Dinosaur Diana
Prologue
"Mommy! Hurry up!" A five year old girl with short brown hair and bright green eyes wearing a gray nightdress while holding a green stuffed T-Rex doll shouted from the top of the stairs. "Coming Di!" Her mother shouted as she got off of the chair and still held the phone to her ear as she walked up the stairs to put her daughter to bed. "I'm serious Owen," She said as she put the covers over her daughter, who said "Hi Uncle Owen!" and made her smile. "Diana says 'Hi' and I don't think Jurassic World is safe enough for a five year old girl."
As she walked downstairs, Diana stared at the ceiling before looking at her nightstand where a strange-shaped whistle was sitting. She smiled to herself before clutching her stuffed T-Rex closer and fell asleep. Back downstairs where her mother was still on the phone... "No, I will not allow Diana to go see the dinosaurs!" She said into the phone in a low voice. "Owen, she's only five and I don't want her to create a life-long fear of those creatures!" She hung up the phone and put it back on the receiver before grabbing her keys, called the babysitter, and waited until the babysitter Anna arrived.
"She likes to wake up early so make sure she's awake by seven, and she likes to make breakfast but will ask for help if it's needed." Diana's mother said to the red haired woman who was in her late teens. "It'll be okay, Ms. Grady," Anna said as she gently pushed the woman out the door. "Just go cool down for a while." As she heard the car go down the driveway, she went upstairs to check up on Diana and found her blissfully asleep.
The next morning, Diana and Anna were watching TV while Anna had the house phone in her hand and was very nervous. It was almost a half hour past the time Diana's mother was supposed to be home, and not once has she called. She quickly changed the program to the news to see if there was any clues about Diana's mother's whereabouts.
"Early this morning, police have found a car upside down in a ditch. Analyzing the marks left on the car shows that it was hit around midnight by another car speeding over the limit and flipped over a couple of times before landing harshly in the ditch. The driver looked like she was in the middle of calling for help when it was too late."
Then Diana's mother's picture was shown.
"M-Mommy..." Diana mumbled before hiding her head on Anna's stomach. "Is there any other relatives you have?" Anna asked as she tried to console the almost crying five-year old. "M-Mommy was talking to Uncle Owen before I went to bed," Diana offered as she pulled her head out of the teenagers' stomach and looked at her with tears in her eyes. "She was saying something about Jurassic World and life-long fear of dinosaurs."
"Well," Anna said as she stood up and held the five-year old on her hip. "Let's order a ticket and call your uncle so you can go to Jurassic World!" Diana laughed as she was put back on the floor, and ran upstairs to pack what she could reach while Anna called Owen. "Hey there Mr. Grady!" She said as the phone went through and she heard someone speak on the other end. "I'm Anna, and I have some depressing news... Your sister Viola died in a car accident... I know, but here's the catch: she has this five-year old daughter... Yes, Diana. So I was wondering if you can take care of her?... Thank you! Thank you! You have no idea how much she will love it there!"
And that was the start of the huge change in Diana's life.
Ten years later...
"Okay boys, up here!" Diana, who was now fifteen, shouted as she stood on the catwalk that surrounded the raptor paddock. It was a bit unusual that there were two raptor paddocks but after the first batch hatched, a second batch hatched and the raptors from the second batch imprinted on her while the first batch imprinted on her uncle. The two paddocks were connected by a covered walkway so that the male raptors and the female raptors could meet, although Blue and Black have been acting weird.
Diana's raptors were named by a similar NATO system like her uncle's, but she chose the names. The first born raptor was green with black stripes, so he was given the name Black. The second born was a gray raptor who was given the name Colbaltite or Cobalt for short. The third born was a golden raptor with dark markings who was given the name Diaspore, and the fourth born was a dark gray raptor with small, darker spots who was given the name Everfall. Either way, they were Diana's pack and Black was the Beta while she was their Alpha.
"Colbalt leave Everfall alone!" Diana shouted but gasped and nearly fell off the catwalk as she leaned on the railings. "COLBALTITE!" Cobaltite was a very playful raptor so he got into trouble easily, even when it was with Charlie. The gray raptor looked at her before barking and tried to stay still, although he fidgeted a bit. "Now left-" The raptors moved to the left. "-right-" They moved to the right. "-and... chase!" She pressed a button that released a pig, which made the raptors instantly target it.
"Hey," A voice sounded out, which made her look to the side to see her uncle. "How are the boys?" "Colbalt is still playful as ever," She said before thinking over what she said. "Although he likes picking on Everfall, he does like playing with Charlie whenever they visit or if we visit them." OINK! Both of them looked in the paddock to see the pig run back in its' cage as Black tried to take a bite out of it. "Ready boys?" She asked them as she held out a bucket which was full of something that caught their attention from the caged pig and made them wag their tails in excitement.
