11:30 am, Friday the 6th of August, 2038

San Jose had never been more quiet since the events of 2029. After the blueprints of the machine were made public, numerous companies and services sprung up, offering people not only the chance to see things they never could before, but also allowed research on a whole new level. Tourism was one of the first job sectors to grow exponentially, taking people back in time to see the dinosaurs, and into the future to see all the new technologies humanity would soon make. Furthermore, tourism could also go to any place of any universe. If you imagined it, there was a universe for it. Spend the night on a planet so exotic it was beyond imagination, or even witness the big bang itself.

With tourism, science could reach it's full potential. One could simply go to another universe, grab some high tech equipment, and go back and see what it does. Go back in time and study the geology of the planet. Find out where life on Earth came from and where it will go. The list could, and possibly would go on for almost forever. Controversy of this technology quickly faded once known about the potential of parallel universes; that no matter what you did there would be no consequences to anyone else. New world records were made, name one and someone has probably beaten it, and then beaten it again and again and again.

While most people decided to leave the Earth all together, some had stayed behind. For them, Earth was now pristine, for a world population of 100 million was small enough to keep things sustainable, and leaving their home behind would be too much. The rest of the population would occasionally visit back, but not permanently, this allowed for the Earth to recover completely from the ways of the past. San Jose was one of the remaining cities on the Earth. Most villages, towns, and minor cities were abandoned, allowing for nature to take over what mankind had blocked off for so long. Once they were modern, but now the buildings of the growing city were more stylised, more pleasing to the eye, and more natural than before.

Peter had since retired from the NEASA program after it became obsolete, and quickly went into a new job. Him and Sarah worked at the local San Jose school, both teaching the next generation of the principles of Geology, sometimes organising field trips, and once every year paying a small visit to their apatosaur friends like Arlo and his family.

There was however, one small thing, that wasn't entirely utopian. Peter and Sarah's 8-year old son Robert wasn't used to how quickly the world was changing, and also felt embarrassed around his parents. On this day in particular, Robert's bullies were throwing his backpack to each other, making sure as hell that Robert wouldn't be able to catch it.

A piercing whistle sounded, the backpack dropped to the floor as everyone had covered their ears. "You kids shouldn't be messing around like that you know, next time I find you lot messing around we'll be in with your parents immediately." Sarah sternly spoke, and at first they immediately left the scene. In self-instinct Robert embraced his mother for saving him once again. Looking around his mother, he could hear and see his bullies mocking him and everything. Immediately he pushed Sarah away and started walking out.

"Robert where are you going?" Sarah asked in dismay, before Peter emerged out from the school. "Okay you lot back inside." He ordered. "It's just- it's just embarrassing when you two protect me as if I've just been born, what am I some sort of toddler? I just think I need to leave, you know, be free!" While Robert was already thinking about it, Peter had noticed a storm brewing right above them. Problem is, Robert had a bracelet on his right wrist that was highly conductive.

Sarah tried to maintain the peace "Robert please, if we're ever being over protective you can just sa-" "Alright then I'll say it now." Robert interruped, the clouds above blackening. "You two are being over protective, and I wanna leave!" Robert shouted, wailing his arms high in the air. Lightning had already begun to flash up in the clouds. From nowehere a blinding flash of light, followed by a deafining shockwave, blasted form infront Peter and Sarah. Both fell down to the floor, and everyone inside came out to get them back inside.

"Wait, where's Robert?" Sarah asked as the door was locked by Peter, the storm getting more intense. "He was nowhere to be seen, the lightning, I think it hit him directly!" one of the other students spoke aloud. It was impossible for lightning to obliterate someone, and was also unlikely to kill them, so the question now was; where did Robert go?

After the split-second flash and bang, there was complete silence. Confused, Robert opened his eyes to find that he was kneeling on all fours- his hands placed on the sand below. "Huh?" A confused Robert said, there wasn't any sand at the school he went to, why would there be sand here? Looking up, he found himself to be on the edge of the beach, the sound of waves crashing by soon becoming noticable. The ringing in his ears soon faded, and all the sights, sounds and smells came to him. How far had he travelled in a split moment? It dawned on him that if this was indeed the bay, he should be on the edge of San Jose, but instead there were no buildings near him. Instead the city across the bay was more in the position of San Fransisco.

But then, why does the bay look weird? That was Roberts next thought, as the bay was now a completely different shape. The buildings too didn't look like San Fransico either, they weren't really nice looking, as if they were made without the intention of how they looked. Perhaps he had somehow travelled to another place in the world, or even back in time. But how? A short electric shock made Robert jump, it had come from his right wrist. "The bracelet!" Peter thought to himself, there must've been something on the bracelet that made him travel this far when the lightning had struck him.

A subtle thumping sound came from his right, after a second he heard it again, only louder. He could feel the ground move slightly. Another thump, and another. Soon, a shadow had casted over Robert. Slowly looking up, he could see the sillouhette of a ferrocious Tyrannosaurus Rex. Screaming in fear, Robert made a dash for it, but had only made two steps before the T-rex's tail had caught him.

