Chapter 3 - Ambush:

Author's Note:

I would just like to ask one thing of everyone who's reading this fanfiction. It's not much, but before you finish this chapter, I'd like to see if any of you have guessed what Sam's second condition was. I'd just like to know if I've made it too obvious for you all (not that I'm doubting your intelligences). Thank you very much.

XXX

Owen was a simple man. He liked simple things, and as such, his abode was very simple. He lived in a three room bungalow, complete with a kitchen/living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Although he had a bed, and it was a comfortable bed, he preferred to sleep outside when the weather was nice. And it was beautiful tonight.

One of the advantages of not living in a heavily populated area was that there was not only little air and water pollution, but also little light pollution. With the big boss Rexy demanding that the speakers and all of the lights be off by 9pm, it became dark very quickly. And that allowed Owen to see the stars.

Owen owned a rather comfortable hammock that he liked to sleep in. He would lie back and just look at the night sky. It was a simple pleasure for a simple man. He could find several of the constellations, both of the dippers and Orion's belt. There was a new moon out, which only served to reduce even more light. With the extra darkness, he could see the arms of the Milky Way galaxy.

Over the sounds of the bugs, Owen could hear the distant roars of the dinosaurs. The herbivores always chimed in first. Although they were the farthest away from Owen, their combined voices could rival even Rexy's. The smaller carnivores, like the Suchomimus and the Baryonyx could be heard next. They were like giant crocodiles and their roars reflected that.

The new arrival, the Spinosaurus, was heard next. His roar sounded nothing like his smaller cousins, it was loud and powerful and challenged all who stood before him. Owen wondered about that Spinosaurus. Owen was aware of what a Spino was supposed to look like, and this one looked nothing like a regular Spino. Whoever designed him must have been operating on a lot of guess work. He looked more like an Oxalaia.

The next roar that sounded Owen knew too well. It was like a massive plane just took off overhead and then was silenced as quickly as it came. That was the Indominus' roar. She was not only the largest carnivore on the island, but also the loudest. Her roar was shrill, not anything like the other two large carnivores on the island. Hers was demented and twisted, only underlining how wrong her creation was.

Last, but certainly not least, the big boss herself chimed in. Her earth-shaking roar could be heard all throughout the island. It commanded not only power, but also respect. While the Indominus' roar pierced the heavens, Rexy's roar silenced all. The world always seemed to freeze after her nightly roar. The insects stopped buzzing and the birds stopped chirping and all of the dinosaurs seemed to take a minute of silence to pay homage to the queen of Isla Nublar.

During that silence Owen began to think. Despite many first impressions, Owen did have a brain. He was one of the few who instantly recognized the threat the Indominus posed and knew exactly how to deal with it. He thought of random, trivial things, but they were important to him. Questions that constantly danced in his mind, he has basically cheated death when he was able to escape the Indominus, and it always bothered him. That he was allowed to roam free while she remained incarcerated. Not to mention the many unlucky who had met their fate by her jaws.

Inevitably, the bugs began to buzz again, birds began to chirp, and an owl hooted. The moment of silence had ended and so had Owen's time to think. He was a busy man, having to wake up every day at seven meant that he usually fell asleep earlier. But tonight had been so beautiful that he stayed up well past midnight. He began to drift off to the sounds of the jungle, he could even hear his Raptors chittering in the distance.

He startled awake and sat up quickly. The Raptor sounded much too close to be coming from their paddock. It sounded as if they were right by his home. He looked around, hoping to not see any of his Raptors. If one or, God help him, more of his Raptors managed to get out then Jurassic World was going to have another incident.

He growled when he saw a Raptor not ten meters away from him. She was just staring at him, as if she was waiting for him to wake up. It was Blue! How did she get out? There was so much protocol in place to prevent the Raptors from ever leaving, something bad must have happened. Owen's thoughts immediately drifted towards Barry and his other assistants. They must be in critical condition or worse, dead, if Blue was out.

But, on closer inspection, this Raptor was too light skinned to be Blue. This one's scales were a silvery-blue instead of the darker gray Owen was familiar with. Not to mention she lacked the blue stripe down both of her sides that Blue had, instead she had black stripes running down her spine. None of his Raptors are this light… who is this Raptor?

The Raptor seemed to notice that he was awake and cocked her head at him. Owen slowly rose from his seated position, any sudden movements would set the Raptor off. He cursed himself for leaving his rife inside, he had no weapons at his disposal. "Easy girl, I'm not gonna hurt you," Owen said, extending a bare hand. There was no way he could get inside to grab his rifle, he would have to talk this Raptor down.

