Chapter Three: Dinosaur

Jurassic World was an incredible place to work.

Izuku had dreamed of working on Isla Nublar for most of his life. Ever since he'd seen a documentary of the advanced theme park, hosted by one of the Tyrannosaur caretakers, Toshinori, he'd longed to find his own place on the island.

He'd worked hard through high school and college to get the degrees and experience he needed to be considered. At twenty-three years old, he'd made it in as a caretaker for one of the new attractions to the park. Well, sort of.

It had been an odd string of chance involving the sudden resignation of handlers for one of the upcoming attractions and a leap of faith from the park management to see if he could take the reins and handle the project himself. Needless to say, he'd been at his wits end to work with the animal in question.

The Indominus Rex. Jurassic World's first genetically modified hybrid. Supposedly. Technically, every animal in the park was a hybrid in some way, shape, or form, even if most of them looked pretty similar to their ancestors. But the Indominus was a completely new species, created from scratch and with no history on the planet until now.

One of her previous handlers had almost lost an arm and the others quit soon after. She'd already attempted to break out twice. She was aggressive, unpredictable, and clever. Far more clever than they'd been expecting since her base genome was Tyrannosaurus.

He'd decided to approach her as she should have been from the very start; as a new animal and not a modified variant of another. Oh sure, she displayed some traits characteristic of a T-Rex, like an extremely keen sense of smell, absurdly powerful jaws, and a territorial streak a mile long, not to mention her sheer size. For the love of everything, she wasn't even fully grown and she was already forty feet long. In a few years, she'd pass up Rexy.

But she had a lot of behaviors that weren't typical Tyrannosaur. She was far more intelligent than Rexy. Not to say the T-Rex was stupid necessarily, but the Indominus was a different kind of smart. She was clever, a problem solver, and he'd even seen her mimicking bird calls at times. Rexy most certainly did not do any of those things.

Her arms were also massive by comparison, and she used them so much. If she wasn't scratching the bark of trees or sharpening her claws on rocks, she was using them to hold her prey as she ate or even keep an object still so she could study it more closely.

The rudimentary thumb she possessed made her hands look eerily human. Izuku doubted the scientists were allowed to use human DNA in an animal, so he assumed they were traits from primates for some reason or another, but that only cemented the evidence in his brain that the Indominus needed care beyond that of a T-Rex.

So he studied her. He did his homework and watched her behaviors, experimented with objects to see what caught her attention and what didn't. What interested her? Kept her stimulated? An animal with a large brain and high intelligence needed to be stimulated or they would become bored. Irritated. Dangerous at worst.

He knew he was onto something after the first couple of tests when she finished a simple tracking game used to train sheepdogs and approached the huge glass window that separated her from her new caretaker. Izuku had stood mere feet from her as the Indominus stopped and looked at him.

Rexy always looked at him like he was a snack she couldn't quite reach. She was never frustrated that she couldn't eat a human, but he always felt like she was sizing him up. Gauging if there was an opportunity to eat. She was a very instinctual creature.

But the Indominus wasn't just sizing him up, she was actively studying him. He watched her eyes flick across his body (especially his face) and she cocked her head curiously. He wondered if she remembered what her old handlers looked like and knew he was different.

She made eye contact with him and he weighed the risks for a few moments before maintaining it. Rexy didn't care if someone looked her in the eyes because she knew she was bigger and meaner than them. The Velociraptors took it as a threat and would snarl aggressively until eye contact was broken. Only Grady got away with eye contact since he was the Alpha of the pack.

The Indominus met his eyes and he watched her cautiously, looking for any sign of offense or anger. She displayed none. Her tail waved behind her, flicking a tree, and she made a low rumble in her throat. Non-aggressive. Curious.

She seemed to file him away in her memory and returned to her nest for the day. Izuku had left the paddock reeling. He'd written notes and researched her behavior for hours afterwards.

