Chapter Text
The ability to clone dinosaurs used to be a myth, science fiction even, until InGen did it. Cloned the first ever dinosaurs on an island off the coast of Costa Rica.
It was considered the pinnacle of genetic engineering, for better or worse. Especially once prehistoric animal rampages came into play. Everyone assumed the 1997 San Diego rampage, and the incident in Canada involving several escaped Pteranodons in 2001 were the worse things would get.
Until Raptor Dyne Genetics entered the picture.
While not public about it, Victor Veloci and Joanne Moynihan discovered a new type of bacterium. One that could rewrite the genome of a host species to be something else, and revert it. Joanne wanted to use the bacteria to improve human lives.
Victor, however, didn’t.
He wanted to use it to replace humanity with a stronger, better species, one that had the brawn of dinosaurs, but the intelligence of humans.
Veloci tried to get Joanne to see his side of things. But she refused. Believing that forcing people to become something forcibly was barbaric and too cruel a fate, and that Victor was a madman for even suggesting such an idea. Especially after seeing how much damage a Tyrannosaurus rex could do in an urban setting.
Joanne only agreed to partake in his experiments so he couldn't rope some other poor soul in. That was the promise. But, Victor broke his promise, and started to experiment on his own employees.
So, Joanne left Raptor Dyne to teach at Kittery Point High School, while Victor continued his experiments with what he now called Primordial Ooze in secret.
Years later, after a supposedly failed batch was dumped by Raptor Dyne off the coast of Kittery Point, a portside town in Maine.
Where Joanne was leading a field trip for her high school biology class, when five teenagers; Rolf "Max" Maxwell, Neil Buzzmati, Erwin Caruso, Fiona Flagstaff, and Rodger Blair were exposed to the Primordial Ooze after attempting to rescue a stray dog named Rump from a great white.
Their bodies took in the Primordial Ooze, and evolved into what Veloci had come to dub as Chimeras, also known as Shifters. With dinosaur DNA now in their genome permanently, and on the verge of transforming, Moynihan had no choice but to reveal her involvement with Veloci to the five. Taking them under her wing to train them in how to use their new dinosaur forms.
But, Veloci wasn’t far behind in finding out about his accidental success.
So, he sent one of his agents to investigate and draw them out with a projection of an Apatosaurus.
While it wasn't enough to figure out identities, it was enough to figure out their prehistoric animal forms. Rolf had become a Tyrannosaurus, Neil a Pteranodon, Erwin a Stegosaurus, Fiona a Spinosaurus, and Rodger a Triceratops.
Once he had confirmation that the five teenagers had become fully fledged chimeras, Veloci set out to try and either willingly convince them to join him. Or, force them to join him.
The five of them naturally refused. So, Veloci began a squabble between the so called "Dino Squad" -nicknamed by Fiona- and Raptor Dyne. Beginning many adventures that'd see the Dino Squad facing off against Veloci's escaped experiments -many of which were actual dinosaur clones-, and Veloci's own henchmen.
Some specific adventures the six like to recall are mainly;
Dealing with a rogue and out of control Liopleurodon who was rampaging through the marina, stopping two Raptor Dyne employed raptor shifters who acted as football players for the college team "The Raptors" from Gold-state College out west causing trouble during try outs, saving rock star Kristi Crash from both Veloci, and paparazzi, facing off against one of Veloci's top henchmen named Krista, and even going to Hawaii to stop Veloci from releasing several Elasmosauruses into the open ocean.
Along with many, many more.
Of course, as the feud between the Dino Squad and Raptor Dyne continued, not only did things begin to get harder and harder for the team to keep up with Veloci. Who was very eager to simply solve the issue by throwing more of his operatives at the problem. But, Jurassic World was catching a lot of flack from any sightings that did happen.
Which, of course, were mainly just snippets of either the team's dinosaur -or in Buzz's case Pterosaur- forms, or completely phony stuff. But, it was still an issue of not getting InGen, or the media's full attention.
Although, weirdly enough, Veloci seemed more then eager to step in and cover things up when he could. But, it was probably just to cover his own rear.
But, even with the secrecy of the feud between them, the two sides were of course still fighting. leading to the families of the team to find out about what had happened to their kids, especially after some close calls over the months. Mostly bruises, cuts, and other unexplained injuries.
While their families were mostly supportive of their actions, it didn't mean they didn't worry about their kids.
But, Moynihan assured the team's families that their kids were confident enough to handle situations by themselves.
Until, the fighting just stopped suddenly one day. Veloci didn't release anymore dinosaurs, or his failed genetic experiments. Neither did he send his henchmen to complete some orders for him or even test the squad in any manner.
Essentially leading to a truce, even if neither side spoke to call it one.
While the downtime for the team allowed them to catch up on their studies and rest. They, and specifically Moynihan were starting to get skeptical of what Veloci was planning, if he was planning anything.
Because it was quite unusual that Veloci would just up and go quiet all of the sudden for no reason.
They'd have to be prepared for anything, especially now that school was finished and they had more time to do things.