The Raptor took a single step towards him. And then another. Now that the Raptor was slowly approaching him, Owen took note of her size. She was huge, taller than he was. All of his Raptors were an inch or so shorter than him, but this one was much taller than him. Owen kept his hand extended as the Raptor approached, he didn't move. He noticed that she was clutching something in her claws, he couldn't tell what, but it was held tightly against her chest.

The Raptor stopped directly in front of him. Her nostrils flared, breathing in his scent and blowing the air back out harshly on his face. He didn't flinch though, he knew that this was how Raptors communicated with new pack members. He did flinch when she let out a screech and head-butted him. He tumbled backwards into his hammock, tearing it from the trees it was attached to. She then grabbed ahold of his foot and began to drag him away.

Owen started to panic and he actually screamed. Was this a nightmare? It seemed like a nightmare. A Raptor finding you while you slept and then dragging you off to devour you? That's like the plot of a horror movie. But Owen wasn't going to go down without a fight. His hands scraped the ground as he was dragged further and further away from his bungalow. Finally, he managed to grab ahold of something.

It was a rock. He lifted the rock and hit the Raptor as hard as he could across the face. The Raptor shrieked and let go of him. He immediately got up and began to run back to his home to grab his rifle. But it was hopeless, the Raptor recovered faster than Owen could run. She shook her head clear of the ringing and pursued Owen back to his home, intercepting him before he reached the front door.

She tackled him to the ground, wrestling with him as he worked his way onto his stomach. That way he could at least face his death. The Raptor regarded him with ruby red eyes as he struggled to free himself. He managed to see exactly what she was holding onto so tightly. It was a needle filled with an odd purple-red liquid. In his confusion, Owen stopped struggling. That was the opening she needed. She bashed his forehead with her own again. This time Owen saw pitch black. And he was silent.

XXX

His vision was bleary as he slowly opened his eyes. He tried to concentrate harder, still nothing. He brought his hands up to rub his eyes, but to no avail. For some reason he couldn't find his eyes, they were no longer where they were supposed to be. It was as if his face became longer, he kept rubbing his jaws. His vision snapped back into place when he accidently clawed himself.

Clawed myself? he thought. He bolted up right, trying to figure out what happened. Memories began to flood back into him. He remembered the massive Raptor that knocked him unconscious, but after that, nothing. He looked around. He was in a small arena like area, but not alone. No, there was a single cow in the paddock with him. Although the ground was a hard concrete, it seemed to be eating something.

He looked down at his hands. Sure enough, they were tipped with talons. He couldn't quite make the connection, but he was sure that this was wrong. Suddenly, an urge surged over him, hungry. Must feed. It was primitive, but he couldn't remember ever thinking any different.

He looked around again, trying to find his pack. The only other animal in the room was the bovine, but he was unsure if he could bring it down alone. He didn't remember interacting with any other Raptors like his instincts said he should have… but he did remember knowing four Raptors. He was their alpha, but they weren't here right now. He would have to hunt this animal by himself.

He stalked up on it quietly. He cursed the lack of cover, but the animal didn't seem to regard him. It was too busy eating. With a massive leap, he landed on the animal's back. Its reaction was delayed, but it started bucking and hopping around, hoping to dislodge the predator on its vulnerable back. He dug his claws into its hide and held on, all the while tearing at it with his large sickle claw.

It was an extremely effective tactic, the animal let out a moan of pain and fell over. He managed to avoid being crushed by jumping off at the right time. With his large claw, he tore the animal's stomach open. Then he dug in. Somewhere deep within him told him to end the animal's suffering, but his instincts demanded that he start to eat as soon as possible. Who knows when he'll get another meal?

He ate his fill, he felt as if he should save some for the rest of the pack, wherever they may be. The animal had died not that long ago. He began to groom himself, cleaning the blood off of his talons. He would have liked to wash his muzzle in some water, but he saw none. He noted that his talons were black.

The ground suddenly begun to shake causing a startled chirp to tear from his throat. He looked around for the assailant, but saw nothing. Except for a strange contraption rise from the ground. He approached it cautiously, it was not natural. It reeked of a scent that he recognized, but couldn't place. The contraption was concave and held… water! He could wash the annoying blood from his jaws.

Why wasn't the blood leaving him? He kept dunking his head in the unnatural puddle and even scrubbing himself, carefully avoiding clawing himself again, but he was still red. Upon closer inspection, he noted his entire body was red. Had he splattered blood all over himself? He didn't remember doing that. Perhaps he has sustained more brain damage than he thought.

