Jurassic Kratts

The Storm

   The team then reunited with Frillina the Triceratops, who was starting to stir. The weather, however, looked even more foreboding as more monstrous clouds began to gather, blanketing the skies in darkness. A tropical storm was eminent.
However, the weather forecast was the last thing on everyone's mind as they gathered around the ill ceratopsian. At least until a worried Lex suddenly cried out, "Where's Timmy?"
  The adults quickly looked around, but no sign of the ten-year old dinosaur fanatic. "We'll go and look for him."said Chris as he and Martin raced back down the direction they had come. "We won't be long!" yelled Martin before the pair disappeared into the tall grass once more. "To the Timmy Rescue!"they called out simultaneously, out of sight.
  "Yup. They're insane."said Malcolm after a period of awkward silence.
"Ditto."replied Jimmy Z.
   It didn't take long for the two creature adventurers to spy Tim walking towards them, with a bundle of stones in his hands. "Tim! There you are."they chorused in unison, earning a short laugh from the boy. "Where were you? We were worried sick, buddy."asked the Kratt in green, genuinely concerned. "Sorry."came the rather timid reply. "I was just looking around that poisonous bush again to see if I could find more clues. And I found these." The ten-year old presented the stones in his hand, each one polished as smoothly as glass. "They looked familiar, like the ones in Dr. Grant's fully illustrated book."
Upon seeing the polished rocks, the Kratts' eyes grew as wide as saucers, with beaming smiles to match. "Are these what I think they are?"wondered Chris out loud.
"No doubt. I think they're definitely what you think they are. I think."responded the Kratt in blue. Then in unison, the brothers addressed the stones' discoverer,"Tim, you're a genius!" The boy flushed red at their praise. "C'mon! Let's go show the others." said Chris, and soon enough the trio raced their way back to the clearing.
  ****A Few Minutes Later...****
"Guys! We're back!" The party looked to the edge of the clearing in the direction of the three voices, and erupting out of the undergrowth came Martin, Chris, and Tim, out of breath but all accounted for.
  "Look what Tim found."announced the brothers as Tim bashfully made his way before the paleontological pair, presenting them the shiny stones. For a while the team was puzzled.
  "Rocks? You boys came back with rocks?"deadpanned Koki skeptically. Aviva facepalmed. Jimmy stared blankly at the rocks.
"They're not just any rocks, they're gizzard stones, or gastroliths."replied Chris. "Some animals like ostriches and crocodiles don't have the teeth needed to chew their food, so they swallow gastroliths, which are used to help grind up food in their digestive tracts."
"Well said, Mr. Kratt."confirmed the paleontologist after analyzing one of the stones. "The same principles apply to some herbivorous dinosaurs like Triceratops. But after a while, the stones in the stomach get smooth, every six weeks, the animal regurgitates them and swallows fresh ones."
"And when she swallows the stones, she also swallows the poisonous lilac berries which make her sick."finished Dr. Sattler, gesturing to Frillina who was slowly coming to life. "Good work, Tim."
  Without warning, thunder rumbled as the storm over head was about to unleash its fury. Both Gennaro and Jimmy Z flinched at the ominous sound. "Doctors, if you please— I have to insist we get moving."stated the lawyer quite nervously.
  "Oh, you know, if it's alright," said the paleobotanist, "I'd like to stay with Dr. Harding and finish with Frillina."
  "I'm staying too."piped up Aviva.
"Count me in." added Koki.
"Sure." The veterinarian agreed. "I've got a gas-powered jeep. I can drop them off at the Visitors Center before I make the boat with the others."
  "We'll catch up." said the inventor addressing the Kratt in green. "You can go with the others." With that she planted a short but sweet kiss on the creature adventurer's cheek. "See you on the Creature Trail!" she added jokingly before returning next to Frillina along with the other two ladies. Chris watched her go, marveling at his girlfriend's compassion, before reluctantly turning to follow the rest of the crowd back to the Explorers.
Fortunately the vehicles remained in the same place where they were left. Looking up, the Kratt in blue noticed a security camera perched atop a palm tree. Chris looked in Martin's line of sight, eyes stopping as soon as he spied the camera. "Sorry.."they apologized simultaneously, addressing Hammond or whoever might be watching them. This caused the two doctors to raise their eyebrows and exchange incredulous looks before choosing their spots. In the lead car, Gennaro, Lex, Tim, and Jimmy took their places. Grant, Malcolm, and the Kratt Brothers filled in the second one. The moment everyone reembarked, the vehicles came back to life. The tour had resumed.
In that moment, the first raindrops fall on the windshields of the tour vehicles. They were big, fat drops and they kick up little clouds of dust as they smacked into the windshields. Overhead, the trees started to sway with the force of the strong winds. This was going to be one hell of a storm.
"You don't think we're gonna continue the tour with this weather, are we?"pondered the Kratt in blue, staring out the window, now dotted with raindrops. Dr. Grant shook his head doubtfully. "Mm-mm.." responded Malcolm.
"Not very likely, bro."confirmed his younger brother. "By my best guess, we're probably gonna find an alternative route that'll lead us back the way we came." On that note, Malcolm sighed,"Chaos at work."
"Don't look so glum, dude."said Chris, trying to cheer up his older brother. "We'll probably have a better opportunity to see the Dilophosaurus."
"Or the T.rex," added Martin, a small smile returning to his face.
"That's the spirit!"
With that, the two brofisted and stared out the window in anticipation.
  As the vehicles slowly continued driving down the road, Dr. Grant's eyes were out the window, lost in his thoughts. Finally he spoke, addressing the other men in the car,"Do any of you have kids?"
