Chapter 8: Fakin' It - Simon and Garfunkel

The morning was a complete clusterfuck. The stupid Terran technology wasn't voice activated, which Peter didn't learn until after he'd woken up at 8:52 am to no alarm. That meant he had eight minutes to get dressed, scarf down some food and get over to that corporate building again. Yeah, that wasn't happening —at least it wasn't happening if he played by the Terran rules. Good thing he was a spaceman.

Peter turned on his tunes, pulled on some kind of blue button up and that vest he'd stolen. He hadn't even read the stupid contract Claire had given him. He was less concerned about that anyways he was a Ravager at heart and every Ravager knew contracts were for smucks and the only thing that mattered was the code (steal everything from everybody).

With that thought Peter stuck on his propulsion rockets to his boots, grabbed the stack of papers, and stumbled out of the trailer. He flew just above the tree line, careful to watch the roads and skies for any Terran that might see him flying around. It took him six minutes exactly to land in the forest behind the corporate building, hide his rockets in the pocket on his vest, and stumble through the doors with the crumpled contract in his hands and windswept hair.

The clock read 9:01.

A brown-haired woman in a pantsuit was waiting for him in the reception hall. Her foot tapping impatiently against the beige tile as she checked her watch.

"Ah, you must be Owen Grady," The woman said giving him a calculated once over. Her eyes lingering on his unshaven face, "I'm Katie Ross, I'll be answering any questions you have about the job description or benefits as your point of contact. Why don't you follow me and we'll go to my office."

Peter nodded and followed Katie up a set of stairs into a neat corner office. She took a seat behind the desk and gestured for him to sit in the small white chair across from her. He slid over from the door and plopped into the chair, he had to hunch over slightly to get his body all on the chair. People who had regular jobs must all be unusually tiny this chair would barely hold Rocket and he was a rodent of unusual size. He gently set the crumpled contract down onto the table between them.

"I see you've had a chance to look at it," Katie said diplomatically as she looked at the ruffled mess of papers. Peter shrugged, she was lucky all the pages were still there with his mode of transportation.

"Yeah, it looks fine." He replied, the woman raised her eyebrow at him. Apparently, that wasn't the way these things usually went on Terra. He didn't really care all that much one way or another, it was only a matter of time before he was out of this quadrant and far away from this planet for good.

"Do you have any questions for me?" Katie prompted, lacing her fingers together.

"Not really seems pretty clear to me." Or it probably would later if he read the thing.

"Alright," Katie said slowly as she reached into a drawer on her desk, "Usually these things take quite a bit longer, but because you seem so content we'll get right to it."

She pulled out an identical copy of the contract and flipped to the last few pages, "I'll need you to sign here, here and here," the woman pointed to a few lines, "This is a disclosure agreement and insurance release forms," She explained pointing to the last few blank lines, "I'm sure you understand that everything you encounter in your workspace is meant to remain confidential. We can't have our competitors getting any information on Ingen's projects," Peter nodded, "And if any information leaks are traced back to you be assured Masrani Corp. will bring the full force of its lawyers down on you." The woman finished, narrowing her eyes at him.

Peter felt like she was probably waiting for him to flinch or at least sweat a little, but honestly, he had no idea what a 'lawyer' was and given what the Guardians dealt with on a day to day basis, they didn't even register on his danger index.

"Sure, got it. You got a pen or something?" He asked, his fingers drumming on her desk. The woman gave him a startled glance then reached into her drawer and handed him a pen. He uncapped it and scrawled his fake name 'Owen Grady' across the lines Katie indicated.

"You can keep that for reference," Katie said waving her hand at the crumpled contract Peter brought with him.

Peter snorted quietly, folded the contract and shoved it in one of the vest's pockets. These people had no appreciation for his delicate handling.

"So," He started, finding a blue rubber ball on her desk and squishing it in his hands. She shot him a disapproving glance, "Is Claire gonna meet me here to give me the tour and stuff?"

"Ms. Dearing is a very busy woman," Katie explained, "As I understand it she's arranged a different guide to show you the lab and give you the basic introduction into the project you'll be working on. He should be along shortly."

Peter dropped the ball back on the desk and watched it roll slowly onto the floor. He gave her a sympathetic smile, Katie scowled at him and reached down, scoping the ball up and shoving it into her drawer.

