"Family is about love overcoming emotional torture." - Matt Groening
M
"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!" Orion bellowed as he paced the little clearing he and Storm were supposed to be fighting in.
Xeno came up behind him and sadly said, "I'm sorry I lost that briefcase; I know that girl means a lot to you."
Orion sighed and said, "It's not your fault."
Xeno nodded and went back to lay beside Delta, as Blue was laying next to Thirío; Sunset and Storm were both standing at the moment, both facing Orion.
Storm opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Orion saying, "I swear to God Almighty, if you say some shit about us fighting for tradition I'm going to rip your fucking head off."
Storm closed his mouth as Sunset said, "I'm sorry about this Orion; I know what you're going through."
"You don't know shit about what I'm going through," Orion said. "I have been beaten, abused, tormented as a kid, and forced to kill for a fucking maniac as an adult. All I ever wanted was a family I could relax with, no offense Xeno."
"None taken," he replied.
"And now that I have one, it's about to be fucking ripped away…." Orion sighed as he felt his eyes mist; he didn't care who was watching, because nothing mattered more to him than his Jade and his hatchlings.
"The next facility we go for is a medical facility; hopefully, we can at least monitor her there," he said.
"You'll need our help, then," said Storm.
Orion looked at Storm, trying to find smugness or something of the sorts, but found nothing in Storm's neutral eyes and stance.
"From what you told us," he continued, "this is the biggest facility on this island and will be heavily guarded; you couldn't take it with a group of five raptors."
"We could if we used the same strategy as last time," Orion retorted.
"No, someone will eventually see you if this facility is as big as you say it is," Storm said, and Orion cursed under his breath; Storm had a point. A damn good one, too. He felt his heart rate pick up, though, and he became short of breath as he bent over in sudden exhaustion. A couple seconds later, his vision went dark as he collapsed to the ground and passed out, leaving Storm and Sunset confused as hell.
M
"C'mon, Dylan! If you're so big and bad, why don't you fight me?" yelled Aaron Jenkins, the bully of Dylan's eighth-grade class, who was currently trying to kick Dylan's ass.
But all Dylan was doing was trying to get out of the tight circle the other eighth-graders made around him and Aaron; he didn't want to fight. Yet. Aaron approached Dylan yet again as Joe and his brother, Owen, tried to get to him through the tight circle, but to no avail. That's when Aaron finally managed to get within punching distance of Dylan; he swung, but ended up missing as he fell to the ground face-first, making the others laugh. The repeated four times before Dylan finally tripped himself and fell to the ground, with Aaron standing sinisterly over him.
Over the crowd, he heard Joe yell, "Get away from him, you motherfucker!"
"Are you really that weak?" Aaron asked with a grin. "You're so weak, that you gotta have your friends defend you, 'coz you can't defend yourself."
Dylan felt Aaron's foot collide with his side, and he let out a groan or pain. "You like that?!" Aaron spat as he kicked Dylan again. Dylan tried to get up, but was stopped by Aaron's fist roughly colliding with his face, drawing blood.
Now he was pissed. Now he wanted to fight.
As he tried to get up, Aaron threw another punch, but his fist was stopped by Dylan grabbing it. Dylan squeezed his hand hard, not stopping when he heard cracking and Aaron's pained cries, and he slowly got up as he felt something else inside of him take over. Dylan laughed creepily.
"I hope you got something better than kicks and punches," he said with a rough edge in his voice he didn't normally have.
His vision went red as he let go of Aaron's hand, approaching him slowly and sinisterly with a posture only found in horror films. Aaron backed up as Dylan approached, and he constantly tried to get Dylan to stop. But all of that stopped when Dylan grabbed the sides of his head in threw him to the ground. As Aaron's head collided roughly with the cement they were on, Dylan got on top of him and started throwing punches, one after the other, as Aaron tried to protect his face.
"This is how you fucking throw a punch!" he said as he continued to pound Aaron.
Joe and Owen, as well as the whole crowd, watched in horror as Dylan got up and curb stomped Aaron's face multiple times, before kicking him in the sides for five straight minutes aa Aaron cried and sobbed quietly on the ground before letting out a loud yell of pain as Dylan kicked him hard in the balls.
"You still think I'm weak?" he asked as he kicked Aaron again in the side before kicking his head five times, ultimately knocking Aaron out.
When he approached the edge of the circle again, the kids parted to let him out and back home, Joe and Owen trying to make their way through the crowd to catch up to him. Eventually, Dylan broke into a sprint as the horror of what he did slowly settled over him, and he ran into the woods next to their school, tripping when he was at the treeline. Joe and Owen made their way out of the crowd and ran after Dylan, wanting to comfort their distressed friend.
When they found Dylan sitting on a log with his head in his hands, they sat on either side of him.
"Go away," said Dylan, not even lifting his head up.
"C'mon, Dyl; you know you were right to do what you did," said Joe as he and his brother looked at each other; they both thought that Dylan took it a little too far, but rightfully so. Aaron was a top-notch bully, beating up other kids until they were bloodied; he deserved to be bloodied in return, and Dylan would no doubt return a hero to the kids Aaron beat up. Joe and Owen both mentioned this to him, but he never moved or said another word again until some teachers came up to him as well. Fortunately, there weren't any police there, so he wouldn't have had to worry about any jail time or lawsuits or anything.
