Chapter 1: A Case of Pterodactyl

Kara Danvers clutched to her coffee-to-go so hard, as though begging the steaming hot liquid inside the paper cup to give her courage to survive yet another Monday. Ugh, she hated Mondays. it was the worst day of the week.

The elevator doors dinged open and revealed a crazy buzzing bullpen, with people running around frantically. The constant ringing of telephones in the background could go undetected due to the loud shouting and chatter that echoed from every corner of the floor.

"Here we go again!" Kara muttered under her breath as she dodged coworkers to get to her desk which was stacked with a pile of articles she had to proofread as a part of her job between working on her own articles.

Kara dropped on her chair and took a long sip of her Latte, before reaching for the first file. This huge amount of work was ridiculous, but she knew the reason why. All the media outlets these days were hyped and extra busy because –

"DANVERS!"

Snapper's yell made the floor grow quiet for a few seconds and Kara almost spilled her drink in her hurry to respond.

"YES CHIEF?"

"MY OFFICE NOW!"

The office went back to normal and Kara rushed to get to her boss. Great! What had she done wrong this time?

The first thing Kara noticed when she stepped inside the office, was the news on the muted screens, continuously showing footage of the exotic creatures that had been dead for the past sixty-six million years. Dinosaurs back to life! And of course, people were going nuts over this. All thanks to a bunch of rich people who had decided to fund some scientists' crazy idea to clone these ancient fossils and made a zoo of them for people to come and see. Meanwhile, they made a huge profit out of it and even had the audacity to call it "Jurassic Park". What a stupid name! Who had even chosen to call it a park? This was NO park! At least not for amusement.

"What can I do for you chief?" Kara asked Snapper who hadn't even raised his head from his place behind the desk which used to belong to the famous (or infamous) Cat Grant not so long ago.

"Ponytail, I want you to run down to this madhouse and get me an article about the dragon trainer there." Snapper pointed to the screens behind him with the end of his pen.

Kara's jaw dropped. "You mean Jurassic Park? But you already assigned me to do that interview with the Baseball player-"

"No one cares about Baseball right now Danvers. That was yesterday. Today it's all about dragons."

"You mean Dinosaurs?"

For the first time since she had stepped inside the office, Snapper raised his bald head and looked at her through his thick lenses wearily.

"You go today." He completely ignored her correcting him. "His name is Matthews something. He's training these monsters there. I expect a full report on what he does over there by Wednesday."

"But the park is in Costa Rica! Just going there and back will take me 48 hours! How am I supposed to interview this guy and write an article in between?!"

"You always say you're the smart one, why don't you figure it out?"

"But –"

"No buts!" Snapper frowned at Kara in annoyance, obviously done with her rational objections. "Catco should be the first to get its hands on this story and I won't have it any other way. Now go, this says the next flight is in four hours." He handed Kara a paper with details of her flight.

Kara snatched the paper, huffing in sheer irritation. She had some snarky comment on the tip of her tongue about his lack of knowledge on this subject, but she swallowed back the words and instead ran out of that dragon's layer to get back her purse to leave for her apartment. She fetched her passport and packed a small bag quickly, before heading to the airport.

Her coffee was sitting on her desk completely cold and long forgotten.

"I HATE Mondays!"

Nine hours later, Kara walked out of Costa Rica airport on the Pacific coast with just a backpack. Now she had to get to the ferry on the west coast in order to get to the Isla Nublar Island where Jurassic Park was located on. Usually, the press could be arranged to be transferred there by helicopter, but lucky her, the arrangement for the visit had been so sudden that there had been no time to book a chopper.

The ferry was overcrowded with families, almost all with children who were buzzing with excitement to see the exotic beasts. There were flyers by every seat and Kara picked one up and looked over the contents. On the front was a picture of the famous logo of a T-Rex skeleton. The inside of the leaflet gave a brief overview of the characterizations of the island and the purpose of the park, showing some of the different species in each zone as well as a map of the island.

Kara herself remembered how obsessed she used to be with dinosaurs as a little girl. She even had a shelf dedicated to their figurines. The memory brought a smile to her lips. It's been a long time, but she still remembered some of their weird names as she flipped through the flyer.

Tyrannosaurus Rex aka T-Rex, the huge scary predator that everyone was most familiar with.

Diplodocus, the giant, hill sized friendly dinosaurs with their long neck which were vegetarian.

Ceratopsia, the rhinoceros-like creature with two big horns on its snout and a crown shaped skull.

And there was Pterodactyl, the big flying monsters that could pluck your head out with their long sharp beaks.

What really piqued Kara's interest though, was a short list of important staff members and her eyes stopped when she saw the name Michael Matthews. He was listed as the head Dinosaur trainer and she knew this must be the man she was supposed to interview.

For the rest of the one hour trip, Kara tried to find any information she could about Michael Matthews with phone's internet connection. Unfortunately, she couldn't get a proper connection off dry land and she eventually gave up when she saw they were approaching the island.

