy at the opportunity for him and the other technicians to once again put their skills to use. "I'll make sure to bring this to my boss's attention - we'll have a barrier designed as soon as possible. After that, the compys won't be any trouble."

The other staff members with him agreed, and they all departed to get back to their respective tasks, making sure to take the pet carriers containing the compsognathus with them so they could be dropped off until their exhibit could be fully secured.

. . . ..

Meanwhile in Switzerland, the Mariner had sailed out into the middle of the sea, with Drew and Jack taking a lifeboat and diving into the water to catch some Nothosaurus. For this, they had taken a cattle prod with them, in order to keep the reptiles from getting too close for comfort. It didn't take long for some to appear, most likely curious of the new creatures. They looked like larger versions of the juvenile on the boat – however, their greenish-brown, leathery skin was darker, their necks were longer and their snouts and teeth were longer. It seemed that the nothosaurs had instantly noticed the cattle prod they had and approached with caution, not wanting to be on the receiving end of what (to them) was a large, extendable claw.

The Nothosaurs may have looked reptilian, but they had the playfulness and inquisitive nature of sea lions. They were swimming close but keeping their distance; some of them allowed themselves to be petted, curious at these new creatures. When the time came to use the portal, Jack turned it on. They briefly stared, transfixed at this strange, shining orb, before heading through the portal into the park. Drew and Jack looked at each other and smiled, "Fearless leader, I think we should be getting back to the boat." The two swam up to the surface and got on the boat.

Suddenly, something rushed up from the water and collided with the boat, splintering it in half. Drew and Jack barely had time to put their diving masks back on as the boat they were on was suddenly impacted, knocking them into the water. Once they recovered from their disorientation, they looked around to see themselves surrounded by several large marine reptiles; the largest was some thirty feet long, with a greyish coloration. They all had vaguely crocodilian appearances, with pointed, tooth-filled jaws, large paddle-like flippers, and fluked tails. Their bodies were long and vaguely serpentine. They stared at the two humans with an expression of cold indifference, circling them like sharks. The creatures moved with a sinuous grace, their tails propelling their bodies. "Ummm, fearless leader?", Jack asked nervously.

Drew said, "They're probably Cymbospondylus; the apex predators here" The ichthyosaurs gave Jack and Drew a look of cold interest as they advanced sinuously through the water.

Deploying his cattle prod, Jack looked nervously at the advancing icthyosaurs and said, "Fearless leader, if you have a plan, now would be a great time to implement it." Drew smiled, "Oh ye of little faith, I actually do have a plan. Use the cattle prod, hold them off, whilst I contact the Mariner."

The ichthyosaurs, moving closer to Jack, started to snap at him in aggressive curiosity, but he responded by moving his cattle rod. The shock from the stick didn't seem to hurt the reptiles much, but it was enough to deter them; at least for a while. However, a while was all Drew needed. Just until she got the surprise ready…

Suddenly, there was a noise and something impacted the water, hitting the water so fast it was, for all intents and purposes, a blur. The icthyosaurs turned to look at it and Jack peered at it in confusion; when the bubbles cleared, he could see that it was the dead placodont he and the crew had fished out earlier and almost lost to the eudimorphodon and preondactylus. Drew laughed and said, "That was the plan; we use the placodont as bait!"

The Cymbospondylus turned their attention from the broken lifeboat to this new, more substantial meal. This gave Drew time to lift the portal remote and point it directly at the carcass, which got sucked through the portal. Unchanging in their trajectory, the icthyosaurs followed the carcass through the glowing orb, moving as if a single entity. Drew sighed; the adventure was over. Alice's voice crackled over the radio, "We're sending down the shark cage to pick you guys up. After that, I think it's time we all went home." As she said this, the shark cage was lowered into the water, and Drew and Jack swam into it. Once they were both in, with Drew closing the door, the shark cage was lifted above water and. Jack turned to Drew and said, "That was a really good plan you had." Drew smiled, "I know, right?" Alice and the Ancient Mariner crew were happy and the juvenile nothosaurus hissed and snapped its teeth in delight. Smiling, Drew activated the portal and the Mariner sailed through to the present.