"A-woah there, little critter! Where'd you come from?" The T-rex spoke, the sillouhette revealed to be a rust-coloured tyrannosaur, and it seemed pretty friendly for what it was. Shocked, Robert quickly spoke "No place! Just put me down and leave me alone!"

Robert had thought the tyrannosaur would place him down, but instead placed Robert on the top of it's muzzle. "No place? No place. Never been there before. What's your name?" He spoke so calm, a slight bit of a western accent in his voice, and slightly coarse in tone. "Robert." He spoke quickly. "Well Robert, don't you have a parent of some kind that's looking for you right now?"

Robert laughed, slightly nervous still, but genuine too. "Probably, yeah." Looking down Robert could see that the tyrannosaur was... playing something thay looked like golf? How in the world- "So uh, what'cha gonna do now?" The tyrannosaur asked. "Not sure yet, probably run off and go exploring!"

"Ah, exploring, exploring. Now you're talking sense, the world is a place with some spiiice!" The tyrannosaur had emphasis on the word spice while using a wodden version of a gold club to knock a few rocks toward a nearby tree. "You know, I've never seen a critter quite like you before, how'd you get here?"

Ignoring the question, Robert instead asked "Say, how is a dinosaur like you playing golf out here near the city?" Almost immediately the tyrannosaur replied, as if he was waiting for Robert to ask. "I'm smart Robert, I'm one smart dinosaur. But, we weren't always."

"You weren't?" Robert asked, as if he forgotten any lessons on dinosaurs. "No. No siree. Our kind started off stupid and violent."

"You did!?"

"This was a long time ago, you understand? A long time ago. Those like me were a real terror then, we were like real animals. And we were hungry, all the time." Robert had become nervous again, to which the tyrannosaur noticed.

"But don't worry, as I mentioned this was a long time ago. No since then we've evolved Robert. Evolved to what we are now, smart animals that can think for themselves, doing what we want under rule."

"Under rule?"

"Why yes Robert. You see, our kind have learnt to be more of um... civilized folk, eating only the animals are are really common and smart. We built this city to symbolise that, and we've lived here for generations. Doing what we find fun while also contributing to the city's needs."

It took a bit for Robert to process all of this. "So like, you can now do activites like this while doing a job?"

"In a way, your right. Each of our kind can have a variety of jobs. Whether you're a tyrannosaur like me maintaining livestock, or if your an apatosaur plowing the ground for farming, each of us have a place in this-"

Robert interrupted excitently. "Sorry, don't mean to interrupt, but did you say 'apatosaur', and in those like Arlo?"

"Arlo. Who's Arlo? Never met an Arlo before." The tyrannosaur responded.

"You don't know about Arlo? Man he's a great guy, actually apreciates me for who I am unlike my parents. My father found him in this different world, they became friends and came to my world, there was this guy who wanted humanity to survive by colonising Arlo's world but it would've led to both of our worlds' destruction so they stopped him. But that's common knowledge ya' know? Anyways out of the apatosaur family Arlo's my favourite, I guess it's cause he used to be like me before so he knows what I'm talking about. I think you'd like him if you got the chance. Say, what's your name?"

"My name? Why my name's Butch. I probably should've mentioned it at the beginning of our conversation. You wanna have a look around Oykot?"

"Oykot, what is an Oykot?" Robert asked, confusion all over his face.

"Why it's the city that I spoke of, that one there across the bay. Right next to that volcano on the left. Oh, look at the time!" Butch expressed, looking over to the sundial that was across the 'golf course'. "Eight o'clock? isn't that like, morning? Why's it midday then?"

With that Buch spoke in his usual tone once more "Robert surely you must know of the global time system we use? It's eight subarcs into the day. That means it's the middle of the day."

"No, for me it would be twelve o'clock in the morning. It'll be one pm in about an hour or so."

"Hour? Never heard of an hour. Do you mean subarcs?", "Subarcs? What's a subarc?" Robert asked, he had never heard such a word.

"You really don't know about our time system do you? You must come from far away then young critter. Here's how it goes, a single day is split into four arcs, we don't really use them too often so we split it again, making a total of sixteen subarcs. After that, we split each subarc into fifty nenarcs, of which each nenarc is split into a hundered secarcs. You got that?"

Although really confused, Robert decided to teach Butch of his time system. "Well where I come from, a day is split into twenty-four hours, of which each hour is split into sixty minutes, and of which each minute is split into sixty seconds. That way there's about eighty-six-thousand four-hundred seconds, while for you there would be... eighty thousand secarcs. That's not actually bad, though converting will be difficult."

"My my my, seems like where you come from, your kind is just as unique and smart as us! Say, your parents are gonna be worried about you. Why don't you go back to them?" Slightly frustrated, Robert replied "Because I don't know how I got here in the first place! There was some lightning, I think it struck this bracelet of mine and next thing I know I'm sent to this place." Butch started thinking, perhaps if Robert was struck again he would go back, but how would lightning strike here, the sky was as clear as day. "I don't know what else to say apart from just, maybe wait for a storm to come around. There's bound to be one in a day or two."