Kara got herself to the small hotel and checked in. By the time she was settled in, it was late in the afternoon and she knew the park would be closing soon. She would have to find her interviewee tomorrow. Thankfully, the hotel had wifi and she spent the night researching to be prepared for her reporting. Despite the few miles between the hotel and the park, she could hear the eerie roars and unfamiliar voices coming through her window all night. Not creepy at all!

At exactly 9:30 am, as soon as the park gates were open Kara approached the cashier with her reporter's badge ready to get her interview over with. The guy at the counter took one look at her badge, shook his head and refused to let her in without paying the full 50 dollar ticket price. She huffed in irritation knowing Snapper would not give her the money back. 50 dollars for visiting the park for a few hours? It was daylight robbery!

Once inside Kara looked around trying to find a staff member who could point her in the direction of Michael Matthews. Eventually, she was told she would find him in the predator zone.
Consulting the map she was given with her ticket she found the closest electric minibus stop that would take her to where her interviewee would be. For the safety of the guest and dinosaurs, each of the "zones" were a significant distance apart and could only be accessed using park transport.

Kara hopped down in the last station and walked past the tall electric fences surrounding the place that kept the most dangerous dinosaurs from roaming around and possibly eat people. Kara would be lying if she had said she wasn't a little afraid.

She followed one of the wardens to the sanctuary for Raptors and walked inside the thick doors that had been just opened for public. Barely anyone was around since it was still early, therefore Kara was the only person who stepped onto the narrow metallic bridge over the open green field. When she got to the middle of the bridge she stopped and squinted to find the trainer. She used her hand to shield her eyes from the sharp sunrays that were blinding her. She had forgotten her favorite sunglasses back in National City in her hurry to get here.

A loud shrill from behind made Kara's heart jump into her mouth. She snapped her head toward the sound and saw a huge flying creature with wings as wide as two meters, was about to impale her with its long sharp beak. It was so strange how things seemed to be playing in slow motion. Adrenaline. Kara saw the black bird-ish eyes, the greyish green color of the leather skin, and a flock of orange feathers over its knobby head that made it look so ridiculous. Yep, this was it. This was how Kara Danvers was going to die, by the hands, or rather the beak of a Pterodactyl. She instinctively leaned back so much that her balance was lost and she was about to fall off the railing. Only then Kara let herself cry out loud.

A hand suddenly latched onto hers and pulled her back to her feet, before it was too late.

"Go away, Donny! Shoo shoo!" Kara heard a man saying and finally her eyes found her savior.

The first things her crazed mind registered were his piercing stormy blue eyes and the fine jawline covered by a few days old stubble.

"Are you okay?" He asked in a husky voice and squeezed Kara's hand when she only stared at him with her mouth remained open in the shape of O.

Kara's eyes followed his arm to where his hand was holding hers and slowly pulled away. "Yeah, ehm… sorry, I was a –" Nope, still not functioning.

"I'm so sorry for that, I only found out one of the Pterodactyls was coming this way and told the warden not allow anyone in until I've taken care of it." He told her with sad eyes, showing his disappointment in failing his responsibilities.

Kara finally managed to get her breathing back to normal and turned around to see where that wicked pterodactyl had gone to. She saw it sitting grimly on one of the trees, watching them menacingly.

"Did you call it Donny?" Was the first thing Kara could think of when her brain finally caught up with the events.

The young man ducked his head, chuckling sweetly and scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, he's Donny. I've practically raised him, but he's a little slow. Never could teach him properly not to attack strangers."

Kara looked back at the fat Pterodactyl and the absurd orange feathers that covered its small brain.

"Donny!" She repeated the name and looked back at the man. "As in –" Kara was so taken aback that she couldn't say the actual name.

"Yeah!" He nodded with a bemused smile and his eyes twinkling in mischief. "Him."

Kara giggled and finally, all the tension on her was lifted. Only then did Kara notice the man was in park ranger gears and had a label on his chest reading his last name. Matthews.

"I'm Mike." He offered his hand and this time Kara was the one who grasped it.

"Oh, you must be Michael Matthews, the dinosaur trainer!" Kara shook his hand enthusiastically, glad to finally find the subject of her article.

"Please, call me Mike."

Kara nodded with a smile. "Kara Danvers. I'm with the Catco Magazine."

"You must be that reporter they told me about."

"Yes, do you have time to answer some questions for our magazine?"

"I'd love to Ms. Danvers, but right at the moment I need to attend to some Raptors." Mike motioned his hand so she would follow him off the bridge before replying.

Kara had no idea what Raptors were.

"Oh please, it's just Kara."

Mike turned to flash her a smile. "Kara, how about I show you?"

Kara raised her brows. "Really? Isn't that dangerous?"

He shook his head. "Not as long as I'm around and you do as I say." He opened another door with the key card attached to his belt and held the door open for Kara to walk in. "And it'll be much better if you see what I do here up close. I can answer your questions after that."

Kara regarded him for a few seconds, contemplating. He looked kinda hot. But that was not what she was supposed to think of.

"Okay." Kara smiled brightly at Mike and walked inside the restricted area.

Let's go see some dinosaurs!

Kara thought to herself.

Oh God, I hope I don't die today!