Ah, that's it, he realized. He had cleaned the blood from himself. His scales were actually blood-red. He narrowed his bright blue eyes, how did he ever survive in the wild with such bright and noticeable scales. Well this prey was taken down easily, he reasoned.

He blinked as he continued to observe his reflection. Something still seemed wrong. He recognized his sleek form as his own, but it just… didn't seem right. He could recognize himself, but it was almost as if he was meant to be in a different form. Whatever, I like this form, he thought.

He heard a new sound. Something creaked and moved. It was the wall itself! A small section of the wall fell away to reveal two figures. One of them stood straight up and his instincts screamed danger. The other… was the Raptor from before. She approached him without fear while the other one waited by the opening holding something odd. "Hello," the silvery-blue Raptor greeted.

"Hello," he responded. He leaned in to get a closer look at the new arrival. Although he remembered this Raptor, he didn't remember anything about her. He took in the Raptor's scent, it was pleasant and sweet. Female. "Do you know where I am?"

"You don't remember?" she chirped in confusion.

"I remember you attacking me," he growled. That's why he didn't know her scent, he was too busy trying not to die. He bunched his muscles, but hesitated when he realized how much larger she was than him.

"And I apologize for that, but do you not remember who you are?"

"I am the alpha of my pack. I don't see any of them here, do you think that you could help me find them? I might let you join if you help."

She looked at him and shook her head. He was hurt for a moment but took a step back when she made a loud call. He recognized that one, a danger call. He became confused for a moment, but understood instantly once he saw the upright being point the thing he was carrying at her. He reacted without thinking and tried to shove her out of the way.

But it wasn't necessary. The being wasn't aiming at her, he was aiming at him. He was hit in his chest, dead center. Anger consumed him before his eyes began to droop. He wavered slightly before collapsing on the ground. As his brain began to shut down he realized what was wrong. He remembered his name in his last waking minutes. He was Owen Grady… and he has somehow became a Raptor.

XXX

Owen snapped his eyes open. That was a weird dream. He took a good look at his hands. Normal human hands. He rushed to his bathroom to look at his mirror. Normal human face. That was an extremely vivid dream, he had become a Raptor. He took a step out of his bathroom but faltered. His leg hurt.

Why did his leg hurt? He didn't realize the pain in his panic, but now that he had calmed down, his led ached terribly. He limped to his kitchen to try and find some pain killers. He took three for good measure. He sat down as he waited for the drugs to take affect and tried to recall his dream. He remembered lying on his hammock last night, being attacked by a Raptor that he didn't recognize, and then everything went fuzzy. He could clearly remember being a Raptor, but he didn't remember what he did as a Raptor.

He knew that ninety percent of dreams are forgotten after ten minutes of being awake, so he didn't think anything of forgetting. He stripped his pants off to take a look at the damages. There were no bite marks, but it felt as if something had pulled his leg too hard. He didn't think much of it as he limped back towards his bedroom to get dressed for the day. He decided to skip today's shower.

When he reached for his work boots, he noticed something was wrong. One of his boots was still in pristine condition… the other had large teeth marks on it. They looked like Raptor teeth! That means that he didn't dream that Raptor attack. That put him on high alert. Why was he still alive? Why did he dream he was a Raptor? He slipped on an older pair of boots and grabbed his rifle. He knew one thing for sure, there was a loose Raptor and it could still be near his home.

He cautiously limped his way to his motorcycle. No signs of the rogue Raptor. It must have run off. He drove especially quickly towards the Raptor paddock. If there was a rogue Raptor on the loose, it could attempt to communicate and free his girls. Which would be disastrous. He tossed his motorcycle aside once he reached the paddock and hobbled as fast as he could to the paddock itself. "Barry! Barry!" he called out.

"What? Is something wrong?" Barry responded to his calls, poking around the side of the paddock. He snickered suddenly, "Arthritis riling you up, old man?" Several of the other assistants laughed.

"Ha, ha, this is serious… are the girls still in their paddock?" Owen asked, skipping the ridicule and the comeback that he had.

Barry took note of his tone, "Well, course they are. They're actually pretty agitated, you know that you are an hour late, right?"

"Oh God!" Owen panicked and began to rush towards the walkway.

He was stopped by Barry, who put his hands on Owen's shoulders, "Are you alright? What happened?" He looked concerned.

"I don't even know…" Owen started before pausing. He looked around and saw Hoskins staring intently at him. "Actually, could we talk in private?" Barry only nodded and supported him as they walked to Owen's private office. Owen leaned heavily on Barry, although his leg didn't hurt, he couldn't put any weight on it without it buckling.