M
"Orion! C'mon, talk to me! Say something!" said a voice as he regained consciousness.
He groaned and opened his eyes to see Xeno standing over him with a worried expression.
"What happened?" he asked.
"You've been out for a couple hours! That's more than what's healthy," said Xeno as he felt Orion's neck for a pulse.
"Holy shit," said Xeno.
"What?" Orion asked.
"You're heart rate… its…."
Orion felt his chest and felt his heart pounding at a million miles an hour; it must've been somewhere between 230 bpm and 260 bpm, and that wasn't healthy at all. And there was only one thing that could fix his condition.
"We have to lead that assault. Now," he said as he got up and stumbled, looking to Storm and asking, "How fast can you get two hundred raptors together?"
"About five minutes," Storm replied before heading off into the woods, Sunset close behind him.
He knew that facility was bound to have some medication in there somewhere, and he was going to get it and that bastard Wu, along with that briefcase. Then, he would destroy InGen operations at its core; genetics. He would kill Wu and whatever research he could so that InGen would be left in ruin and never be able to afford so much as a toaster.
A couple minutes later, Storm entered the clearing again, clearly agitated and frustrated.
"What'd they say?" Orion asked, having a pretty good idea of what went down, and he lowered his tail in disappointment.
"They won't do it," said Storm, causing Orion to lower his head as well. But what Storm said next made him perk up. "That is, unless they see you."
Orion snapped his gaze to the grayish raptor, who then said, "Follow."
The others got up and followed as Orion and Storm ran off into the woods, emerging into another small clearing with fifty raptors, including Sunset, Hunter, and a couple others from his old pack. They were all standing around, chattering quietly to each other. When Sunset noticed Orion, she looked at him as Xeno came up and stood by his side. The others turned to look where Sunset was, and the noise died down as they all trained their eyes on Orion. Orion sighed as he figured they wanted a pep talk.
"I know it's been a little over four years since you last saw me, and I have no right to ask you to lay down your lives for my cause," he said as he gazed at the remnants of his pack, as well as the other six, "but I know you all know Jade; the one and only daughter of the late Alpha of the Whiteclaw pack." He sighed again as he cut right to the chase.
"She's dying," he said blunty, causing whispers of disbelief to course through the group of raptors, "and I need your help to save her." The noise stopped again as he continued. "Look, I'm gonna be real honest with all of you; I've got a personal score to settle with these InGen bastards. From playing God to trying to rip away what family I have…" he said before pausing for a moment.
"We are going to make sure InGen burns to the ground with no means of reconstruction. If you don't want to do this, walk away while you can; I won't judge you."
Not a single raptor walked from the clearing.
"I hope you realize what's at stake here; not only could this be a suicide mission, failure could mean the death of our legacies. It doesn't matter what this gray asshole says; take a hike if you don't want to do this."
Again, no raptors left.
"Alright," he muttered.
"This brings back memories," Xeno whispered from his side.
"We start planning in five minutes; I just need a moment to get my bearings about," he said before turning around to face the others.
"Not bad for being five years outta practice," aaid Xeno, smiling. Before he left, it was always his Brother in Arms giving pep talks, and he smiled again at his friend getting back into it.
Orion smiled slightly before saying, "You know you guys mean more to me than anything besides Jade, right?"
They all nodded.
"Well… guess this is where I say 'thanks for sticking with me 'til the end.' Especially you, Xeno." The one-eyed raptor smiled, as did the others as Orion said, "We're not just a pack anymore; we're family. And family means we don't give up on each other. Family means we don't abandon each other. Family means sticking together until the end of our road comes by the hand of Death herself, whenever that should be." He paused for a minute before continuing.
"I got really lucky to have a family in the first place, and I'm just happy it's one I can say I love with all my heart." A lot of the girls teared up at these words, but Xeno and Thirío stayed smiling. "If, God forbid, one of our roads ends today, then I just want to say that even though we've made mistakes, we've been lucky to be with those that forgave us and never gave up on us. Those are the moments in which we became the family we are today. I put all of your lives above mine, and I say, with God himself as my witness, 'I will never give up on any of you.' Bring it in." And with that, the group of raptors hugged each other in a teary-eyed, smiling circle. "Salud, mi familia," said Orion as he patted Xeno on the shoulder.
M
"You know this isn't the only way, right?" Xeno asked Orion, who were both concealed in the brush behind the facility they were going for, along with the fifty-something other raptors, as well as with Nix, Monarch, and Motus on standby if they needed backup.
But, if all went according to their plan, they shouldn't need it. Charlie, Echo, and Thorn were forced by Orion to stay behind and keep an eye on Jade and the eggs, so they weren't there with him to take the facility. Fortunately for Orion's little plan, he found out from scouts that Wu had most of his research in the facility with him; the rest was in other facilities or on hard drives they could destroy, so they could easily take down InGen overnight. Then, he and his family could live full lives without InGen breathing down their necks; that's exactly what he's been fighting for since, pretty much, day one.
"No it's not, but it's the best chance we got," Orion replied. "Just keep close and wait for my signal," he added.