After a while, everyone was at home. All the animals had been transferred to Triassic Trek, the new exhibit that they would call home. It was decided that the Nothosaurus and Tanystropheus could share a tank, since they were both fish-eaters and unlikely to harm each other; they were either swimming around or basking on the rocks. The juvenile nothosaurus, which Stavros had named Nemo, was currently in a smaller tank next door, until he could be integrated with the rest of his kind. The Cymbospondylus had gigantic exhibits to themselves, complete with reefs to make it feel like the Triassic sea. They were currently swimming around their new accommodation, waiting to be fed. Smaller tanks contained the placodonts, pachypleurosaurs, Neusticosaurus and Lariosaurus. Leon and Khatin had managed to identify them – the four murky green placodonts were paraplacodus, whereas the five marine-iguana coloured ones were placodus. The eight blueish grey pachypleurosaurs were identified as odoiporosaurus, whereas the seven darker grey ones were identified as dactylosaurus.

The phytosaurs and Mastodonsaurus had been transferred to a freshwater section, with large pools and beach areas for them to climb up on. They were all either swimming in their new pools or basking on the shore, waiting to be fed.

The prosauropods and lisowicia had all been given a large mixed exhibit to roam about – each was roughly sticking to their herds, whilst the small crocodiles, theropods and rauisuchians had been transferred to paddocks nearby. The small crocodiles had been identified by Leon and Khatin. The reddish-brown ones were erpetosuchus, the lime green ones were saltoposuchus, and the orange-and-black were terrestrisuchus.

Even the pterosaurs had been granted their own appropriate aviary style enclosures, with the eudimorphodon and preondactylus sharing a seashore themed exhibit while the peteinosaurus and caviramus lived in an exhibit themed after the island's tropical swamp forests.

And by the end of the day, the exhibit gap that had allowed the compsognathus to escape had been sealed up whilst still allowing the stream to flow, with all 30 of the compys subsequently released back into their exhibit.

All in all, things were back to normal at Prehistoric Park. Soon, the new exhibits currently under construction would be ready for the animals for the next mission. The next week, they would also be attempting to integrate Arlo with the rest of his kind.

(Rescue Tally)

* Caviramus schesaplanensis (8; all adults; 4 male; 4 female)

* Cymbospondylus buchseri (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)

* Dactylosaurus gracilis (7; all adults; 4 male, 3 female)

* Efraasia minor (13; 10 adults, 3 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)

* Eudimorphodon ranzii (20; all adults; 10 male, 10 female)

* Erpetosuchus granti (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)

* Lariosaurus balsami (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

* Lisowicia bolgani (10: 8 adults, 2 youngsters; 3 male, 7 female)

* Liliensternus liliensterni (18; 13 adults, 5 youngsters; 8 male, 10 female)

* Lophostropheus (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

* Mastodonsaurus giganteus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

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

* Nicrosaurus kapffi (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

* Neusticosaurus edwardsi (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

* Nothosaurus mirabilis (19; 11 adults, 8 youngsters; 9 male, 10 female)

* Odoiporosaurus teruzzii (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Peteinosaurus zambelli (27; all adults; 13 male, 14 female)

* Paraplacodus broilli (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)

* Placodus gigas (5; all adults; 2 male, 3 female)

* Plateosaurus engelhardti (20; 13 adults, 7 youngsters; 10 male, 10 female)

* Plateosaurus gracilis (10; 7 adults, 3 youngsters; 4 male, 6 female)

* Preondactylus buffarinii (21; all adults; 10 male, 11 female)

* Procompsognathus triassicus (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

* Saltoposuchus connectens (10; all adults; 4 male, 6 female)

* Tanystropheus conspicuous (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Teratosaurus suevicus (4: 2 male, 2 female)

* Terrestrisuchus gracilis (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Thecodontosaurus antiquus (12; 8 adults, 4 youngsters; 5 male, 7 female)

* Ticinosuchus ferox (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)