So, the ginger lady had decided to wipe her hands of him, Peter thought, damn she was cold. Peter couldn't really say he blamed her though, if she was on his ship he'd probably do the same thing and drop her on Drax and Mantis. He snickered at the thought of the scandalized look on her face when Drax started describing how magnificently huge his turds are.

There was a knock on the door, "Ah, here we are," Katie commented rising from her seat and opening the door, "This is Doctor Henry Wu, one of the top geneticists in our lab. He's in charge of the Velociraptor Project, among others."

The man looked to be middle aged, his dark hair was just lightly dusted with silver. He wore a bleached white lab coat over a black turtleneck. The outfit was so freshly pressed Peter could practically smell the soap on it. The man gave him an easy smile that didn't reach his eyes and held out his hand.

"Glad to have you on board Mr. Grady," the Doc said. Peter stood slowly and approached the man taking his hand as the man began to shake it, weird Terran customs Peter thought as he waited for the man to relinquish his hand, "We've all heard good things about you."

That sounded like a lie if Peter had ever heard one. And he had, lots of them.

Peter didn't have much experience with scientists, doctors sure, but something told Peter that this man wasn't really in the business of helping people. Something seemed slimy about the man, the more he looked at him the more it seemed like he had a thin film of murk lying under the surface.

The man was staring at him, and Peter realized that he still hadn't said anything, "Yeah, raptors!" Peter put out a faux laugh, willing his body to relax into a nonchalant posture, "How could I say no to that?"

"How indeed," Wu murmured, "Well Ms. Dearing did have me clear my schedule, but I'd like if we could hurry this along," The man said motioning Peter to the door, "Always work to be done. I'm sure you understand." Peter bobbed his head along and sauntered through the door.

The pair dropped four levels until they reached a set of doors marked staff only. Wu swiped a card on a panel by the door, a light flashed green and there was an audible click as the door swung open.

"This is the asset development lab," Wu explained as they entered, "We do genetic encoding and fill in gaps to the genes for the new species. Everything from nucleotide sequencing to cloning and hatching happens in this section of the building. My team," Wu said gesturing to the various white coats hunched over the tables, "Has the most important behind the scenes job in the park. Everything the park is, is because of us." There was a note of arrogant pride in the man's voice as he pointed out different pieces of technology and explained their uses.

Peter was only half listening, focusing was never his strong suit and the man's technobabble really wasn't all that interesting. He nodded along at the appropriate points and in the meantime let his hands and eyes wander. There wasn't really anything he wanted to steal in this place, but it was as natural as breathing for him to case it. The tech was probably cutting edge he thought as he stared at the monitors, projectors and synthesizers the scientists were using for biological augmentation. It wasn't really anything special in space though, maybe 20 units a piece to some retro collector off planet. The info on the computers was worth more if the Katie lady's threats were anything to go off of. But, Terra didn't use credits or units, so even if he stole it for funsies he wouldn't be worth his time.

"Mr. Grady," Wu said, snapping his fingers in front of Peter's face.

"Sorry, I wasn't listening. What were you saying?" Peter asked focusing back in on the man's face.

Wu sighed, "I can tell this is not your area of interest. It is a blessing for all of us that you won't be in this area very long. I said," Wu pointed at group of eggs under a heat lamp, "That these are the velociraptor eggs."

Peter was a bit taken aback. He'd been so lost on autopilot that he hadn't noticed them entering the incubation room he'd seen last night. There was a robotic arm that carefully rolled the four eggs every few minutes, "Making sure they have the perfect climate," Wu answered Peter's unasked question.

"Why don't you let the mothers take care of them?" Peter asked as he crouched down to get a closer look. The eggs were oval shaped and fairly small, or at least smaller than he'd imagined dinosaur eggs to be. There was a faint blue speckling that was spotted over the eggshells.

Wu snorted, "How did you even get this job?" Peter ignored him in lieu of getting closer to his future job. Arrogant people had a tendency to die before him anyways, "There are no other raptors in the park. There haven't been since the days of the original park. Naturally we went with a different breed for this park. The military is trying for something more controllable and since they are assisting with funding… well who are we to not try to meet the challenge?"

Peter hummed, letting the words wash over him, "As to why none of the other dinosaurs' care for young it's because they're created sterile. Population control and all that after the first park," Peter whipped his head around to stare at the man.

"Sterile?" He asked, "They can't have kids?" That couldn't be right. They were sentient, suddenly the conversation he'd had with Elo was taking on context and he wasn't sure he liked what it meant. The white rooms and the lack of any babies in her herd it was far to reminiscent of the drunken horror stories Rocket had whispered about half-world.