Xeno only nodded before Orion quietly emerged and ran into the facility without so much as a sound. When he got in the building, he started to silently move through its corridors, killing everyone he saw and disabling the power so that the whole facility went dark, inside and out, since it was made up of multiple buildings connected by a path. The building he just took out was the main power station. Hopefully, he would be able to take out the smaller one and disable all power so that no alarms could be raised or sent out. When he exited the power station, he immediately bolted for the smaller power station, where he could take down the rest of the power. He made it there and did a repeat performance of the last power station, taking all power offline, and he stowed away inside the small power station to kill anyone that entered.
He got away with five kills before he was noticed, and when he was, he bolted out of the station, killing anyone in his path as he ran for the trees. He was almost there when he tripped and fell. Immediately, InGen soldiers surrounded him and trained their sights on him as Orion slowly put his hands up in defeat. The men parted again to let a clearly pissed Dr. Wu through.
He put his translator in his ear and said, "You are making this very difficult when it doesn't have to be."
"Yeah, well, what can I say? I like pushing people's buttons," Orion retorted.
Wu responded by grabbing a handgun from a nearby soldier and smacking Orion in the face with it. It didn't bruise, but it did hurt like a bitch; he absolutely hated being smacked with guns.
"The only reason I don't kill you now is because I need my special assets back! And you know where they are," said Wu as he got up in Orion's face.
"Give me their location and your mate lives," said Wu as he backed up. When Orion stayed silent, Wu sighed and shook his head.
"Very well; we'll do this the hard way," he said as he grabbed a syringe from his pocket. "Now, this isn't truth serum or anything; it's a serum that uses your bloodstream as a guide to your nerves. Once the serum is there, it eats away at them, little by little. I will tell you it is a very, very, painful experience."
He uncapped the syringe and pressed his hand on Orion's neck, exposing a vein. He lifted the syringe and inserted it into the bulging vein, but before he could inject it, Orion said, "Wait!"
Dr. Wu looked him in the eye and said, "Change of heart?" He chuckled and pulled the syringe out before capping it again. "I figured."
"I'll tell you where they are…" said Orion, and Dr. Wu smiled. "… if you can guarantee their safety; don't hurt them."
"Done," said Wu as he put the syringe in his pocket. "Now, where are my special assets?" Wu asked. That's when Orion took his chance.
"NOW!!" he bellowed.
And with that, multiple raptors burst from the trees and attacked the soldiers without mercy. Orion slashed at Wu's chest, leaving the doctor heavily injured, but alive. Orion was shot at as he tried to advance on Wu, but a couple bullets found weak spots in his scales, and he grunted as he slashed at a couple soldiers close to him, effectively killing them. Wu crawled away and was picked up by a couple soldiers and carried away from the battle. Orion cursed as he turned his sights on a soldier who shot the back of his head. But his hide was too thick there for the bullet to do anything, and he pounced on the soldier and slashed at his throat and stomach, killing him. Orion then killed another soldier before he saw Xeno fighting off a soldier with everything he had. Orion ran and tackled the guy, before getting up and curb stomping on the man's head, caving it in.
"You good?" he asked Xeno as another wave of soldiers came their way. Heavily armed soldiers. As the battle around them ensued, he yelled, "Squadron B!"
Another wave of raptors burst from the forest and attacked the unfortunate men, though one raptor was shot and didn't get back up. Orion rushed to the fallen raptor's side to feel for a pulse. He didn't get one.
"Poor guy," he said as he closed the raptor's wide-open eyes. He saw two more raptors shot and he started to realize that the soldiers would overpower them if he didn't release the last squadron.
"Squadron C!" he called, bringing forth another wave of raptors.
Even though he called for the last squadron early, it was better than losing unnecessary lives. But the men started to regroup and the raptors were dropping like flies.
He watched in horror as raptor after raptor dropped dead on the asphalt path, so he called, "Squadron D!"
Squadron D was made up of Nix, Monarch, and Motus, and were, as mentioned before, a last resort. But he was becoming desperate; he didn't want any raptors to get hurt, but so many already lay dead on the ground, he wondered if this really was a suicide mission. But he had to do this. For Jade. For his pack. For his family. For his children.
Nix and Monarch burst from the trees on one side first, followed shortly by Motus, all three of them giving deafening roars.
"For Father!" Motus roared as he smacked a group of six soldiers aside like gnats. Monarch chomped down on two more soldiers as Nix picked one up and chewed him to shreds, making blood rain from her jaws, and her normally-white hide turned that deadly shade of crimson once again, letting her 'demon' side out as she impaled another soldier on her claws before throwing the lifeless body aside. And with that, the raptors also regrouped and led a final siege on the facility. Orion was leading the assault.
They all charged the large group of soldiers as bullets flew in their direction, one of them catching Orion in the chest. He only grimaced and kept running as he roared and increased his speed, even if his legs were burning. A couple more bullets caught him in the chest before they finally reached the men, after which men and raptors clashed and fell before claws and bullets. Orion punched a soldier in the face before chomping down on his neck, killing him as he picked up his gun.
"This should help," he said as he fired a round into the side of a soldier's head before clawing with his left hand at an approaching soldier and shooting the one behind him in less than five seconds.
Scream One had joined the battle. Xeno was already there, though, which was proven when he and Orion joined again on the battlefield.
"You have a couple…" he said, gesturing to Orion's chest.
"Yeah, I know; I'll get them out after," Orion replied as he shot a soldier behind Xeno.
