Red In Tooth And Claw

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The time for the next mission has come. And this time, Theodore has decided that it will be best for the park to take a break from rescuing dinosaurs in favor of going after an extinct target from the Cenozoic Era. The target chosen for this mission turns out to be Smilodon Populator (with phorusrhacos being a strongly recommended secondary target if at all possible). For the first half of the mission, Drew chooses to bring along Adrian and Alice, while Jack and Leon end up staying at the park to do 'keeper work' (much to the latter's disappointment). With the plan thus made, Drew, Adrien, and Alice make their way into the past, arriving in time to find themselves amongst a herd of Macrauchenia. After initial chaos, they manage to get clear of the understandably confused and panicked herd. It doesn't take TOO long afterwards for Drew to decide to rescue some of them. The perfect opportunity to do exactly that soon arrives, but in a very unexpected form. The herd is attacked by a 'pack' of terror birds. However, as the group is shocked to see, and Adrien even lampshades, the terror birds in question are phorushracos. Despite this surprise, the group manages to successfully round up the herd through the portal. Once things wind down, the group treks onward.

Back at the park, Jack and Leon are going about their business within the Forest section of the Jurassic America zone. Jack is busy handling the diablophis (after having finished his rounds with the fruitachampsa) while Leon is taking care of the fruitafossor. They're doing all this under the watchful eye of Collete Dubois. Over the course of this, a brief bit of tension arises when first Collete makes an annoyed comment on Leon having his vocalizations be a seemingly integral part of his keeper work and Jack makes an ill timed joke. The tension is then put on hold when a call is made on the comms for all available keepers (that aren't needed at the holding pens) to come to the Jurassic America herbivore paddock to oversee the first attempt at integrating Arlo with the resident apatosaurus herd.

Meanwhile, back in prehistoric Santa Cruz, the gang comes across a pair of megatherium, with the male working quite frantically and in panic to defend himself and his apparent mate from a pair of bachelor male smilodon. Alice uses a noise blaster to scare off the two cats, earning the 'gratitude' of the two giant sloths. The gang decides to exploit the gratitude of the megatherium in order to get them through the portal to the future. The two megatherium indeed do go through after a bit of additional coaxing with plant matter for food. With that out of the way, the trio continues onward to find a pair of doedicurus. The trio quickly form up a plan, with Drew and Alice enticing the doedicurus through the portal, into the present.

Meanwhile, back at the park, things head south in the first attempt at integrating Arlo, ending with two of the large males chasing the younger Apatosaurus off. While Kyle and several other keepers work to calm down the rest of the herd, Linda and several other vets and keepers look over Arlo, with some of Linda's behavior leaving a watching Collete quite dismayed.

Back in Santa Cruz, the gang comes across a small herd of stampeding toxodon being chased by an entire pride of smilodon populator. The gang positions themselves in front of the herd in time to get all but one of them through the portal. The one luckless one that doesn't only fails because of the smilodon taking him down before he can keep up with the rest of his herd. The gang can only watch as the smilodon all have their fill and then leave. After a few minutes, several phorushracos come along and begin to examine the carcass. Unfortunately, the two bachelor males from earlier arrive and get into a squabble with the birds over the carcass. It doesn't take long after this for another plan to be formed and, using the foghorn to attract the attention of the predators, the trio each get ahold of meat samples from the toxodon carcass, and use them to entice the phorusrhacos (as well as the two bachelor males) into the portal.

The trio briefly note how unusual the environmental conditions are; dehydrated herbivores, desperate carnivores and unusually dried grounds. They come to the conclusion that the climate is drying out, due to the coming Ice Age, which will lead to the extinction of the vast majority of the megafauna, including the smilodon populator. After spending a bit of time reflecting on this matter, they eventually catch sight of one female smilodon desperately chasing after a deer, but the deer is ultimately too fast for the built for sprinting big cat, and the deer escapes. The exhausted and weak cat dejectedly turns around and walks away, the trio carefully following behind her. They find her coming to a stop amongst a pride of seven that's similarly exhausted and weak (six females and a single male). The sight of this doesn't take long to get the trio to get into action, and they all tranquilize the entirety of what's left of this pride. However, while they're in the midst of loading up the tranquilized pride members onto the jeep, a pack of viciously hungry protocyon come barking, howling, and snarling into the picture. After a brief standoff, with the trio using the noise blaster to frighten the canines away, they are able to finish loading the smilodons, with Adrian proceeding to drive the jeep away while Alice sets up the portal on the jeep's hood. At the exact moment this happens, Drew throws a piece of meat through the portal, sending the protocyon through. With this done, the trio returns home with a pride of smilodon and pack of protocyon. And in the time that follows, the new animals are all set in their enclosures, and the park can wind down in preparation for the next mission.

## Notes

### Continuity notes

* The plot about Arlo's rehabilitation has been running for quite a while now.
* When Leon complains about not being allowed to go on the mission, Jack mutters, "Three guesses why".