Jurassic Kratts

Prehistoric Safari

After lunch was finished, Hammond led his visitors back into the lobby. "You all are going to have a little company out in the park. Spend a little time with our target audience."
Martin turned to Chris. "Target audience?" The Kratt in blue got his answer when they all heard a pair of voices crying in unison: "Grandpa!"
"Kids!" exclaimed Hammond in open arms, only to be tackled by two children, a ten-year old boy with curly brown hair, wearing khaki shorts and blue t-shirt, and a twelve-year old girl with a blue baseball cap adorning her braided blonde hair, wearing blue jeans and violet plain top. These were John Hammond's grandchildren, Alexis and Tim Murphy.
The Wild Kratts team and Ellie looked on at the family reunion with adoration, the three gentlemen (Dr. Grant especially..), however, simply stared blankly.
  Once the procession was outside, two modified Ford Explorers leaped out from an underground garage beneath the Visitors Center. They moved quietly, with a faint electric hum along the metal rail on the road. Soon they pulled to a stop where the visitors were gathered.
"Where are the drivers?" asked Jimmy Z, after noticing absolutely no one at all in the driver's seats.
"No drivers Mr. Z," answered Hammond, "they're electric cars, guided by this track in the roadway, and totally non-polluting, top of the line, spared no expense."
  "Oh, I thought they were driven by ghosts.." the Tortuga pilot commented, earning chuckle from the computer whizz and the entrepreneur. "Have fun."
  "Wait," said a puzzled Chris. "You're not coming with us, Mr. Hammond?"
"I'm afraid not, Chris. I'll be watching from the control room." With that being said, the old man made his way back inside the Visitors Center, leaving the tourists to pick out their spots in the cars.
Gennaro took the first car, along with Jimmy and Koki, while Malcolm sat with Dr. Sattler in the second, eventually joined by Lex, Martin, Chris, and Aviva. 
"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, we're finally going on the tour!" said Martin, almost hyperventilating with excitement.  "I hear ya, bro." replied the Kratt in green, who was just as enthusiastic as his brother at the chance of seeing more living, breathing dinosaurs in person, while Aviva rolled her eyes, giggling at the brothers' childlike anticipation. Knowing them, they would probably be talking a storm a mile a minute for the entire ride. "Are they okay?" asked a slightly worried Lex.
  The inventor giggled once more as she replied, "Oh, they're just fine. They just get super excited about new creature adventures," especially the time I invented the Time Trampoline, she thought smiling at the memory. 
"I'll say," added the mathematician." They're as excited as two kids on Christmas Day. Which worries me.." This turned Aviva's giggles into full blown laughter.
  Soon enough the car door opened, revealing a slightly annoyed Dr. Grant followed by Tim, who was exhilarated to be with his role model. "Well, a few species may have evolved along those lines." said the paleontologist with as much patience as he could muster before the boy replied,"they sure don't look like birds to me." With a deep sigh, Grant got off from the car, making his way to the Explorer in the lead. Tim followed.
Seeing this, Ellie whispered something in his sister's ear. With a nod, Lex took off to follow her brother and the irritated paleontologist. "What's with him?"asked the Kratt in blue. The paleobotanist answered,"Alan's not exactly too fond of kids."
  "What?!"asked the inventor and creature adventurers simultaneously.
"Yeah, according to him, they're noisy," clearing her throat, Ellie went on in her best Dr. Grant impersonation, chuckling every once in a while as the creature adventurers shook their heads incredulously. Malcolm simply chuckled at this "Messy, they're expensive... They smell."
  "That's bogus!" yelled Chris in a fit of laughter, later joined by Martin.
  "They do not!" added Aviva, unable to control her own laughter. However, all laughing ceased as the doors opened once more to reveal the paleontologist. He shot the paleobotanist with an unamused glance, "That wasn't funny, Ellie."he muttered before taking his place next to the Kratt Brothers, who were struggling to control the laughter which threatened to bubble from their lips. That wasn't hard after receiving an elbow from Aviva(or an ear yank in Martin's case..).
The moment the cars were loaded, the vehicles moved along the electric pathway, slowly on their own accord, while on the Explorers' speakers, a familiar voice announced,"Welcome to Jurassic Park."
  "James Earl Jones? That's wicked!" exclaimed the Tortuga pilot in the first car. As the cars continued moving forward, they pass through two primitive gates, torches blazing on both sides. "What do they got in there? King Kong?" asked the mathematician jokingly.
  After several minutes of driving, the two vehicles came to a pause in front of a fair sized paddock full of thick foliage. "If you look to the right, you will see a herd of the first dinosaurs on our tour called Dilophosaurus."
  "Dilophosaurus!"exclaimed Dr. Grant in excitement. 
"Awesome!" chorused the Kratts in unison.
