The dinocephalian stared right at Madeline, who, despite herself, smiled

"Huh. Never thought I'd see a dinocephalian in the flesh."

Before anything could happen, a dart suddenly flew into the dinocephalian's neck. As the creature yelped out in shock, Madeline turned to face Kalista, who was smiling uneasily and holding a tranquilizer rifle.

"Why did you fire?"

"To get him to fall asleep?"

"Could you have waited until after he wasn't focused on us?"

"...Probably."

Further conversation was cut off when the horned creature let out a ferocious cry and charged. The quartet barely managed to roll out of the way as the creature barreled by, causing the watching predator to leap onto its kill and howl. Taking that as their cue, the soldiers darted into the open, with their designated sharpshooter firing a tranquilizer shot into the creature's neck. Surprised, the predator hissed at them, but unlike the quartet, the squad had successfully surrounded the predator, leaving it with no easy targets to vent its anger upon. If they could just keep it from focusing on one of them, they could wait for it to pass out.

As for the quartet, they had recovered from the charge and were now circling around the horned creature, waiting for the dart to do its work. Unfortunately, the creature was still very, very enraged, and immediately began to try and decide which of them it would charge. Eventually, it settled on Jose and, lowering its head, began to gallop toward him.

Looking for a safe direction to dodge, he found a dead cottonwood behind him, as well as a clean patch of dirt to his right. Jose's eyes darted between the tree, the dirt, and the charging herbivore until he made his decision and crouched slightly. Just as the herbivore was about to hit him, he dived into the dirt. Unable to slow itself down, the dinocephalian collided with the tree, dazing it and uprooting the dead plant. Jose made his escape while the creature shook off its whiplash.

The three women shared a glance before nodding - perhaps there was a way to speed up the herbivore's descent into slumber.

Stephanie was the first to provoke the quadruped - pulling out a disposable camera she kept for snap shots, she began taking as many flash phots as possible, which succeeded in enraging the herbivore even more than it already was. Growling, it charged her, only to misjudge the attack and collide with a large rock. It had barely shaken off the collision when Kalista began throwing rocks at it, trying to goad it into running toward a small cactus.

The squad, meanwhile, had the carnivore caught like a rat - they would take turns getting near it and making it lunge, only to dodge out of the way at the last minute. Slowly but surely, this strategy was working, as the creature was already panting in exhaustion. Just a few more rounds, and the last remaining fight left in it would be gone.

Further away, the armored herbivore growled in pain - the cactus spines had embedded themselves in its left shoulder, and while they hadn't gone too deep, they still hurt.

Finally, the creature turned its attention to Madeline, who was standing atop a small hill. Said woman was doing whatever she could to anger it - strutting about, making loud noises, throwing rocks, and so on. Though exhaustion now clouded its mind, the woman's plans succeed, and with a ferocious howl of anger, it charged her.

When it came upon her, though, Madeline did not jump out of the way. Instead, she merely fell flat backwards.

The dinocephalian, however, had hit the top of the hill with too much force, and ended up charging off the edge and falling over, completely overshooting its intended target. The tumbling that followed was hardly enough to damage it, but tumbling did its job as expected - dizzied and exhausted, the creature finally succumbed to exhaustion and the tranquilizer, and collapsed.

Nearby, the squad had secured the carnivore, which had lost consciousness just a few moments before.

Pulling herself up, Madeline sighed. "Someone call up Wyatt and tell him we've got two more creatures that need to be sent back in time."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, tell Maddy where we are and that she can bring them here - we have enough trouble with these two!"

Said creatures were the Estemmenosuchus that were wallowing/feeding on the cactus fruit. The two had maneuvered themselves into positions where accuracy with a tranquilizer rifle was...iffy, to say the least. Thus, Wyatt and his team had been forced to try and scare them into the anomaly. And so far, that plan wasn't working.

And they still had to get the Platyposaurus into the anomaly.

Just then, something caught Rebekah's eye. "Uh, Arthur?"

"Yes?" asked Wyatt.

"Is the portal supposed to do that?"

Turning, Wyatt saw the anomaly expanding and contracting like crazy...before promptly closing.

"...Fuck."

XXXXXXXXX

"Great, more mouths to feed," groused Madeline in annoyance.

"Eh, we expected this," noted Ai. "Though unless we can send them back, there's gonna be some problems in the future."

"I can guess," replied the FBI leader, who'd just pulled out her own laptop. Glancing over it, Wyatt noticed that it had the a tyrannosaur skull symbol - the calling card of Saurus Systems.

"..Good choice in technology."

"Very funny. So, how are our new hires handling things?"

"Good, all things considered. Rebekah and Kalista are helping Colt, Stephanie and Jose get a feel for using rifles. Doubt they'll have improved much by the time the next anomaly opens."

"Unlikely. Is there anything else you want to talk about? If not, we can find arrange a-"

"There is something I want to know...well, a few things."