"I see that you are rocking an old pair of boots," Barry noted as he sat Owen down in his chair. Barry remained standing.

"Don't ever say 'rocking' again, please," Owen moaned.

Barry smirked, he was still getting used to American slang, "Duly noted. So what happened?"

"Do we have any Raptors unaccounted for?" Owen asked. When Barry shook his head, he continued, "Well I was attacked by one last night. Tore my boots up real good and did this to my leg."

"Oh my, that's not good. We have to put the park on high alert!" Barry started to panic, "But I don't understand, there's only four Raptors on this island."

Owen held up his hand, "I know. The Raptor knocked me out, but as you can see, I am still alive." Owen decided to skip the part about his weird dream.

"That's strange."

"Exactly. I think that I might have dreamed it up, but that wouldn't exactly take into account my injury. I'm just telling you to keep a sharp eye out for a silvery-blue Raptor that may or may not exist. Don't alert anyone, we don't need unnecessary panic over something that might not exist."

"If you say so. I'd go and get your leg checked out by a doctor… but you may want to see a psychologist about your dream, Owen, neither I nor a doctor can help you there," Barry said. "Is that it?"

"Especially don't tell Hoskins, he'll flip and think that this is the 'field test' our Raptors need. Just keep this on the down low, and help me get back to the paddock. How mad are the girls?"

"Very," was all Barry said. He pulled Owen up from his chair and helped him out of the office. They explained that he had a minor hammock related accident last night. Nothing serious, but he was going to see a doctor after the pig run. They did not mention the psychologist.

Owen could hear his girls inside of the paddock growling at him. He snorted to himself, they were definitely not happy. "He's late, why is alpha late?" a strange voice said. Owen looked around trying to find who said that.

"Alpha doesn't care for us, he abandoned us," a different voice said. Owen looked at Barry to see if it was him trying to prank him. It wasn't, Barry only looked confused as to why Owen hadn't started yet.

"Shut it, stupid alpha is here, we are going to hunt now," yet another voice said. Owen was now starting to think that he had lost his mind. I really need to see that psychologist, hearing voices cannot be good, he thought.

He decided to ignore the voices and begin the pig chase. He signaled to the guy at the controls to release the pig. He saw the pig dart across the open space, the Raptors hot on its trail. A chorus of, "Kill, kill, kill," could be heard from within the paddock.

Owen watched in dismay as Blue tackled the pig and ripped it apart. "That will show stupid alpha," Owen realized who had been speaking. It was Blue. Was he hearing the Raptors? He shook his head, but the others were still repeating, "Stupid, stupid, stupid alpha."

"Hey! You're supposed to chase the pig not kill it!" he decided to shout at the Raptors.

"You late, we kill pig," Blue said.

"God damn it Blue, I don't care if I'm late or not. We're not going to make any progress if you keep killing the pigs!" Owen shouted back.

Blue seemed to glare at Owen, "Maybe if alpha was willing to make a commitment." Owen only shook his head. Something was definitely wrong. Maybe he was hallucinating, or maybe he was actually getting better at reading the Raptors. Either way, he should probably have his mental state be put into question.

Owen descended the walkway and was met by Barry. "They just don't want to cooperate with me."

"Hoskins at three o'clock," Barry warned.

Hoskins marched up to Owen and began to speak, "That was the most pathetic display I've ever seen. Why were you late today? The Raptors are clearly agitated." He was still upset about their argument the other day.

"Maybe you'd like to try and give them commands, they'd probably eat you alive," Owen shot back.

"Why were you late?" Hoskins repeated, noticing that Owen was dodging the question.

"Like I said, I was injured," Owen gestured to his leg. Hoskins narrowed his eyes at him but didn't say anything else. Owen limped over to his fallen motorcycle and mounted it.

"Where are you going?" Barry asked. He didn't think that it was a good idea for Owen to drive. That and he should probably stay, lest the Raptors become even more upset.

"I'm going to get my head checked," Owen claimed as he revved the engine and sped off. He didn't miss the threat from Blue as he left, "Alpha better be here for next hunt, or I'll throw prey at him." Owen wasn't sure why he was hallucinating Blue speaking to him… but this had Wu written all over it.

XXX

Here's yet another installment. Owen's finally been "infected." It's like lycanthropy. Anyways, next chapter we'll be exploring some of Owen's… changes. And of course, there's still that mysterious Raptor. Stay tuned for the next chapter!