  "Dilophosaurus?" asked a confused Aviva.
"Dilopho-say what?" asked Koki via Aviva's Creaturepod.
  "Who's Dilophosaurus?"wondered JZ.
  The paleontologist cleared his throat as he answered, "Dilophosaurus; carnivore. North America. Early Jurassic."he said, as though giving a lecture at a university."Has two distinct rounded crests on its head. About twenty feet from nose to tail-"
  "One of the earliest carnivores, we now know Dilophosaurus was actually poisonous," said the speaker, cutting off Grant's lecture as everyone flooded the right sides of the cars, trying to catch a glimpse of the occupants. "spitting venom at its prey, causing blindness and eventually paralysis, allowing the carnivore to eat at its leisure. This makes Dilophosaurus a beautiful, but deadly addition to Jurassic Park."
  However, not a single Dilophosaurus showed itself from the enclosure's thick, green curtains. Silence reigned.
  "I can't see anything,"whined Jimmy, unable to see anything in the dense undergrowth. "There's nothing there."stated Tim, equally as disappointed.
The same was true in the second tour vehicle; the looks of excitement that were glued to the creature adventurers' faces slowly turned into frowns of dismay. "Damn." muttered Grant.
  "Cheer up, guys" said Aviva, trying to lighten up the gloomy atmosphere. "We'll probably catch a glimpse of them on the way back." This caused Chris to cast a small smile towards his girlfriend. She always knew how to cheer him up, even on his worst days.
   "Koki. What's next on that tour map you got from the lobby?"the inventor asked her best friend through her Creaturepod.
"Let's see here. Okay. The next dinosaur on the tour is the Tyrannosaurus rex-" but the computer whizz was cut off as a bewildered Jimmy Z screamed,"T.REX?!!"
  "T. REX?!!" chorused Martin and Chris, their excitement rejuvenated. "Awesome!"
****5 Minutes Later*****
"Not awesome," murmured a frustrated Martin. "Nobody's home!"
   They all looked around the massive paddock on their left, which was lined with fifteen-foot fences clearly marked with "DANGER" posts. No sign of the King of Dinosaurs within the dense jungle of greenery.
  The voice on the radio droned on,"The mighty tyrannosaurs arose late in dinosaur history. The dinosaurs ruled the earth for 160 million years, but it wasn't until at least the last 3 million-"
  "Will you turn that thing off?" asked an irritated Dr. Grant.
Ellie flipped the radio switch. They waited in silence; except for Malcolm, who stared at the ceiling, thinking aloud, "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates Man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs,"
"Dinosaur eats Man. Woman inherits the Earth." added the paleobotanist, earning a high five from the inventor and incredulous looks from the four men.
  In the lead Explorer, a voice sounded over the radio, "Hold on, we'll try to tempt the rex.."
  From inside the paddock, just at the edge of the forest, a low humming was heard. A small cage came into view, lifted by underground hydraulics. The cage bars slide back down, leaving the cage's occupant standing alone in the middle of the field. It was a goat, one leg chained to a stake, completely at the mercy of the predator lurking somewhere in the green depths. Confused, the goat bleats plaintively.
"What's going to happen to the goat?" asked Lex in mild horror. "It's gonna eat the goat?!"
"Excellent." said Tim dreamily.
"What's the matter, kid? You never had lamb chops?" asked Gennaro.
"I happen to be a vegetarian."
"I'm with you there, Lex. Dead meat is gross!" added Koki, shuddering in disgust over thinking about the animal's fate. "But hey," stated the pizza eating pilot, who was taking a bite out of his favorite food. "Like the Kratt bros say, the carnivores gotta eat too."
"I know, but it still grosses me ou—where'd you get that pizza?"
"What? I packed some with me before we left the Tortuga." With that, he took another bite.
"T.rex doesn't wanna be fed, he wants to hunt."scoffed Dr. Grant, shaking his head incredulously at the technique used to bait the tyrannosaur. "You can't just suppress sixty five million years of gut-instinct." But after several minutes, the goat ceased its bleating and laid down to rest. The King of Dinosaurs wasn't going to show itself.
The ever anxious Kratt Brothers threw themselves in their seats, sighing in defeat. Everyone else soon followed, disappointed once again. Malcolm spied a security camera in the corner of the car ceiling. Quite smugly, he made his way toward it. "Now, eventually you plan to have dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour, right? Hello? (Here he breathes on the camera lens..) Hello? Yes?" In the background, one could hear the Wild Kratts chuckling at the mathematician's antics.
****Meanwhile****
From his place in the control room, Hammond sat in front of the screen, head resting in his hands, deadpan stare evident on his features. Unlike the Kratts, he wasn't amused with Malcolm's taunts.
"I really hate that man.."