"Position Bravo," he said as he turned around. Xeno nodded and also turned around as they travelled through the battlefield, watching each other's backs like in the old days, though they couldn't stand exactly back-to-back because of their tails.
Orion shot another soldier as he met Blue and Thirío on the battlefield.
"You two okay?" he shouted over the noise of gunfire.
"Yeah; you?" Thirío asked.
Orion was proud of Thirío. The Indoraptor had gone from timid experiment to something of a warrior, not scared of anything as he slashed at a soldier with his wicked sharp claws. Delta soon joined their party, and she ran off with Xeno, with Delta going ahead and taking down soldiers while Xeno shot the ones she missed or got too close to her. As Blue and Thirío ran away to kill more InGen soldiers, he noticed a key raptor missing from the assault.
As Sunset passed him, he asked, "Where's Storm?"
"I don't know, but he must be alive; I didn't see him among the Fallen," she said as she ran off.
"That son-of-a-bitch better not have run away," he muttered as he sunk his claws into another soldier.
But he lost hope when he saw Motus get overwhelmed by an RPG, and the spino was knocked to the ground as a sickening snap was heard and his sail bent. Motus yelled out in pain as Monarch was also overwhelmed and knocked to the ground by an RPG blast. Nix roared as bullets flew into her hide, causing no damage. But he knew it was all over when she also fell to the ground, courtesy of another RPG blast.
After that, the raptors suffered a lot of losses, and Orion was about ready to pull back when he heard a voice yell, "For the glory of our ancestors!"
He looked and saw Storm leading a group of about two hundred raptors straight towards the facility. The soldiers turned their fire away from Orion's group and instead focused it on Storm's as they charged the men, sweeping through them in no time at all.
That's when the bullet came. Right between his ribs and into his heart. Orion looked down to see another gaping bullet hole in his hide, but this one was gushing blood at an alarming rate. He looked up to see who shot him and was met with a smirking Wu.
"Your time is up," he said as he raised the gun in his hand to fire again.
That's when a blur of green scales roughly collided with Wu, and the geneticist's pained screams filled the air as the raptors finished of the InGen soldiers. Orion collapsed to the ground as the blackness took over. But in that blackness, he saw a light. A light he headed towards without question, and he saw his mom, dad, and brother reaching out for him, and he reached back.
M
"Shit, we're losing him!" Xeno yelled as he crouched down by Orion's side.
As soon as the last man was taken care of, the others tended to Jade, who was in critical condition; none of them even knew how she was standing, let alone tearing Wu's body to bloody pieces. Orion, however, was even worse off; he was dying quickly, and Xeno didn't have the tools or time to save his Brother in Arms. He just hoped this was payback for him leaving for four years, only to reappear at the unlikeliest of times.
"Orion, stay with me!" he yelled as Orion's breathing hitched for a bit before returning to normal.
"We need to get him to a medical building or he will die!" he yelled at the others, who quickly picked up Orion and followed Xeno to a building with a red cross on it.
They set Orion down on a table as Thirío appeared with Jade in his arms.
"Get me some tweezers, oxygen mask, cleaning alcohol, and some clean rags," he said to the raptors, who had no idea what the hell he just said. But they scrambled to grab what they could when Xeno quickly screamed, "Didn't you just hear me?! Get some shit and bring it here!"
Eventually, they had what they needed and Xeno wasted no time hooking Orion up to several machines and starting IVs on him. He got to work on removing the bullets, but as he went to grab one that was in the right part of his chest, the machine started beeping; his heart rate was dropping fast.
"Goddammit!" Xeno yelled as Orion flatlined.
He grabbed a defibrillator unit and wheeled it over, charging it up to 350 joules. When he hit Orion, nothing happened, so Xeno upped the voltage and hit Orion again, this time getting a heartbeat, albeit a faint one.
He hooked Jade up to a heart monitor as he continued working on Orion, and her heartbeat was almost as faint as Orion's.
He grabbed two walkie-talkies from a nearby table, gave one to Delta, and said, "If anything happens to either of them, press this button," he pressed one of the side buttons, "and tell me. I'm going out to get those deactivation codes Wu was talking about; they should be around this facility somewhere."
He then ran out of the building and halfway across the facility before coming to a small and rather bland building; it was like a mini black office building. The codes had to be in there. Xeno ran through the front doors and was greeted with doors. A lot of doors. Fortunately, they all had labels on them and he eventually found a door with the words "Dr. Wu." He pushed the door open and was greeted to shelves upon shelves of research and notes.
"This stuff could help a lot," he said as he looked through everything.
He thankfully found what he was looking for rather early on; a small briefcase with a fingerprint lock under the handle. He picked it up and ran out of the building and back to the medical building, where he broke open the suitcase, which opened up into a computer. When it opened, the computer powered up, but a message on the screen popped up.
"Please use fingerprint confirmation to continue."
"Dammit!" Xeno yelled before running back outside to retrieve Wu's body.
Jade at least spared the fingers, and hand, which is what Xeno grabbed. But what he wasn't prepared for was for the hand to just fall off.
"Damn; no wonder Orion loves her," Xeno muttered before running back to the facility.
When he entered with the hand, the girls looked at him strangely until he put one of the fingers on the fingerprint lock, which was fortunately still operational. The computer's screen them changed to another message.
"Welcome, Dr. Henry Wu."
