Indominus Rex vs Sharktopus
Isla Nublar. 120 Miles off the coast of Costa Rica.
"Welcome, to Jurassic Shark!" the old man announced with grandiose confidence. The conference room he was in, however, remained silent as the board of suited businessmen and women stared confusedly. The hum of a projector came from the center of the table, a slideshow lighting up the otherwise dark room.
The man wore a light blue pinstripe suit with a bold nametag reading "Nathan Sands", his grayed hair quaffed over his forehead wrinkled with age and stress. His crooked smile put the room on edge, his intentions made more mysterious by sunglasses obscuring his beady eyes.
The pictures behind the man was headed by the words "Jurassic Shark" in the famous font the board members were all familiar with, arching over the image of an abomination. The creature had the appearance of a great white shark from its front half, although spiked protrusions jutted out from its gills and its brow was much more defined, giving the creature a look of permanent hatred. Replacing its tail, however, squirmed eight long red tentacles akin to an octopus, each ending in sharp black spikes. The photo was captured underwater, seeing the abomination feed on tuna and other large fish.
The clock audibly ticked through the seconds as the projector continued to flick through photographs and medical documents of the creature, sweat dripping in anticipation from Dr. Sands' forehead. A full minute passed in silence, the man fidgeting with anxiety, before one of the board members piped up.
"What about this project of yours fits into the dynamic of Jurassic World?"
"You want spectacle? It's right here." Sands racked his brain for reasons to sell his experiment. "You want danger? Sharktopus was designed to be the deadliest creature in the ocean! No other scientist could give you something this magnificent."
"But… why?" another board member clicked her pen in frustration. "At Jurassic World we pride ourselves on our prehistoric specimens, and this is clearly not something from the fossil record. A prehistoric squid, maybe…"
"Octopus." Sands raised his finger, counting the eight tentacles just to reassure himself.
"Octopus," the businesswoman continued, "or a megalodon, but guest satisfaction is still steadily increasing from the introduction of our last oceanic species, and, again, this hybrid has no paleontological value."
"But this park hasn't stopped at hybridization before!" Dr. Sands' temper began to flare, the slideshow behind him still flicking through images. "Your tour makes that abundantly clear with frog DNA!"
"You're missing the point, sir," a board member raised his hand to calm down the mad scientist. "We don't want your creature because it wouldn't represent the Masrani brand, dedicated to entertainment of all ages and the preservation of paleontological research. I'm sorry, but as a company we cannot accept your Sharktopus project."
The board members began to file out of the room, leaving Nathan Sands wide-eyed and heartbroken. This was his last opportunity to get the abomination out of his hands for good money. His mind raced to his other options: coastal warlords to wreak havoc on unsuspecting communities, eccentric billionaires with inadequate facilities, the U.S. military? No, he would never get a good deal from them. He slammed his hand on the desk, the jolt shaking the projector enough to shut off.
"You'll have to pay for that if you break it," chuckled a man entering the room. He was not suited like the board members, but instead wore a khaki short-sleeved safari shirt topping dark black jeans. The man was a bit portly, a goatee surrounding his toothy smile.
"Vic Hoskins, InGen Security Division," the man said, extending his arm for a handshake.
"Dr. Sands," Nathan took the man's hand hesitantly.
"I know who you are," Vic smiled devilishly. "I've done my research, and have you thought about what your Sharktopus could be capable in the field?"
"It was designed to be a weapon against pirates and gunrunners," Sands said, back straightening as he molded into his sales pitch. "Fast enough to go undetected by sonar, extremely deadly, and completely under our control via its electrical impulse collar attached to its head."
"Deadly and controllable, that's all I needed to hear." Hoskins' grin widened, pulling a manila file labeled "Classified" from his suitcase and throwing it onto the table. "These entertainment junkies could never see the potential of a weapon like you've got here, doc. Some people think robots are the future of war, but as soon as a real war breaks out all that tech is going to go dark. Throw this thing onto the battlefield and Captain Ahab would piss his shorts. This thing is an unstoppable weapon, and InGen wants in."
"I'll need healthy compensation," Sands flipped open the classified file. The papers within contained many pictures of his creation alongside legal documents with plenty of spaces for his signature.
"InGen is willing to pay one-hundred million for the creature itself," Hoskins said, sliding a pen in front of the scientist, "and an additional fifty million bonus to get you started working with our head geneticists. Spare no expense."
Sands gladly took the pen, throwing his signature in the multiple blanks as he quickly scanned through the legal documents.
