As winter was starting, so was Project Cenozoic (AKA Project Pleistocene). The colder environment would make it a good time to start bringing back mammals from the ice age. Project Cenozoic has been neglected quite a bit what with so many people becoming Dinotopians. Even Project Thylacine was getting more attention. DNA samples were going to be coming in soon for the Pyrenean Ibex, the Quagga, and even the Moa and Haast's Eagle. But now was the perfect time to being creating Pleistocene Animalians.
DNA samples weren't hard to acquire for the woolly mammoth. Asides from attempts to recreate its DNA, there were more than enough frozen carcasses to provide the needed genetic material. What they mainly needed now was a volunteer. And it didn't take a lot of perusing through the queue of people signing up for volunteers to find their man.
Manfred Tuscan had been around for a long time. Long enough to know when circuses mainly traveled by train. In fact, he worked in the circus for quite some time as an elephant tamer. Of course, in the circuses, the smarter, friendlier Indian elephant was used instead of the African elephant, which often had an aggression problem. Manfred had a respect for the mighty pachyderms so when years of exposure to second-hand smoke finally caught up with him, he volunteered to be converted into an Indian elephant. It didn't take a lot of persuasion to sway him into signing up for Project Cenozoic.
"The Indian elephant's closer related to the woolly elephant anyways," said Manfred, "And it'll be nice to have a nice warm coat. Besides, somebody's got to get this thing rolling before everyone signs up to be dinosaurs."
But Manfred wasn't the only volunteer for Project Cenozoic. The other volunteer was actually a bit of a celebrity, so Sophie went over to Horizon Labs to meet him herself. It was already getting nippy so she bundled up a bit. Once she was there, it didn't take her long to find Jeremy and Heather, though both are pretty hard to not find. "Hey guys," said Sophie, "Is he here yet?"
"Not yet," said Jeremy, "Should be here soon."
"Ok, have you guys been?" asked Sophie.
"Pretty well, all things considering. It's taking a while to get used to these claws though," said Jeremy, holding up his four-fingered hands.
"You'll adjust in time," said Heather before noticing Sophie was carrying a cardboard box. "What's in the box?" she asked.
"Just someone who didn't want to be left behind today," said Sophie, opening the box. A grey-feathered soon poked its way out, its curved black beak clicking inquisitively. Soon after that, an African Grey Parrot hopped out of the box, which was reveal to be padded inside before perching on Sophie's arm to be scratched by her.
"And who's this?" asked Jeremy.
"This is my parrot, JC. Say hello, JC," said Sophie.
"Hello," chirped JC.
"You still have a pet?" asked Heather, sounding baffled.
"Well, yeah," said Sophie, "I take good care of JC."
"I thought there weren't any pets left in Lyre," said Heather, "I thought they all got uplifted during the Outbreak."
"JC only drinks bottled water," said Sophie.
"Oh, that explains it," said Heather.
"I am a bit curious why you haven't uplifted JC by now," said Jeremy.
"Well, I'm not really sure if he wants to be uplifted or not. And I guess I was a little worried he'd have a crush on me when I wouldn't. But now I'm worried he'd resent me for taking so long to uplift him. And he'll be cross with me joining Dinotopia when he can't," said Sophie, scratching JC's head.
"Then let him join Dinotopia," said Heather.
"What?" asked Sophie.
"Well, all birds evolved from dinosaurs, right? So it'd just be like rewinding the clock for him. I mean, if the virus can make humans into apes, why not birds into dinosaurs?" asked Heather.
One of the scientists working nearby, who happened to be an uplifted orangutan, turned and said in a cross voice, "I beg your pardon?"
"Oh, sorry, Banjo. Didn't mean to insult you," said Heather.
"That'd Dr. Banjo," said the orangutan a bit haughtily before returning to his work.
Jeremy rubbed his chin and said thoughtfully, "I suppose there is a chance, in theory. This would require a lot of testing to prove or not."
"But if he became a dinosaur, he wouldn't be able to fly anymore," said Sophie, "And don't just suggest I make him a pterosaur. I know birds didn't evolve from those."
"There were a few flying dinosaurs," said Heather, "Archaeopteryx, Microraptor, those were the types of dinosaurs that birds evolved from."
"It's only theoretical at this point," said Jeremy, "It would need to be proven or disproven at this point. Anyways, aren't we supposed to be anticipating someone for another project?"
==========
The other volunteer was significantly younger than Manfred, but he also had a legitimate reason for wanting to go through Project Phoenix before he was persuaded to be in Project Cenozoic instead. Diego Delgado had been a pretty noticeably athlete for many years. To be more specific, he did several extreme sports, which were very popular back in the 90's. And he was very good at it too. There was practically nothing that he couldn't ride while doing crazy stunts. However, this high-octane career came to an end after a rather nasty mountain bike accident. A brief moment of no control ended with him tumbling down a small gorge. This resulted in several broken bones, including a leg that didn't heal right and forced him to wear a brace all the time.
Sophie was rather interested that such a noted celebrity was wanting to become a part of Animalia, let alone partake in a more experimental side. She was able to get a small interview of him, which will obviously be a prelude to his eventual interview on Animalia Ambassadoria.
"Well, I'll admit that one big reason I want to join Animalia is so I can restart my career," said Diego, "And I'd like to be free from this leg brace. But I've also noticed Animalians aren't pushing themselves as far in sports as they could."
"What do you mean?" asked Sophie.
"I mean running track, boxing, and weightlifting are all good, but can you imagine the kind of extreme sports they're capable of? Just put one video of a skateboarding lizard online and you'll have 50,000 views in no time. And there's also the surfing, the roller derbies, rockclimbing, and all sorts of other things Animalians could really exceed at," said Diego, "I'm hoping on introducing some of that."
"Ok, and what kind of animal were you originally planning on becoming?" asked Sophie.
"I've kinda had trouble deciding," said Diego, "But probably some kinda big cat, like a jaguar or a mountain lion."
"And this help you decide which Pleistocene animal you wanted to be?" asked Sophie.
"Yeah, the saber-toothed tiger," said Diego, "How could anyone not want to jump at the chance at that?"
"Preferences vary a lot," said Sophie, "And you think being a saber-toothed tiger will change the kinds of sports you'll be doing?"
"I guess I'll be doing more snowboarding after that," said Diego, "But saber cats can adjust to warm weather, right?"
"I'm not really the one to ask about that," said Sophie, "But I think you'll give Project Cenozoic a lot more attention."