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“There we go, Blue. My clever girl.”
He praised his beta for solving the puzzle, and she chirped happily. The others joined in, and he laughed, watching as they enthusiastically ran around. When he heard the door open, he looked over, expecting Barry, and found Dr. Wu instead. His smile faded, and he sat up straighter, watching the scientist. When Dr. Wu wasn’t looking, he gestured for his girls to get behind him.
“Have they been satisfactory so far?”
He nodded, watching as Dr. Wu scribbled something on his notepad. His eyes scanned his girls, who watched him closely. He could tell they didn’t like having a stranger so close to their nest. He stood up and ordered his girls to look at him. After a moment's hesitation, they all turned to look.
He fed each one, ignoring Dr. Wu's stare. It felt like he wasn’t just watching the girls but also himself. He shifted in discomfort, and his girls noticed. They glared at Wu, wanting him to leave.
He ordered the girls to disperse and went to see why he was there. Stepping out of the raptor pen, he tried asking what he was doing and was stopped by Dr. Wu.”
“I had my doubts about you as their trainer, but so far the girls are progressing nicely, better than we had hoped.”
The doctor put a hand on his shoulder as he spoke, and his girls lost it. They began growling and barking, all of them looking at Dr. Wu's hand as though they wanted to eat it.
The doctor had enough sense to let go of him and take a step back, eyeing the raptors the entire time. He came over to comfort his girls and let them smell him. The entire time, they watched as Dr. Wu left and didn’t look away until they were sure he was gone.
Looking down at his girls, he smiled.
“Were you protecting me from the mean old Dr. Wu, who gives you shots?”
The girls barked, and he laughed, petting each of them before going back to training.
He was surprised when he was sent an email informing him that Mr. Masrani himself was coming to check on the Raptors. He glanced at Barry, both of them wondering why and if something was wrong.
Although it wasn’t unusual for Mr. Masrani to check on the dinosaurs, he’d never visited the raptors before, and neither of them thought he would. Everyone knew how dangerous they were, and even though his girls were just babies,sthey could still seriously harm someone if they wanted to.
Both of them tried cleaning up the raptor pen to the best of their ability and reminding their girls to be on their best behavior, not that they thought they’d listen.
When Mr. Masrani arrived, all four of them turned to stare at him. Although the CEO looked nervous, he also seemed excited and almost got too close to the pen.
“Careful, we don’t want you losing a hand.”
“They’re already that dangerous?”
Both of them nodded, not showing the scars the girls accidentally gave them.
“They’re so cute. It's too bad they’re not open to the public otherwise; everyone would want to get the chance to see a baby raptor.”
They glanced at each other behind Masrani's back, knowing how horrible an idea that was.
“Dr. Wu tells me they are progressing nicely, which is good to hear.”
Masrani laughed and clapped a hand on his back.
“I knew you were perfect for this program.”
Suddenly, the girls began growling and barking. Mr. Masrani looked confused, and he told them to stop. They didn’t. Not until Mr. Masrani let go of him and took a step back, looking nervous. His eyes were on the girls' sharp teeth, which they happily showed off. He ran to his girls, wanting to know what was going on. Echo snapped her teeth at Mr. Masrani, which finally made him leave.
“I just remembered I have a meeting coming up.”
He looked at Barry, who seemed just as confused as he was.
“They seemed fine a moment ago. What changed?”
“He must have overstayed his welcome. The girls have done the same thing to Wu before; they just don’t like outsiders invading their nest.”
Barry wrote that down in his log, and Blue snuggled against him, still watching the door.
The girls had outgrown the raptor pen and were now inside the padlock, which would become their permanent home. He watched as Charlie and Delta played with each other, and Echo watched from her favorite resting spot. Blue was by the catwalk like usual, and the two of them made eye contact. She barked happily, tail wagging, and he smiled.
The raptors all perked up and looked towards the road. He followed their gaze and noticed a truck speeding down the road. He looked around for Barry and then remembered he was off the island at the moment.
He sighed and forced himself to deal with them himself. Climbing down from the catwalk, he watched as a man with greying hair stepped out of the car. He had a smirk on his face and swaggered up to him as though he owned the place. He immediately hated him and only hated him more when he saw the looks he was giving his girls.
“My name is Vic Hoskins, and I’m head of security and in charge of this little operation.”
He twitched, trying not to react as Hoskins kept talking down to him and his raptors. He glanced at his girls and could tell they didn’t like him either. Wanting him gone immediately, he tried to stay polite and blocked him from entering the padlock.
The man tried making himself look bigger to intimidate him, and when that didn’t work, he put his hands on his chest to shove him out of the way. Blue snarled and threw herself at the wall, causing Hoskins to take a step back in fear. The others joined her by growling and barking until the man left, practically running away.
He grinned and gave each of them a treat as thanks for dealing with Hoskins for him.