"How quickly can you get the Sharktopus to the island for an exposition of its capabilities?" Vic asked, watching over the papers as Sands flipped through them. Dr. Sands smiled as he reached the last page.
"It's already on the northern shore."
Isla Nublar, Northern Shore RESTRICTED AREA
Hoskins placed his hand on the high-tech shipping container, still half-submerged in the ocean and one side transparent to show the beast. The half-shark-half-octopus creature snapped at Vic's arm, its spiked tentacles flailing against the plexiglass. He jumped back onto the dock as the container shook, a feeling of overwhelming joy and excitement taking him.
"That means he likes you!" Nathan laughed, stepping out of the jeep that brought him to the rocky beach and walking towards the crate.
"I'll admit, doc," Vic smiled, "this may be better than we could have ever hoped for. A pretty penny well spent."
Nathan Sands nodded confidently, overlooking his pet project from a distance.
Suddenly a loud siren by the partially intact dock began to blare, a bright red light reflecting starkly over the water.
"I'm guessing that's nothing good," Sands asked Hoskins, keeping his eye on the Sharktopus. The creature began to squirm in its container, the water in the crate sloshing violently against the sides. Vic pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt, listening to the shouting from the other side of the device.
"Code 19?" Vic repeated the shouts from the walkie-talkie, suddenly overtaken with a look of both concern and intrigue.
"What's a code 19?" Sands asked, eyes flashing between Sharktopus and the jungle behind him.
"Asset out of containment," Vic said, eying the Sharktopus as well as a devious smile stretched across his face. "I think we have an opportunity to see what this bad boy can do doc."
Blood ran through the jungle river, deep in the restricted area, as the monster known as the Indominus Rex picked up the corpses of InGen security agents sent to subdue her. The mass of scales and muscle rose to the tree tops, a fresh corpse clutched in its extended prehensile claws. She brought the body to her mouth, teeth jaggedly interlocking as she effortlessly chewed through the body armor. As she chewed, the Indominus clawed at its torso to remove the multiple tasers and to soothe the bruising of the team's non-lethal weapons.
The low grumble of the Indominus bounced off the trees as it fed, catching the ears of a sole trooper cowering behind an oversized tree. The man, Meyers, shook in fear as he heard the beast crunch through bones of men he had called brothers only minutes ago.
He clutched his shotgun to his chest, knowing its uselessness as loaded with low-powered rounds. His eyes wandered to the stream to his side, seeing the stream turn red with flowing blood. A single tear fell down his face in fear as he let out a heavy gasp.
The chewing halted immediately and Meyers' eyes widened. A sudden thump as a partially eaten corpse fell to the ground from considerable height. He felt the ground rumble as the dinosaur stepped toward the tree, lured by the heat given off by Meyers' hyperventilation as it grew faster with each passing moment.
Thud
Thud
THUD
The steps stopped. Meyers betrayed his sense of fear as he pried his eyes open, slowly craning his head upward.
Staring back at him was the ivory head of the devil itself. The Indominus Rex's red eyes peered down at the cowering man, saliva dripping from her bloodied maw. The creature grasped the tree with one of her forearms for balance as the corners of her mouth turned upward in a malicious grin, her tail whipping behind her.
As the creature lunged downward, it was halted by a growing roar. Meyers pulled his gaze from the imminent death from above him to the jungle in front. Charging toward him and his would-be killer was a mass of horror, the head of a shark bearing its rows of teeth as it propelled itself with the tentacles that made up its posterior half.
The Indominus Rex chirped at the oncoming abomination but the creature didn't halt. As the Sharktopus got closer, Meyers took to his feet and ran opposite the Indominus' massive head. He turned his head just in time to see the two monsters clash, teeth and claws flying mercilessly at each other.
Meyers ducked behind a fallen tree, peaking over the wooden barricade to see the behemoths at each other's throats. Sharktopus stood on four of its tentacles to be eye-to-eye with the ivory dinosaur, flailing its other four and slashing at the sides of the I-Rex. Two of the clawed tentacles dug deep into the Indominus above its right shoulder, showering the stream below with more blood.
The I-Rex roared in pain, reaching out with its oversized claws to hack at the abomination, severing the two tentacles imbedded into its flesh.
"Can you hear me?" Meyers' headset within his helmet buzzed to life with a healthy amount of static. "You, in the jungle, can you hear this signal?"
Meyers quickly ducked back behind his tree, hearing a combination of the radio static and the thrashing still going on between the two behemoths.