"That is what sterile means Mr. Grady," Wu answered dryly as he flipped through a clipboard next to the eggs. Before Peter could open his mouth to ask another question. Wu was talking again, "According to our calculations the raptors should be hatching in about three days. Though I recommend you play it safe and spend the next two nights here just in case. If they don't imprint right away I imagine your job will be quite difficult."

What was an imprint? Peter wondered was this some Terran thing that all babies did or maybe it was just a dinosaur thing. Hmm, he'd have to do a scan through those books he'd got. He nodded his head along in the meantime.

"I'll tell my staff that you and any of the other trainers Masrani has hired will have access here until the eggs hatch."

"I appreciate that." Peter really needed to know what his job as a trainer actually entailed, other than watching these eggs hatch.

"Now, if you don't have any other questions I'll be headed back to my lab. You can stay here if you want or I'm sure you can return to Ms. Ross for further instruction. I'll have someone prepare a temporary keycard for you and leave it at the front desk."

"Uh, sure." Peter stuttered out and with a flutter of his lab coat Wu turned on his heels and left the incubation room.

Peter decided to stay for a bit longer. It was strangely peaceful in the lab and no one seemed all that keen to bother him. That was one of the most overwhelming things about the island since he got here. There were too many people around. In space they hardly met anyone new for months at a time and when they did they tended to shoot at them. Peter ran his hand over his face and moved closer to the eggs again. Baby dinos huh? Should be easy enough to deal with Peter reassured himself after all he'd help to raise Groot up from his pot. They really couldn't be much worse.

"Hey you guys be good and wait till I'm here to hatch," He said resting the palm of his hand on the glass, "Don't you imprint on anybody else." With that thought, and one last look at the four pale eggs Peter left the lab to go find some trouble of his own.


Peter was leaving the building after grabbing his keycard when he ran into Barry. The man saw him and greeted him with a smile and a wave, "Ah, my crazy American friend, I see you survived Ms. Dearing."

He let out a small chuckle, "Yeah, she hasn't fed me to any of the dinosaurs yet, she did dump me on some other people today to show me the ropes. Can't say they did a great job. Not sure about all those white coats down there." Peter said jabbing his thumb behind him.

"Ah, you met Wu then, he is a bit full of himself. Thinks he made all this," Barry said spreading his arms to indicate the park, "I suppose it's possible and he's been on Ingen's payroll since the 90s. I don't know if this is true but rumors have it his yearly salary is over seven figures." Barry lowered his voice to a whisper for the last part.

Seven figures huh? Seemed like the rich type alright. Peter shoved the info away for later, "Well B-Man I'm glad to see you, maybe you can give me a straight answer on what my job is actually supposed to be here."

Barry gave him a look of confusion, "Ms. Dearing must have truly left you for the sharks if they didn't even explain that properly. I'd be willing to, but I'm afraid it will have to wait. I have to return to the pen of the Tyrannosaurus that attacked us two nights ago. She's finally ready to go back to the pen and they need all experienced trainers on deck."

This was a perfect way to figure out how all the humies with jobs were supposed to act. Peter knew he needed to get Barry to take him.

"Well," Peter started, "Since I'm a trainer now too. I could just tag along," Barry gave him a puzzled look, "I mean it's just dinosaurs and the park man. I have no idea where everything is and its' kind of overwhelming…" Peter tried, laying on the sympathetic spacebumpkin charm.

A look of understanding passed Barry's face, yup he'd taken the bait hook-line-and-sinker, "My friend I think you must have an unhealthy addiction to the dangerous. If this was anyone else I'd think they were crazy to think starting with a Tyrannosaurus was a good idea for first day on the job training. But then again, I already know you are crazy and I probably owe you my life," Peter grinned at that. At least he had one friend on this crazy island, "Sure you can tag along. We're gonna be working together anyways. We can stop by the other pens on the way back and introduce you to some dinosaurs that don't want to eat you." Barry teased, clapping him on the back.


Author's Note: Hi all I'm back with this next chapter and good news I've already started the next one going so yay! Apologies for the delay but I've been riding the wave of infinity war fix it fics so that's been sapping quite a bit of my time but this story is still as fun as ever. Once I get past a little more of this set up stuff the chapters should be rolling out regular again. Anyways as always please read and review and thanks to all of you lovely readers that always do that! Seriously you are an author's bread and butter.