Xeno got to work right away and backed up every file before looking through everything to find the deactivation codes. He luckily spotted a folder with the name "nanobots." If anything, he figured it would be under there. He double-clicked on it and found the folder empty.
"Dammit!" he yelled for what felt like the millionth time that day.
He searched every other file folder and file; Wu seemed pretty bothered when he said he fixed their problem with Jade, so he figured the codes had to be in there somewhere. And they were. In an unnamed folder was a file titled "Nano_Deact._Code" and he instantly double-clicked. But when he did, he was greeted with a bunch of code and a very tiny scroll bar. Meaning there was a lot of code.
"Alright… I took code for fun in college; should be able to crack this no problem," he muttered as his claws tapped away on the keyboard.
A couple minutes later, Xeno has filled in all the necessary lines of code and pressed enter. When he did, a pop-up appeared with the words "Execute System Termination?" He typed in "y" and again pressed enter. Then Jade sat up.
"Jade!" Charlie gasped and hugged Jade, who hugged her right back.
"Guess it was immediate," Xeno muttered as the others gathered around Jade in happiness.
But the moment was quickly smashed by Orion flatlining again. Xeno ran over charged up the defib unit, since he never bothered to put it back, and hit Orion. His body jolted, but his heart rate was still 0. Xeno upped the voltage even more and hit Orion a second time. Still no response. Xeno upped the voltage yet again and hit Orion a third time. Still one, constant, high-pitched sound coming from the heart monitor, signalling Orion was truly gone.
"No, no no no no no nonononononono! Orion! Wake up!" Jade yelled as she jumped from her table and to Orion's side. "No, Orion, you can't be dead! We have a family to take care of and raise! You have a family to take care of and raise!" But Orion's heart rate remained constant.
At least he went more peacefully than some of his buddies…
M
Dylan didn't know where he was, but he knew he couldn't be there. He saw a sprawling plain filled with rows upon rows of fruits and vegetables growing on trees and in the ground. The sky was a pure blue color; not a cloud in sight, so the sun's rays traveled undeterred to the ground.
"Dylan?" asked a voice from behind him. He turned and saw the woman he barely recognized as his mother.
"Mom?" he asked stupidly.
Her eyes just filled up with tears as she smiled and nodded. His father and brother appeared by her side as well, both of them looking just how he remembered.
"Dad? Tim?!" he asked as his family approached him with smiles.
"I like the new look, son," said his father.
Dylan looked down to see he was still a raptor, but as he imagined himself as a human, his body changed before his eyes, his skin returning to its normal tan and his hair returning to its normal black.
"Wow," he said when he was completely human.
His family smiled and his brother said, "Good to see you, bro."
Dylan bent down to Tim's level and embraced his brother for the first time in years. His mother and father smiled as they also embraced Dylan in a tight hug.
"It's finally over," said his father. "Your path… it's come to an end."
Dylan lost his smile as he realized what his father was saying. He was dead. Really and truly dead. Gone. Forever. No goodbye, no hugs, nothing; just ripped away by that bastards Wu. But then, he was approached by a man with all-white clothes, a fine white beard and mustache, glasses, and a cane with a mosquito in amber at the end.
"Hello, Dylan," said the man as he stood in front of Dylan.
"Hey," he responded.
"I suppose I should apologize; I'm sorry the company I created did what they did," he said.
"And who're you?" Dylan asked.
"John Hammond; founder of InGen and Jurassic Park," the man responded as he held out a hand for Dylan to shake, which he did.
"Why am I here?" Dylan asked.
Hammond smiled and furrowed his brow as he said, "I'm afraid I don't understand the question."
"I'm a killer, an assassin that never answered to the law, for only money; all so I could feel better about my family dying…"
"Dylan… you're here for what you've done in your pack," said Hammond as he leaned on his cane. "You've always put their lives before yours and endured what they could not. If you had to trade your life for one of theirs, you'd do so in a heartbeat. And not only that, you've created what many consider a great miracle of nature; life. You've given your significant other children of yours to bear."
Dylan considered all of this, but he still found no reason he should be in Heaven; he's committed too many crimes and performed too many sins to be let past the Pearly Gates. But yet, here he was, with his family and an old man. And he wasn't ready.
"I'm not ready," he said. He had things to do, a family of his own to take care of.
"No one ever is," said Hammond as his family backed up and Dylan changed himself back into a raptor.
"This is who I am now, and you're right; my mate bears my children. And I should he there to take care of my family…" he said.
"Are we not your family?" asked his father with a confused expression.
"No no, of course you're my family… but I've got another one back where I come from."
"As does everyone else, but you can't leave without the permission of God himself," said Hammond.
"And God gives him permission," boomed a voice from their right, making them all turn to see a man with a scraggly white beard and long white hair standing on a ledge.
"Dylan, I made a mistake," said the man.
"I take it you're the Big Man?" Dylan asked.
God chuckled and said, "Yes, I am."
Dylan nodded as God said, "I made a mistake bringing you here. It is not your time yet."
Dylan nodded again and said, "It's fine; that just means you're at least a little human."
God chuckled heartily and said, "I pardon you from Heaven and Death until the time is right for you to return. Consider this a… preview of what is to come."
Dylan nodded again as the fields, his parents and brother, Hammond, and God faded away until he stood alone. And he woke up.