  "Nope."replied the Kratts in unison, much to Alan's surprise. Neither were fathers, yet they're naturals with kids. He then turned his attention to the mathematician sitting on the passenger side.
"Me? Oh, hell yeah. Three. I love kids. Anything at all can and does happen. Same with wives for that matter."
"You're married?"asked the creature adventurers and the paleontologist simultaneously. Alan stared at the two incredulously. This is starting to get irritating, thought Grant.
  "Occasionally. Always on the lookout for a future ex-Mrs. Malcolm." This caused the trio to roll their eyes a little.
A moment of silence reigned before the mathematician in black addressed the Kratt in green, " So uhhh Mr. Kratt,"
"Please, just call me Chris."
" So Chris. How long have you and Mrs. Corcovado known each other?" All eyes were on the young creature adventurer. Martin simply gave his brother a nod of encouragement.
"Ever since we were in middle school."came the answer. "Although we've only been dating for three months. And that was after– the incident."
  "Mr. Muldoon did mention something about an incident in Kenya.What happened?" asked the paleontologist.
  Chris was silent for half a minute, then he began,"We were stationed in Kenya that day. Martin and I were creature adventuring as usual.."
***Flashback*****
As Martin and Chris were exploring the African savannah, they heard a sound that only existed in their worst nightmares: the thunderous crack of a rifle. Poachers.
  The Creaturepods rang. The brothers answered, and before them appeared Aviva on the holographic screen. "Bros, we've got trouble. Poachers, just north of the river, in the center of—"
"He-Who-Breathes-Fire's territory!" the brothers exclaimed in horror. It wasn't long before they heard roars of distress come from at least five miles away.
"We're on our way to pick you guys up—" but the inventor never finished as Chris activated his glider, and was now soaring over to the lion's pride. Below him, he could hear Martin yelling,"Chris! Come back!" But the Kratt in green didn't cease, but continued continued his flight north.
  To his relief, he reached the pride's rocks quicker than he had hoped. From his perch, he could see that all the adult lions, Anai Pumua Moto (the male's Swahili name..) included, were accounted for.Wait a minute.. Chris thought. Where are the cubs? That would explain why the adults are so worried. That gunshot must've been used to scare them off. I'm gonna need something much faster than a glider to catch them. Looking to the sky, he found what he was looking for. A shrill whistle escaped his lips and a great bird of prey came down to perch on his shoulder. "Activate Peregrine Falcon Power!"
   A flash of green was seen from atop of the rocks, and a green falcon took to the skies, determined to catch sight of his quarry. After several minutes of searching, Chris had eyes on his target: a poacher's jeep loaded with a wooden crate, presumably with the lion cubs inside. Even from his place in the sky, he could hear the cubs' distressed calls and the poachers' maniacal laughs of glee. Few things angered him more.
But judging from the speed of the vehicle, they were in a hurry to leave the preserve. It didn't take Chris long to see the hunters' pursuers; The Createrra VX was hot in pursuit, driven by Martin and Aviva, while from the air came the green silhouette of the Tortuga attempting to cut off the ruffians' escape. Chris chose that moment to strike.
Closing his wings, the creature adventurer let gravity take over, falling like a green torpedo towards the jeep. Just as he was close to landing, he spread out his wings, outstretched talons grabbing the crate with its precious cargo, and tossed it in the Createrra, into Aviva's waiting arms.
But in that moment, the poachers' expressions changed from fear to anger at losing their prize. One of them sneered as he pointed his rifle in Chris' direction. Aviva noticed, but just as she was screaming a warning to the Kratt in green to fly out of range, a shot was heard. Tears blurred her vision as she saw Chris fall to the ground.
The last thing Chris saw was a blue lion lunging for the poachers' jeep, tipping them over, roaring in grief and rage. Then unconsciousness claimed him..
***End Of Flashback***
"When I woke up, I had learned that the lion cubs were safe and that the poachers were doing time. Hard time. If the crew had let Martin have his way with them, they probably would have sworn off hunting forever. Fortunately the bullet only hit my shoulder. But what I didn't realize at the time was that while my injuries were minor, I had dealt the crew a stinging blow. None more so than Aviva." Chris then wiped a tear from his eye, thinking about the events of that night. Dr. Grant and Malcolm then looked to Martin, who only nodded sadly in confirmation. With the exception of the storm outside, a moment of peaceful silence reigned.
"So uhh...you two made up after that day?"asked the mathematician quite warily. "Yes, and we've been very close ever since."replied the Kratt in green, a small smile on his features, thinking about the night he and Aviva became a couple, and all the good times that followed.
"Thanks to her, I realized I had another reason to be on this Earth."
Unknown to the tourists, the video screen in the middle of their console went black. Malcolm continued their conversation.
"By the way, Dr. Sattler... She's not like uhh available, is she?" The paleontologist started to get defensive.
"Why?"
"Why? Oh. I'm sorry, are you two.."
"Yeah."
"I wish you the best of luck."
This exchange caused the Kratt Brothers to burst into a fit of laughter, earning incredulous looks from the scientific pair. What's so funny?
The cars abruptly came to a halt. The lights in the vehicles and along the road go out, plunging them into blackness. Grant jerked his hands away from the steering wheel, immediately assuming the blame was his.
"Okay, what'd I touch?"
"You didn't touch anything. We stopped."replied the mathematician.
" I must've touched something. This happens all the time. It must be my fault. Machines hate me"
"Machines hate you?"
"Yeah. They hate me."
"You wanna talk about this?"piped up Martin.
"No."