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This article, New Beginnings: Jurassic Park, was written by me, Styracosaurus Rider. Please do not edit this page without my permission. |
New Beginnings: Jurassic Park is a fanfic by Styracosaurus Rider. It will be set in the present/near future (at time of writing, 2011) and will be an alternate JP with (mostly) entirely new characters.
As usual, there's a Behind the Scenes section and Characters.
Post reviews and any tips you might have in the talk page please. Enjoy!
Prologue: Snow[]
Penguins at midnight
12:00 AM. JANUARY 19, 2011. ANTARCTICA.
The penguin was not happy.
It had just lost a fish to a neighboring penguin, and now a blizzard was starting.
But then the penguin was aware of something tromping through the snow ahead. It wasn't a penguin, it was bigger.
The man in the orange winter coat was cold, but that didn't matter to the task ahead. He picked up the penguin (who was rather perplexed) and stuffed it in a crate.
Then he walked off.
2 hours later, the whole colony was gone.
The Museum[]
The herd approaches
The Argentinosaurus herd thundered through the grass, with several Pterodaustro circling above, looking for ponds and oceans from which to feed. Nearby a pack of Giganotosaurus was lurking in the shadows. But the most peculiar thing of all was the off-road vehicle parked nearby, and a crowd of people watching from the distance. And then...
He woke up.
Richard Anderson was a dinosaur nut. Obviously he dreamed about them. He read all the latest publications, went to countless museums, and was even "Head Chief" (or so he said) of the DinoProject on the Internet.
He liked them so much he wanted to bring them back to life.
His brother Dave also shared the same love, except he was a bit crazy at times and nearly blew up the house one day trying to morph a chicken into an Archaeopteryx.
Not something you'd expect from your brother, usually. But it sometimes depends on who your brother is.
Other than that, it was mostly quiet. The two lived in a brick house in Glen Gardener, New Jersey, even though they could afford more thanks to a winning lottery ticket. The money was stashed away in a pillowcase and then forgotten. They were happy with the quiet life. Even Dave.
Richard had a job as a salesclerk, although he hardly ever came to work. Dave was a demolitions expert (no surprise there).
However, the day after that dream would mark the start of a new age.
9:02 AM. JANUARY 29, 2011. SAND BROOK, NEW JERSEY.
"Columbian or East African?"
Richard asked the question almost not aware of it, as he was searching the freezer for bags of coffee blends. Dave was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a book and eating cereal. The book was about something along the lines of the Watergate scandal. Nothing hands-on, for once.
"Columbian, thanks," Dave said, and took another spoonful of cereal.
More snow for Jersey...and the rest of the country
Richard glanced at the clock. "Oh, Morning Express is on," he said, and went to turn on the TV. After 10 minutes of stories running the gamut from some Egyptian protests, the South African president being discharged, some new Antarctic research studies, and Bob van Dillen talking about more snow, Richard got bored and turned on News 12 New Jersey instead.
Again, nothing.
The next 2 hours were pretty much uneventful. Dave went off to work (a house in Flemington, this time) and Richard was on the laptop managing the DinoProject.
That quiet life, and the lives of the rest of the world, might have remained the same if not for one particular news broadcast that aired that Saturday.
11:36 AM. JANUARY 29, 2011. SAND BROOK, NJ.
Dave came home from work early that day. Richard was back on the couch watching News 12, which looked like it was about to go to the commercials. Dave sat down on the couch next to him.
"Work out fine?" Richard asked.
"Smooth as silk."
And there was a pause, as the news continued.
The "after the commercials" preview showed a mastodon skeleton.
They both had wide eyes, even after it switched to a Prilosec ad.
"...That was...wasn't it?" Dave began.
"...the mastodon skeleton at Rutgers. It said about a program going on there today."
They were out the door in minutes.
12:20 PM. JANUARY 29, 2011. RUTGERS GEOLOGY MUSEUM, NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ.
The pickup truck's door slammed shut, as Richard and Dave walked toward Scott Hall. There was a lecture going on there, called "Dinosaur Hunting with the New Jersey State Museum," with Jason Schein, the assistant curator of the State Museum, presenting.
The lecture begins
They took their seats. The lecture boiled down to: finds in the Beartooth Butte Formation (a Devonian site in Montana with sea scorpions), finds in the Lance Formation (near Hell Creek, with all the famous Cretaceous carnivores), and an amusing little PowerPoint description on how paleontologists dig stuff up.
Richard's notes from the lecture
After the lecture, they went over to the mineral sale.
"He said that the sauropod bones are in Philadelphia, right?" Dave said, as they were browsing. "We may have actually seen those."
"Hm." Richard picked up a Cerastoderma shell from Maryland, and then said, "Those formations interested me. We should go sometime."
"Yeah! We can go find another one of those lizards! I'll find plane tickets right now."
Richard smiled.
After he paid for the shell, they headed over to the museum itself. There were little stations for kids, but of course Richard and Dave weren't interested in that. Or the flourescent rocks. Or even the mummy. They were here for the fossils.
There were the classics. The mastodon. The theropod footprint (labeled as Megalosauropus---but then taxonomy went haywire). The Allosaurus, Styracosaurus, and Andrewsarchus skulls. The Grallator trackway with the museum's "mascot."
As Richard was looking at the ammonite display, Dave noticed something and tapped him on the shoulder. "Uh, Richard..."
"What?"
"...That's Walt Kane."
Sure enough, News 12 had sent him over, complete with cameraman.
"Huh. Wouldn't worry too much." Richard was the kind of guy used to New York City and having someone like Jesse L. Martin walk by. He was used to it by now.
Instead he turned his attention back to the ammonites.
"Geez Dave, look at this stuff...the Placenticeras is a whopper, but that's the only Morrowites I've ever seen in person---"
"Sorry, that's a Mammites."
That wasn't Dave's voice.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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This fanfiction is not yet complete and is under construction. |
Behind The Chapters[]
The alternate cover, for those interested in my illusrations
Prologue[]
Not how you'd expect a JP to begin...but I trust you this will all make sense soon enough.
Chapter 1[]
Now some of our mains are introduced. Richard and Dave will become important later on---and I'm sure you can see why. Not only that, they're also named after...David and Richard Attenborough. I don't need to tell you anything else.
Bob van Dillen really was talking about more snow. I watched that bit.
The preview may be a little off (12 never shows anything live), but there was really a lecture, mineral sale, and geology day at the Rutgers Geology Museum (again, I was there), AND I even saw Walt Kane there. This story is based off as much truth as humanly possible :)
Characters[]
Humans[]
- Richard Anderson
- Dave Anderson
More soon
Dinosaurs and other Creatures[]
- Adelie Penguin
- Argentinosaurus (in a dream)
- Giganotosaurus (in a dream)
- Pterodaustro (in a dream)
- Chicken (mentioned)
- Archaeopteryx (mentioned)
- Cerastoderma (fossil)
- Mammut americanum (skeleton)
- Allosaurus (skull)
- Styracosaurus (skull)
- Andrewsarchus (skull)
- Grallator (trackway/model)
- Placenticeras (fossil)
- Morrowites (fossil)
- Mammites (fossil)