M
Orion opened his eyes slowly, his ears ringing and his eyes taking in every little bit of light, making him blink a few times before his pupils dilated and his vision returned to normal. He saw… the sky. Then his hearing returned. He heard someone talking somewhere above him.
"Just know, Brother, I will always love you, in life and death. Say hi to Dan for me," he said as he walked away.
Orion frowned and turned his eyes outward to see dirt. Then felt it dropped on his stomach.
"Wait!" he cried out as he shot up.
He jumped a few feet in the air and landed on his feet, turning to see a bunch of open graves, a sprawling plain, an orange-ish lake he knew was the pond of beer from over four years ago, and the shocked faces of the hundreds of raptors he startled by his sudden awakening. He felt his head spin as his neurons tried to process spontaneously reactivating, and he stumbled a bit as he held his head. Once the world stopped spinning, he saw a beautiful amber color in front of him, as well as green scales and a tan underbelly. He knew this raptor… he just couldn't place her name… yet. He just needed a reminder.
"Orion?" she asked, and the memories came flooding back to him, and he blacked out for a seconds because of how intense the feeling was, especially at the end.
When he opened them again, he saw his love standing there.
"Hey…" he said weakly, "I know you…."
J… her name started with a "j…."
"Yeah… you should," she replied.
"J a…." The letters were slowly falling in place as the memories finished returning.
"Jade…" he whispered as tears filled his eyes; he didn't get to say goodbye the first time, but he sure as hell said hello.
He hugged her tightly as everyone else came up to inspect him. "What happened?" asked a black raptor with a blue eye. He didn't know this raptor yet… something with an "x."
"Who're you?" he asked.
The raptor looked slightly offended and said, "Xeno."
Xeno! That's what his name was; his Brother in Arms he thought died over four years ago.
"I'm gonna need time to recover from… that," he said, enticing a watery laugh from everyone.
"What'd you see?" Xeno asked.
Strangely, Orion couldn't remember a thing between waking up and passing out on the operating table at the InGen facility.
"I can't remember…" he said as he looked over the rest of the raptors, as well as the Indominus, T-Rex, and Spinosaurus, and the names were coming easier now; Thorn, Storm, Sunset, Midnight, Ghost, Scar, Hunter, Blue, Delta, Echo, Charlie, Nix, Thirío, Monarch, and their latest addition, Motus, who was laying down because of his broken spine. But most importantly, he knew they were family. And his family was together again, with seven new additions expected sometime in the next month.
"Orion?" asked a voice from his right.
It was Storm. "I… you're more of an Alpha than I could've ever hoped to be…. I relinquish my position to you as Alpha male of the Storm pack. I submit to you… Alpha," he said as he bowed his head low, as did every raptor in the clearing; he even felt the graves radiating with something, though he couldn't place it. But… Orion had better ideas.
"That won't be necessary," he said, making everyone look up in shock. "I got a few ideas of where the whole 'leadership' thing is gonna go."
Xeno smiled at what he was implying.
"No one raptor should be in control; rather a group of raptors make up the central leadership of this pack, which won't be named one word." The raptors looked in fascination at what Orion was saying.
"Long ago, there was a war. Between a mother country and a daughter colony. The daughter colony ended up winning the war and gaining their independence, and that small country is now a global superpower called the United States of America. The story of America isn't too dissimilar from what happened here, and I suggest that we name our pack The United Packs of Northwestern Sorna in honor of America's story. Any better ideas can be suggested later on when we have our central government put into place. Hopefully, we can peacefully expand until it becomes the United Packs of Isla Sorna, not just Northwestern Sorna."
The pack was silent as Orion continued.
"Y'know, being dead and all kinda made me realize how much I want out of life, as well as how much I'm getting; I'm lucky to have all of you by my side. To the stars."
The raptors cheered at this and some of them even hugged each other. Orion stepped away and in front of Jade as she smiled warmly. But he just remembered something; "Are the eggs safe?" he asked her.
She smiled and nodded as she nuzzled his head with hers.
Xeno then came up and said, "So, what's the plan now, Mr. President?"
"Very funny," said Orion sarcastically as he embraced his oldest friend.
"Seriously, though; what now?" Xeno asked.
"Now? Now we remodel an old way of life," Orion responded as he looked at the crowd of cheering raptors.
Usually, raptors lives in little solitary packs, and Orion couldn't believe he just formed the biggest one ever. Him… little ol' him… he just made history for the seconds time in his life… well, lives. One time just now, but the first time was when he became Subject \VR-01_\ and Orion of the Refuge Pack, and he was forever changed.
M
"I'm back!" yelled Orion into the former InGen research building.
He was greeted by six pairs of thumping feet and blurs crashing into his legs; his children. "Daddy!" they yelled; two males and three females right there.
Hope, his oldest daughter, had a beautiful green hide with a dark underbelly, along with black racing stripes and amber eyes.
Faith, his second-oldest daughter, had an amazing all-red hide with dazzling emerald-green eyes.
Aries, his third-born and oldest son, looked just like Faith, but also had black feathers sprouting from the tip of his tail, as well as white dots decorating his sides.
Trinity, his youngest daughter, had an all-green hide except for the black dots on her sides with amazing amber eyes.
And his second-youngest son, Leo, had a tan underbelly and forest hide with a black racing stripe and amber eyes like his mother.