"Cobalt, here's yours," She said as she threw a kelt salmon to the gray raptor, who caught it head first. "Diaspore," She threw a brow trout at the golden raptor, who caught it but it slipped out of his mouth before he caught it again. "Everfall," She threw another brown trout, this time at the spotted raptor who caught it by it's tail. "Black, this one is for you boy." She threw a big striped bass to the black striped raptor, who caught it in his mouth without dropping it. They left to go eat as she turned towards her uncle, but saw Vic Hoskins walking towards them.
"Owen..." She said, which made him stiffly turn around to see Vic. "Good job Gradys," Vic said as he stood near them. "Keep this up and they'll be ready for the park's new upgrades of defenses." "We didn't agree to make our raptors weapons." Diana interrupted but was ignored. "I just seen they can respond to command," Hoskins continues. "You need to take your research and get it on it's feet."
"They're wild animals, Hoskins," Diana continued speaking and finally got his attention. "Trust us, you don't want them in the field." "I just saw a bond. A real bond," Hoskins jumps in front of them and prevents them from walking away any more, "between man and beast." "You're in our way," Owen says calmly.
"Come on. We're the same. We're dogs of war. We know that the military need to reduce casualties. Some people think robots are the future." Owen scoffs and pushes past him again to walk down a platform with Diana beside him. "Look," Hoskins calls after him, "Nature gave us the most effective killing machines seventy five million years ago and now we know that they can take orders." Owen and Diana whipped back around to him and glares. Barry finally intervenes before Owen and Diana really do punch this guy.
"Finally make progress and this is the first thing he says? Make a weapon?" Barry asks in disbelief. Hoskins scoffs like they're the ones being unreasonable in this situation. "Come on, gents and lady. It's grown up time," He tells them as they continue to walk. "Drones can't search tunnels and cave. And they're hackable. The minute war does break out all that fancy tech is gonna go dark."
"Yeah well that tech's not gonna eat them if they forget to feed it," Owen argues. "Look," Hoskins points down at the male raptors who are eating the fish they got. "Look, at these creatures. They have millions of instincts in their cells. Instincts that we can program. Their loyalty can not be bought. These guys are gonna go straight into the enemies teeth and eat them belt buckle and all."
"What if they decide they want to be in control?" Barry asks. "Well then we'll remind them who is and terminate the rogues. Promote only loyal bloodlines." Barry laughs and walks away before he really loses it. "What? What's so funny?" Hoskins asks. "You come here and you don't learn anything about these animals except what you want to know," Owen tells him and Hoskins rolls his eyes. "You made them and now you think you own them."
"We do own them," Hoskins said seriously. "Extinct animal don't have no rights." "They're not extinct anymore Hoskins." Diana reminds him as she and Owen starts to walk away. A squeal catches their attention in the female raptor paddock and they ran towards the gate just in time to see one of the workers use an animal control catch pole but as the pig entered the cable... Echo ran through and grabbed it, causing the worker to fall into the paddock.
Owen briefly had a look of fear before running towards the gate and slowly opening it as the raptors got closer to the worker franticly kept scooting away. "Owen no!" Barry shouts as Diana shout "Uncle Owen!" Owen ran towards the raptors and noticed the guards on the catwalk pulled out gun-like tazers. "Oh! No! Hold you fire! Hold your fire! Do not fire!" He got between the raptors and the worker while still holding his hand out and got hissed at. "Put twelve amps in these animals they're never gonna trust me again." As he was saying that, he worker scooted back to the gate where Barry helped him into the gate.
"Blue. Stand down." A roar-like bark was all he got in return. "Hey! Hey! What did I just say?! Delta I see you. Back up!" He received another roar-like bark from said raptor. "Close the gates." Diana ordered calmly, which made Barry stare at her in shock. "Are you crazy?!" He shouted at the blank-faced fifteen year old. "Trust me," She said as she kept staring at the raptors. "Close the gate." "Close the gate!" The worker shouted, making Barry push the button.
He closed his eyes so he wouldn't see his best friend getting mauled until he heard the gates finally close... and raptors scratching at the gate in frustration? He opened his eyes to see Owen get up... on the side of the gate they were in. "Hey," Owen said to the worker, who slowly looked at him. "Ever wonder why there was a job opening?" "Don't turn your back to the raptors." Diana offered as she and Owen left while the worker slowly looked behind him... and saw Charlie growling as she could fit as much of her snout as she could through the iron bars and grasping the lower bars angrily.
Diana went back to her raptors, and saw Cobalt growling at the windows. She went in their enclosure and looked through the windows to see Hoskins leaving. "Don't worry boys," She said as the others went to circle around her. "I have a feeling that this won't be the last time we'll see him."