"Yes!" Meyers whispered angrily into his headset. "I need extraction immediately! The rest of InGen Security team is KIA, asset is still on the loose and now there is an unidentified…"
"Calm down, soldier," came the voice on the other side of the headset, giving Meyers no reason to calm himself. "This is Doctor Nathan Sands, and if you want to save this park you will do exactly as I say."
"I don't care about saving the park!" Meyers exasperated, finding it difficult to keep his temper with this man. "I just need extraction! Get me out of here!"
The doctor on the other side of the line paused for what felt like an eternity as Meyers stood frozen in fear, listening to the crashes of trees behind him, followed by quick thudding sound advancing on him.
"I need you to lure Sharktopus and the Indominus to the nearest body of water so that it has a chance to stop that thing," the voice said. Meyers peeked to the other side of the tree to see the abomination called Sharktopus running toward him with its mouth agape. His eyes widened as he dropped his shotgun, feet carrying him as fast as they could in the opposite direction. "So I've set the Sharktopus' targeting system to you, all I need you to do is run north and once you get to water I'll reset the targeting parameters and it'll be golden!"
"Are you crazy!" Meyers tore through the thickets, hearing the roar of the abominations behind him. He looked briefly behind to see the Sharktopus, followed closely by the Indominus as it slashed at the trailing tentacles.
"You're going to be fine," came Dr. Sands' voice through the static. "On land we've only clocked Sharktopus to run at a max of 16 miles per hour, and since you're the best InGen has to offer I know you can outrun it. Just be our carrot on the stick."
"But what about the Indominus?!" he shouted, darting between the trees, his Kevlar suit weighing him down as he sloshed through the vegetation close to the stream.
The vegetation gave way to a small grassy clearing surrounding a pond with a rocky shore where several small green dinosaurs sipped, however these creatures scattered as soon as they saw the man running toward them. Meyers' chest burned as he reached up to his headset to contact his mysterious eye in the sky.
"I've found water! Get the Sharktopus off me!" he screamed. He kept running towards the pond, briefly sparing a glance backwards to see the head of a shark burst from the tree line with a mighty roar. Panicked, Meyers wasn't able to keep his footing as he hit a lilac bush, sending him face-first onto the rocky shore, scraping his brow and knocking his helmet into the lake.
Meyers rolled onto his back, his shoulders being soaked by quickly deepening water. He saw the Sharktopus slowly advance, its horde of tentacles flopping one in front of the other as it creeped to the downed man. The Sharktopus' jaws snapped open and shut, its jagged teeth dripping with viscous saliva.
Another burst from the trees came Meyers' savior as the mass of white muscle and scales threw branches out of its way to focus its blood-red eyes on the deadly aquatic hybrid. The Indominus Rex rushed forward, head lowered as a battering ram, connecting with the Sharktopus who had only barely seen his assailant before the hit.
Sharktopus was sent flying over Meyers, whose head arced in awe as the creature crashed into the lake, placing the man between the two deadly creatures. He ran perpendicular to the confrontation, making it to the edge of the trees as he watched for the hybrids to continue their fight.
The Sharktopus remained under the water, but its tentacles shot out with a fury, ripping and slashing at the dinosaur at the water's edge. Blood splattered on the rocky shore as the spiked tentacles slashed at the Indominus' flanks and face, one swipe blinding the I-Rex's left eye. The Indominus fought back with its claws and teeth, systematically dismembering each of the aquatic hybrid's tentacles.
Three tentacles remained before they retracted into the water, the pond quickly blackening with ink and mixing with the blood. The Indominus lowered itself to its front limbs, staring intently at the opaque water with its good eye, slowly scanning the pond for its adversary.
The Indominus plunged its forelimb into the black water, pulling it up imbedded into the gill of the monster. The Sharktopus gave a loud roar as it struggled to free itself from the sickled claw, but it was in vain. The Indominus Rex stretched its jaws wide as it clamped over the top of the Sharktopus' head, crushing down with a bone-snapping crunch, obliterating the abomination's cranium.
Her jaw loosened, letting the mass of muscle and tentacles fall into the water below. The I-Rex placed a clawed foot on the remains of his half-submerged prey, letting out a deafening roar before limping into the woods searching for the next largest heat signature.
Meyers slumped against his tree, relieved that the Indominus escaped the opposite side of the clearing. He sighed as his nerves calmed, listening to the chirping of birds of the jungle, wondering how he would get out of the restricted area.
Winner: Indominus Rex