But… someone was missing.
"Guys, where's Dipper?" he asked.
Dipper was his youngest son, and had a red hide with a tan underbelly, as well as both black racing stripes and white dots on his sides that reminded him of the Little Dipper. Not only that, but he was a mutant. Not a mutant like that; not only did he have opposable thumbs in addition to his three fingers, he had heterochromia, which meant his eyes were two different colors. One of his eyes was a stunning amber color and the other was a marvelous emerald-green color.
But Orion worried for Dipper; Dipper always said he wanted to be just like his father, which meant he would replace Orion for his seat on the council, which, while having its perks, was a stressful job. And that's without all the peace treaties and contracts with the other raptor packs, as well as the Utahraptors that wandered through all territories. The last four months were as stressful as could be for Orion; from coming back to life to establishing and maintaining a brand-new government, he was under constant stress, and it only looked like it would get worse, especially with putting a justice system in place. What would be worse still is maintaining the system as a whole when everything is put in place.
"He's with Mommy," said Faith as she nudged his shin with her head.
He sighed and walked off in the direction of his and Jade's bedroom; ever since the huge battle between the raptors and InGen, which was later dubbed the Sornan War, nature has reclaimed all the InGen facilities on Sorna. Which meant the raptors had taken over. They had repurposed the facilities as nesting grounds for the raptors of their new "country," as well as the building to house those that wanted more shelter.
When he walked into the next room, though, his thoughts were interrupted when he was greeted by an unexpected guest.
"Uncle Xeno! Aunt Delta!" the kids cried as they ran to their godfather and his mate.
Xeno and Delta both knelt down to catch the barreling young raptors in their arms, but the kids stopped when Orion said, "Kids, can you… tell your mom I'm home?"
The kids looked a bit disappointed, but nodded and ran upstairs to find their mother.
"What's goin' on, buddy?" Xeno asked as he embraced Orion.
"Ah, stressful as usual; at least I'm not the only one in charge," Orion responded.
"Yeah, I always knew politics wasn't for me," Xeno said as he broke the hug, and Xeno hugged Delta as well.
"How's life?" Orion asked the pair.
Xeno and Delta looked at each other before looking back at Orion, and Delta said, "I'm… pregnant."
Orion just gaped at the couple as they waited for his response.
"Pregnant?" Orion asked to confirm.
"Yeah… we just wanted you to be their godfather," said Xeno. Orion nodded and smiled.
"Sure; how hard can it be?" he joked.
"You'd be surprised; little Leo was pretty feisty," Xeno responded. Orion laughed at the memory of Xeno trying to baptise all his children when they were only one day old. It was a nightmare.
"Y'know, I'm pretty surprised you guys are gonna be parents before anyone else," said Orion, thinking back to how horny everyone usually was with their mates; Echo and Charlie were finally introduced to everyone, and Echo mated Scar almost on the spot. Charlie and Ghost actually had a timid, intimate relationship before mating for the first time, though.
"Yeah, so am I. How's Motus?" Xeno asked, wondering how the Spinosaurus's spine was doing.
"He's good; his sail is a little crooked, but he's fine other than that," Orion responded. Xeno nodded as he watched the kids come running back down the stairs.
"Can we sleep over, Uncle Xeno?!" they all asked in perfect sync.
Xeno was torn, but Delta said, "I don't think he would mind much." She then walked out the door as the kids cheered and ran to another room to hang out with some friends they made.
"Happy wife…" Xeno began, despite Delta not really being his wife.
"Happy life," Orion finished as Xeno chuckled and followed his mate.
Before leaving, he called, "We'll be back to pick them up in a couple hours."
"Alright, see ya, buddy," Orion called back as Xeno caught up to Delta and he slowly walked up the steps, being careful because of his bigger feet; he would have to renovate this place some time.
When he got upstairs, he walked in the room Jade was in and flopped on the bed that was conveniently in there before giving a groan.
"Bad day at work?" Jade figured from beside him.
Orion only gave another groan in response, though he made it more dramatic to be silly. Jade giggled and nuzzled his head as Orion turned over. "I love you, Jade," he said as he licked her neck.
"The kids are gonna be with Xeno and Delta tonight; you know what that means," said Jade as she licked his face, and Orion nearly responded.
"What does it mean?!" asked a giddy voice from beside Jade.
Dipper jumped up on Jade's side and faced both of them as Orion said, "Oh, um… nothin'; just a little fun and games is all." Orion blushed heavily as he nearly said he'd fuck Jade in front of his youngest.
"Oh, ok!" said Dipper as he jumped into his father's arms and nuzzled his chest.
Orion smiled and hugged Dipper as the young raptor began to purr and lean into his touch. Jade also smiled and licked Orion across the face and nuzzled him like their son was doing. This continued until the other kids came in and joined in on nuzzling their mother and father, as well as each other, happy to be alive and well with each other as company.
They all fell asleep there for a couple hours until they heard Xeno call, "Hey, guys! I'm here!"
The kids all but leapt out of their doggy pile and downstairs, excitedly yelling, "Uncle Xeno!" and, "Aunt Delta!"
Orion and Jade both groaned and chuckled as they got out of bed and headed downstairs to see their children off for the night. Then, they headed back upstairs, got back in bed, and went to work.
