This Savage Land

PHASE 1

This Savage Land
Dates run:	April 13-15
Run By:	Nute
Read the logs:	This Savage Land

In the middle of Manhattan, 2007 AD meets 200 million BC.

While on a field trip to a plant sanctuary, a group of students and their chaperones find themselves at the mercy of dinosaurs, while another group of prehistoric terrors is unleashed on Manhattan.

Cast

Field trip group: Marie D'Ancato, Garrison Kane, Forge, Sooraya Qadir, Crystal Amaquelin, Mondo, Angelica Jones, Kyle Gibney, Jennie Stavros, Marius Laverne, Yvette Petrovic, Tommy Jones, Laurie Collins, Leong and Nga Coy Manh, Leyu Yoshida, Artie Maddicks

Rescue team: Sam Guthrie, Theresa Cassidy, Shiro Yoshida, Clarice Ferguson, Medusa Amaquelin

New York group: Julio Richter, Scott Summers, Pete Wisdom, Angelo Espinosa, Jean Grey, Ororo Munroe, Monet St. Croix, Amanda Sefton, Wanda Maximoff, Alex Summers, Lorna Dane, Doug Ramsey, Marie-Ange Colbert, Cain Marko, Logan, Nathan Dayspring, Pietro Maximoff, Tabitha Smith, Danielle Moonstar

Special Guest Stars: Sebastian Shaw, Harry Leland

The Evolutionaries: Eddie Wyndham, Jonas Casper, Phil MacDuff, Carol Steinman, Sol Moreno, and Peggy Van Talbot

Timing

April 13-15

Plot Summary

Foreshadowing

In mid-March 2007, Pietro randomly runs across an old college flatmate, Edgar "Eddie" Wyndham in a New York deli. The two caught up on a decade of missed time, with Eddie revealing that he was researching paleontology at Empire State University. The two parted with the intent of keeping in touch.

What Pietro did not know was that part of the research Eddie was doing was with Professor Jonas Casper, a radical environmentalist who, with a group of like-minded individuals, intended to force humanity to halt what their group saw as harmful progress. This group, calling themselves the Evolutionaries, blamed human overpopulation and disrespect for nature for everything from famines, to disease, to even the emergence of mutants. With Eddie's already near-radical environmentalist leanings, he assisted Casper and his group. A mutant himself, Eddie's power to evolve or devolve animals to a more advanced or primitive form would be the linchpin in their great mission.

The Field Trip Curse

In April 2007, Jonas Casper extended an invitation to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, allowing a group of students and chaperones to be the first to visit the Mesozoic Biofloral Conservatory, a sanctuary for the regrowth of plant species that had been extinct for millennia.

Upon arriving at the Conservatory, the tour group was escorted by Eddie Wyndham and Phil MacDuff through the regrown prehistoric jungle, observing all the plant life that had been regrown. As part of the Evolutionaries' grand mission, Phase One involved using Eddie's power to potentially devolve mutants into baseline humans. The intent was to provide a halt to uncontrolled evolution, but the point was moot as Eddie discovered covertly that his powers had no effect on mutants. Upon reporting this to Casper, the head of the Evolutionaries ordered Wyndham and MacDuff to abandon the tour group in the Conservatory and release the many species of dinosaurs that Eddie had produced from specific bird and reptile species.

In the middle of the night, it was discovered by a number of students that their guides had abandoned them, shortly before a group of compsognathus arrived in the middle of the camp, startling both students and dinosaurs. Seconds later came a pack of Utahraptors, and a chaotic melee erupted. In the chaos, the students managed to find safety in a nearby tree, although Forge vanished amidst the frenzy. After the dust had cleared, most of the group's gear had been lost to fire or stampede.

Though feared dead, Forge had been thrown clear of the campsite when a propane tank exploded in the campfire, and was knocked unconscious. A group of the compsognathus had dragged him through a river to a small cave to be their next meal. However, Forge awoke and defended himself using a sharpened bone as a spear, although suffering injuries in the process. Attempting to find the rest of his group, he eventually came across a medical supply station that he used not only to treat his injuries, but to discern his location and a way out of the Conservatory.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group had their own adventures:

• Mondo oversaw the young children digging latrines
• Angel, Crystal, and Marie encountered a prehistoric crocodile while searching for a source of fresh water
• Laurie again found the drawback to her pheromone power attracting insects
• Kyle, Jennie, Marius, and Yvette formed a hunting party and brought down a hadrosaur, with the assistance of Marius borrowing Yvette's power
• Garrison attempted to search for Forge, but found no sign of the missing chaperone.