He scanned parts of the wall, making sure his girls weren’t trying to escape when they were bored. They followed him around the padlock, their tails wagging happily. He noticed a few areas where they tested the strength of their padlock. He knew why they were doing it and had sent a request to Claire, hoping to deal with the problem.
He noticed the girls' heads all turned to the road, and he went to see who it was. Based on the lack of snarling, he could tell it wasn’t Hoskins.
Coming closer to the entrance, he could hear Claire calling for him, and he winced, wondering if he should hide. After their failed date, they’d been avoiding each other, and he really didn’t want to deal with her now. He also couldn’t leave his friend to deal with her wrath alone.
“To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“What is this?”
She raised his request in the air, and he shrugged.
“Exactly as I said.”
“You want me to approve you letting the raptors out of their padlock!?”
“I want to take them hunting in the restricted zone.”
“Absolutely not.”
“They’re bored, Claire. Giving them a chance to hunt in the restricted zone will give them some time to blow off steam.”
“I don’t care if they're bored.”
“You should. A bored raptor is a dangerous raptor.”
He snapped.
“Their wild animals, Claire, you can't just keep them in here for the rest of their lives.”
“I most certainly can.”
“The girls have tried to escape multiple times recently. They need to be allowed out.”
“No means no, Owen, if they are trying to escape, that's because you’re a bad trainer.”
They glared at each other, neither of them willing to back down.”
Barry could see the rising tension between them and decided to step in and make them cool off.
“Owen is right, they need to be let out. I can show you the research we’ve done and the benefits of letting them hunt in the restricted zone, along with all the safety precautions we will take.”
Claire nodded, finally cooling down.
“You’re a better trainer than he is.”
She pointed at him, and he gasped.
“He’s more raptor than human could probably use his own trainer.”
He wanted to argue, and Barry gave him a look telling him to drop it.
“I see you’ve already been working on that.”
She shoved past him, and the girls who’d been watching silently except for the occasional growl went crazy. They began barking and growling at Claire, all of them looking pissed, especially Blue, who looked about ready to break out of the padlock and attack Claire.
He rushed over, ignoring the fear on Claire's face as he went to soothe his girls and calm himself. He shouldn’t have lost his cool like that, especially not in front of the girls who pick up even the slightest change in his emotions.
Barry wisely decided it was best to put space between Claire and Blue and had them go somewhere else to talk.
“We’ve got another intern coming.”
“No, why are they sending another one?”
He whined.
“Don’t they remember what happened to the last one?”
Barry shrugged, mumbling.
“They never learn.
He nodded, already imagining all the paperwork he’d have to do.”
“When are they getting here?”
Both of them turned when they heard a knock on the door, and in walked a pretty girl. She had long blond hair neatly put in a bun. Her uniform was crisp and perfect. Perfume wafted over even from across the room and she was wearing makeup. She walked into the room with a confidence smirk on her face.
“I was told to come here.”
They glanced at each other, already having a bad feeling, even though they had just met her. No one that put together worked at Jurassic World except for Claire. Something was clearly wrong.
“Welcome to the team. Come fill out this paperwork, and then I’ll show you around.”
Barry held up a large stack of paperwork and she nodded eagerly with a bounce in her step. Looking way too happy for someone doing paperwork. When Barry noticed him staring at the matching pair of socks she wore in distrust he gave him a look that said.
“Be nice.”
He quickly left before he was forced to do his own paperwork. On the way out, he felt the new intern's eyes on him.
He went to start training for the day and ordered the pig to be released. His girls excitedly chased it to prepare for their upcoming hunt.
It always amazed him watching the way his girls hunted. He could see them spread into different directions until the unknowing pig was circled. They silently crept closer to the pig, unaware until it was too late. Charlie jumped out first, scaring the pig that ran into Echo and then Delta, before Blue finally went in for the kill.
He was so busy watching the show, he didn’t notice the new intern come over or how close she was. His raptors noticed and turned away from their kill to bark and growl in protest. The intern who’d just placed her hand on his arm pulled it away as though she’d been burned. Looking nervous, she’d taken a few steps back and nearly fell off the catwalk.
He quickly grabbed her, which only seemed to make his girls angrier, and they began jumping and attempting to grab the new intern. He ordered them to stop as he finally managed to pull her up.
She was shaking in fear, tears falling as she ran out of there and didn’t come back. Barry later told him she’d put in for a transfer, which he thought was a wise decision.
Barry, who’d noticed the entire scene, became curious. Looking back at his notes, he noticed a pattern where every time Owen was touched, the girls would lose their minds. He found himself thinking back to a few days ago when he’d brushed against him. The girls hadn’t reacted at all. In fact, he’s touched him numerous times in front of them, and they never reacted.
It didn’t make sense and was the reason he never noticed the pattern until now. Just to be sure though, he walked over to Owen and, in clear view of all four, wrapped his arm around him. Owen gave him a confused loo,k and he told him to just go with it.
Looking at the girls, none of them reacted or even seemed to notice. It was odd, and he wondered why they didn’t react to him touching Owen, but reacted when anyone else did it.