M
"So we barely got out of there alive, and you want us to go back?"
"Yeah, pretty much…."
Owen, Claire, and Maisie got a surprise visit from an old friend of his brother's, Sebastian Hughes.
"Going back to La Cincos Muertes is a death wish, let alone freaking Isla Sorna, the least forgiving of them all!" Claire said as Owen nodded his head in agreement.
"Not exactly; I got a man, or rather… raptor, on the inside," said Seb, and Owen looked at him in surprise.
"Who?" Claire asked in disbelief. "A guy that was an experiment; Owen, you should know him," said Seb as he threw a beige file folder on the tabletop that was separating him from Claire and Owen.
Owen opened it to reveal a file for one "Dylan Jones Smith."
Owen gaped at the paper and asked, "He's on Sorna? How the hell did he get there?"
"Wait, who is this guy?" Claire asked as she read over Dylan's old file until she got to the words…
"Contract killer?!" she shouted. "Are you insane?! How do you even know this guy?!"
"We used to work together," said Seb as he leaned back in the couch he was on.
Claire gaped at Seb as Owen asked, "How did he get to Sorna?"
"Ever heard of a boat? I got a buddy to fix a medium-sized freighter and I took him and his pack there," Seb responded.
"And the Indominus? The Indoraptor? Blue? Char –" Owen asked before he was cut off by Seb saying, "Yeah, I got all of 'em."
Owen nodded. "Fine… we'll go to Sorna and get your pack back here," said Claire hesitantly.
"I don't think that'll work," said Seb. Claire and Owen faced him as he said, "They think of Orion as their Alpha, I guess… or something like that."
Owen looked a bit disappointed, but Seb added, "But that doesn't mean we can't go see them."
M
Y'know, it's kinda wierd to finish this story a second time. But hey; I got done with it again. Sorry for not getting this done sooner; freshman year just started, and it hasn't been kind to me. So, because of that, I probably won't have a lot of time to write, thanks to taking two honors classes and however much more homework comes with the others. But I will still be writing the sequel, and it will be longer with more suspense; I honestly think Orion and Co. got off easy most of the story, but I will try to not make it like that in the sequel: The Seventh Son. Thanks for reading, and have a good day/night. Oh, and check out this sneek peak of The Seventh Son, the sequel to Half the Man.
M
"To the stars!" Orion yelled, receiving a great many cheers from over two thousand raptors.
Since that fateful day of the Sornan War four years ago, he had managed to peacefully expand the U.P.O.N.W.S, or United Packs of Northwestern Sorna, into the U.P.O.I.S, or United Packs of Isla Sorna.
Now, not only all raptors, but all carnivores are under a treaty arranged by Orion and the council; they are not to kill each other, and if they do, they are thrown in paddocks in the underground facility where Orion was "born."
Orion was innovative, courageous, determined, strong, and, above all else, a leader.
Dipper loved all this and more about his father, but it's kinda hard to live up to a father who pretty much created the modern way of life, especially if it launched Sorna into a golden age.
As Orion continued to give his yearly speech for the fourth time, Dipper listened from the left, nowhere near anyone he knew. Or so he thought.
"Hey, faggot," came a voice from behind.
Dipper sighed at hearing the voice; his long-time bully, Atlas, was coming up behind him to torment him again.
"Hey, faggot! Are you deaf or something?" Atlas asked as he stopped behind Dipper. "Faggot, I'm talking to you."
"Leave me alone, Atlas," Dipper said as he turned to face the all-golden raptor; for a golden boy, he sure didn't act like it.
"Oh, the little faggot wants to be left alone, now does he?" Atlas taunted.
And it was true; Dipper was gay. But he and his family accepted that a long time ago, but not everyone else. Atlas was only a name in his list of tormentors, however big that name was. And being named after the Titan who held up the sky just made it that much easier to hold up his ego.
"Hey, faggot. I'm talking to you," said Atlas as he got into a fighting stance.
It was then that he was knocked on his side, and Dipper stared in shock at the fallen raptor, taking a glance behind him to find his savior.
"Y'know, you really shouldn't talk that way about the son of the head of the council," said Xeno as he approached Dipper.
"You and your father are gonna have a talk that I don't think you're gonna like," he said to him.
"About what?" Dipper asked innocently as Atlas got up out of the dirt.
"You're that weak, huh? That you have to have your freak of an "uncle" defend you?" Atlas spat.
But he was soon on the ground again, and people started to pay more attention to Xeno than Orion's ongoing speech. Xeno pinned Atlas down and growled audibly.
"You think I'm a freak, you little brat?" he asked in a dangerous tone.
"Dad?" asked a voice from behind them. It was Eros, Xeno's oldest and strongest son.
Eros had black scales with hints of green and teal, as well as blue eyes and black quills on his tail.
"What's going on?" he asked, gesturing to Atlas, who was still on the ground.
By now, most raptors had stopped paying attention to Orion's speech. And Orion noticed a long time ago. He was weaving through the gathering crowd as Atlas kicked Xeno off him and charged Dipper. Dipper, who wasn't ready for the sudden assault, was tackled and clawed at by Atlas before Atlas was ripped off of him.
Atlas thrashed and clawed behind him at the attacker, only to be thrown down, revealing Orion standing there with pure rage in his eyes.
"STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY KID!!" he bellowed at Atlas.