As the two new-found-friends headed their way back home, their shadows suddenly became distinctive and long, unusual for the time of day it was. The ground that had not been shaded was so bright that both of them had to cover their eyes for a moment. Looking behind revealed a ball of light just over the horizon, it was like the sun but dimmer, and glowed ominously.

"Oh no..." Robert instinctively whispered, Butch managed to hear Robert's voice and spoke. "What is it Robert, you recognise this light?"

"I mean yeah I do but uh, I don't really wanna say where though."

"You have that worried expression on your face I could tell, is it dangerous?"

"I mean of course it is, I read about it in a book of how the dinosaurs became extinc- ah!" Robert quickly covered his mouth as soon as he realised what he was saying and who he was saying it too, but by that time it was already too late.

Butch wasn't pleased with Robert. "'How the dinosaurs became extinct'? Is that what you were going to say? Your saying that all of us are going to die because of this and you already know about it!? How would you even know such a thing before it happened?"

"BECAUSE IN MY WORLD YOU ARE ALL DEAD!" Robert shouted, quickly covering his mouth again before looking away from Butch's eyes, in fear of what Buch might do to him.

Unexpectedly, Butch respnded in a softer, caring tone. "Robert, Robert. Don't be like that. It's not your fault you know?" Looking back at the horizon, he could see the fading light revealed small streaks mostly heading northwards "For something as dangerous as that, you have to admit Robert, it looks pretty." Robert looked up to see what Butch could see. "Butch, for the sake of this city, I think it would be best to construct domes around and above the city, or at the very least build some shelters into the mountains. Those streaks are large masses of heated rock, ones that will come raining down here in a few short hours."

"Thanks for the advice, kid." Butch said, an approaching storm from where the source of light was grew larger. "I believe it's time for you to go home Robert."

Unfortunately, Robert had other ideas. "But you understand me Butch, I wanna stay here.", "You wanna stay here? The very place that you'll die if you don't go back? All that over your home where you can have a full life? Your kind, no offence, is pretty weird."

"Ye, we are weird."

"But, if I were you, I would head home. I would assume that you don't have nice folk around you, for you to feel embarrassed over your parents actions. It happened to Ramsey and Nash, my daughter and son, and it happened to me too. All of us at some point has told out parents how over-protective they can be. But trust me Robert when I say that parents only do it because they care. Who knows, maybe those that aren't nice to you have had a similar situation, and have ironically become the thing they didn't want to be. If you ever feel like your parents are being too much, just mention it. They'll know where you're comign from."

"Wow. Thanks I guess for the advice."

"So then, you still wanna stay here and wait for the end?" Robert froze, allowing Butch to lower his head down for Robert to get off of him. "Well, with all you've said, I think home is better. I'll miss you though."

Butch chuckled, "I'm sure you will, and I'm sure I'll miss you too. But..." Butch opened his mouth, revealing his set of teeth. "Go on, pick one. It'll give you something to remember me by." Robert proceeded to wiggle each tooth before he found one that was loose, as so not to hurt Butch too much. Taking it out, he noticed just how large it was. "Now, one final thing I request you to do."

"Anything Butch."

"Raise your right arm." Butch said, winking. The sound of thunder boomed from the clouds above. As Robert raised his right arm, he said "Oh and Butch, remember to warn the city!" before a bolt of lightning struck him directly. By the time Butch could readjust, Robert was gone, and I can only imagine that he indeed proceeded to head for the city of Oykot.

Opening his eyes once more, he could feel the familiar concrete texture on his hands. "Robert?" A muffled voice spoke, as the ringing once again faded. The voice in question belonged to Peter. "Oh Robert! I'm so glad your alive! Where'd you gone to?" Peter asked, followed by Sarah "And what is that in your hands?"

"It's a Tyrannosaur tooth. My friend Butch gave it to me as I was leaving." Robert said, smiling knowing that until he explained, both of his parents would be confused. For now though, Robert was happy knowing that from now on, things would be better, and in time, he would find a way of reaching back to Butch.

Thought I'd never continue on this story huh? Well long story short, I had recently watched an old movie called "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story", it's pretty wierd at times, but creative in it's own way. It has something similar to this story where I time traveller goes to the past and brings some dinosaurs back to the "middle future", however it has some very unique twists to it, such as the dinosaurs not being... civilised, until their given this "brain gain" cereal, along with the time traveller wanting the dinosaurs to fufill the wishes of children across the world (though it takes place entirely in New York City) and other wacky plot lines.

You can actually see the parody I made of it in this chapter, specifically the beginning conversation Robert has with Butch, is a parody of the beginning scene in the film. There's something about the film that, like The Good Dinosaur, captivates my mind. I however won't make a fanfiction based on the movie though, because there's probably not a section on it, and if there was I'll be too busy by the time I'm done with The Good Dinosaur to continue doing fanfics.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you soon!

Notible facts: This is a crossover between two of my stories, with 'TGD: Peter And The Machine Between Worlds' and 'TGD: Sounding of a Meteor'. For now you probably won't get why, but I know that it will be understood eventually.