That evening, while cooking their newly-hunted dinner, the group was ambushed by a pack of Allosaurus storming their camp. However, the students and staff were determined not to be victims of supposedly-extinct sauropods, and fought back - repelling the carnivores, assisted by the returned Forge, who had cannibalized his own prosthetic leg to create a compound bow for defense.

In the melee, Kyle Gibney lost a few fingers to a hungry dinosaur, and needed to be knocked unconscious by Garrison to receive medical attention. Once he, as well as Forge, had been attended to, the group reorganized and began the long trek towards the exit, and freedom.

Dinosaurs in New York

While the group in the Conservatory was fighting for their survival, the Evolutionaries were at work in the Central Park Zoo, using Eddie's power on the animals contained within. Bursting free of the zoo and rampaging across Manhattan, the dinosaurs caused no end of chaos, but were contained by a number of the X-Men and X-Force members:

• Scott and Julio helped contain a stampede on the steps of the Hellfire Club building, assisted by Sebastian Shaw and Harry Leland.
• Pete Wisdom had a surreal encounter with a raptor while ordering a morning coffee.
• Angelo discovered that not all the unleashed animals were dinosaurs, as he helped corral a stampede of aurochs.
• The combined efforts of Jean, Ororo, Amanda, Wanda, and Monet resulted in mayhem amidst the invasion.
• Alex and Lorna were returning from a geology lecture when they saved Times Square from a battle between an Allosaurus and a Diplodocus, which Alex blasted into chunks.
• Doug and Angie found the fight taken to their brownstone, which became infested with giant prehistoric insects.
• Cain and Logan kept a wave of dinosaurs from making to Queens by holding the Queensboro Bridge against the rushing stampede.
• Nathan had his own airborne encounter with pterodactyls in the air around the Statue of Liberty.

After a high-speed search, Pietro encountered Eddie Wyndham attempting to leave via boat, and confronted him, learning about the Evolutionaries' plan. However, Pietro was surprised and knocked unconscious by an unseen telekinetic in league with Wyndham, and his former flatmate escaped. However, Pietro managed to search Eddie's apartment and gain enough information to link the rest of the Evolutionaries to the release of the dinosaurs, and the group found itself raided by the NYPD and arrested.

The Rescue

Saturday evening, Cannonball took charge and led a rescue mission with Terry, Shiro, and Clarice. Medusa insisted on accompanying the group to assure the safety of her sister. Upon arriving at the Conservatory, initial searches were fruitless, despite Medusa wrangling a dinosaur and riding off on her own to search.

Early Sunday morning, the rescuers regrouped and came across a Triceratops, which saw the Blackbird as a threat. Protecting their ship, the X-Men managed to subdue the dinosaur, just in time for the tour group to come marching out of the jungle. After ensuring everyone's presence, the injured students were teleported directly to the mansion and the others flown back on the Blackbird, save for the Amaquelin sisters, who chartered a limousine directly to a spa to recover from the weekend's events.

Aftermath

The few surviving dinosaurs were quarantined, and eventually taken back to the Conservatory, save for a small pack of microraptors that became an exhibit at the Central Park Zoo. Unfortunately, many of the dinosaurs perished shortly after the weekend's events, due to exposure to unfamiliar climate and environmental toxins. Those that survived were determined to be sterile, and most would not survive through the following summer, returning to history where they belonged.

External Links

This Savage Land

Trivia and Meta

Trivia

Some of the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals featured in the plot were:

• Allosaurus
• Diplodocus
• Compsognathus
• Hadrosaurus
• Pterodactyl
• Triceratops
• Ankylosaurus
• Utahraptor
• Microraptor
• Aurochs
• Giant crocodile
• the Demon Duck of Doom (no, seriously!)

Meta

Plotrunner: Nute