Wyatt and Ai shared a glance, then turned to Maddy. "Shoot."

"When did you really get invested in this?"

"...2011. I don't know how, but a ton of anomalies opened up, well, everywhere."

"Everywhere in the US?"

"Everywhere period. US, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Uganda, Switzerland, Russia, Laos, Australia, everywhere. It only lasted a few hours, but the satellite recordings speak for themselves."

"How the hell did I not get informed about this?"

"You were hunting the...Kataru, if I remember correctly."

"Oh," was all Maddy could say to that. "Makes sense. So, how common have these portals been since that happened?"

"They opened rarely right after this mass portal opening happened, but their frequency in appearance has steadily been increasing. I'd give five or so every three months as being the new norm. Even more in areas with lots of magnetite - high magnetic distortion increases portal frequency."

"I see."

"Anymore questions?"

"Two more, but first, I think your pet bugs want to get out of their container."

Turning to look at the jar Madeline was pointing at, Wyatt moved to adjust it, only for Ai to take the container, unscrew its lid, and gently tip it over, allowing the insects their freedom.

Maddy just looked on, unamused. "Why do you keep bugs as pets? I get why people use them as food for pets, but just having these bugs as pets?"

"Everyone has creatures they love," stated Ai. "We just happen to love all creatures in equal measure."

"Suit yourself. Now, first off, what is that thing?"

Madeline was pointing toward the enormous device in the center of the room they were in, surrounded by a wall of safety glass, metal, and concrete. A computer screen and keyboard for controlling it rested nearby, with the keyboard currently being used as a trampoline by the bugs.

"That? It's a super magnet," replied Ai. "Arthur here thinks he can use it to simulate anomalies, maybe figure out a bit more about them."

"...Interesting."

"And the last question?" questioned Ai.

"This is a personal one."

"Shoot," replied Wyatt.

"...A few months back, you sent all of your kids over to an island retreat, right?"

"Yes."

"And you also invited my daughter and sons to come along, though only my daughter did."

"I invited all children of my closest friends along for this."

"Unsurprising."

"Your point?"

"...Did you do that so that they would be out of the way while we handled this mess?"

"...Yes. Are you mad?"

"Honestly, no. But you will need to tell them about this some time. They're kids, and whatever we tell them, they'll just be curious."

"My eldest is already aware of my research into time portals."

"...Really?"

"He accidentally saw me working with one when he was younger. I refused to hide the truth from him."

"Oh."

"And we fully intend to explain the subject in detail to the rest," added Ai. "We just need to find a good time."

"I see. Well, my curiosity is satisfied for now. I'm gonna get back to my office - need to write a report on this."

"Have a nice day."

Madeline left the room, leaving the couple alone with their insects.

"...Nice save regarding the machine," spoked Wyatt. "By the way, any success with fixing its...problems?"

"Not yet."

Ai moved toward the computer, only to notice that the once empty screen now displayed a sentence:

WE ARE HUNGRY

Looking down at the pick insects currently moving around on the keyboard, Ai put a hand into her pocket and pulled out some sour candy. Setting it down beside the computer, she waited until the insects had all reached the sugary treats before getting to work, typing in several commands and hitting activate.

The machine whirred to life, systems charging, before a trio of beam fired toward the center of the area. An orb of white light formed and as the lasers terminated, the orb shattered in millions of glasslike shards. A moment later, a pterosaur flew out of the anomaly, darting around in confusion, then flew back inside.

Sighing, Wyatt took the mouse and clicked the terminate function. Barely a second later, the portal closed, vanishing from the face of the Earth.

"...Why can we never get it to open up to when these creatures come through?" wondered Ai.

Wyatt merely shrugged.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Hello, Patr-"

"It's Madeline."

"Oh, Maddy, nice to hear from you. See anything interesting?"

"Think you'll find out soon enough. Listen, can you put in a request to our guys in the labs to get me a certain item?"

"Which one?"

"Object#2734J."

"Got it...wasn't that from the time you went after those smugglers in Ukraine?"

"Selling guns to our enemies is a crime...well, at least how they did it is."

"True. By the way, can you tell me what happened that led you to getting that item?"

"One day."

XXXXXXXXX

AN: And another episode comes to an end, but more secrets are revealed! What do they all mean.

Side note: the thing with Saurus Systems was a reference to one of my other stories, Prehistoric Park: Returned From Extinction. The other references throughout this chapter are to established franchises that I don't own. Whether or not they will be more than just references depends on how I want to handle certain plot points.

Now for our sneak peak at the next chapter:

(Shot of a dinosaur darting through an alleyway)

Ai: That a dinosaur?

Wyatt: ..Yes, actually.

(Scene shifts to a sauropod interrupting traffic)

Madeline: Shit, shit, shit!

(A horned carnivore tries to take a bite out of Wyatt)

Colt: SHOOT IT!

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Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!