He brought new puzzles and games for her to figure out day after day. The aggression and breakout attempts dwindled into nothing. She always met him at the glass window day after day. She'd memorized his routine, knew when he'd show up at the paddock. Every time he entered the room, she was there, watching the door and crooning when he arrived. Eager to see what he'd bring to her each day.

He'd given her a name. Started calling her Indie. She learned it quickly, learned his voice and responded to the title whenever he called for her, as he knew she would. She soaked up knowledge like a sponge.

Park management was relieved to see her finally responding in a positive manner. Asset containment was less thrilled when they realized exactly how intelligent she was, but they were happy she wasn't a huge security threat anymore.

Izuku had insisted they expand her territory. The lab had provided blueprints for her paddock based on theoretical behavior. That was all fine and good, but working with the Indominus had taught him that she needed more space to feel stimulated and happy. A happy animal with plenty of space and a healthy routine was a lot less likely to snap and attempt a breakout.

They'd acquiesced. The attraction was pushed back for next year, but the health, safety, and happiness of the animal came first. Spare no expense.

Today was a bit of a variation in the routine.

Izuku pressed a button on the console that would transmit his voice through the speakers in the paddock. The volume was low to keep from disturbing the animal within, but she would be able to hear him. "Indie, come girl."

He scanned the vegetation and heard the heavy footfalls a moment later. Izuku caught sight of greenery shifting in a way that wasn't quite natural and smirked. He pressed the button again. "I see you."

She garbled in defeat, but wasn't irritated. On the contrary, she waved her tail cheerfully in response. He'd been startled when she'd first displayed the ability to camouflage, but realized she was attempting to play. It became a game for them, one she'd made herself, and that was a huge positive in his mind. If she was willing to play, it meant she was happy.

Indie approached the glass and stopped in her usual place a few feet away. Her nostrils flared, took in his scent as she studied him with sharp eyes. Waiting.

Izuku smiled and turned to the door behind him. "Come in!"

Indie's gaze twitched to the door before it even opened as Mina, her new vet tech, walked in. She spotted the massive predator, who rumbled at the sight of the vet. "Hey girl! Having a good day?"

Indie snapped her jaws together loudly. It wasn't a threat display like in some predators, but it had taken some time to realize she was just mimicking the way people talked.

Mina approached the glass, keeping eye contact with Indie all the while. She held a hand to the barrier between them and watched, smiling, as the huge dinosaur lifted a hand in response and pressed it in a mirror to the vet. "Good girl."

Mina had been assigned as a new vet to Indie on Izuku's request. Indie knew her old handlers and vets and she didn't like seeing them. Didn't like to see the fearful, wary behavior. She liked respect, not terror.

So she got new vets. Most people assigned to her in the past had either quit or been transferred elsewhere, anyways. She responded positively to Mina, who had read the notes Izuku made on the animal and behaved properly around her. So Indie liked her.

Today was a visual checkup. Indie got one every month. Initially, she was given a visual check twice a year because she was too hard to locate and getting into the paddock with her was suicide. That had changed. She was a high-maintenance creature who liked to be stimulated. She should've been getting checks more often anyways since she was a hybrid with all sorts of potential health problems.

They'd dodged a bullet there.

Indie knew how these visits worked. To the surprise of no one, she'd quickly learned what to expect and what needed to be done.

She had her left hand currently pressed to the glass, mirroring the vet's right. Mina gave it a good look and then switched hands. Indie matched her.

"Claws look good," she hummed. "Nice and sharp."

Indie waited patiently for Mina to complete her inspection. The vet stepped back and moved a hand up to her mouth, pushing her fingers down as if forcing her mouth open. The Indominus pulled her hand away and moved her head forward to open her jaws wide.

Her teeth were a big concern. They were exposed to the elements, unlike most predators with uniform teeth hidden behind lips, but she lost bad teeth and re-grew them often enough. The main issue was if one started to rot and caused her pain.

If that happened, Indie's next meal would be laced with some sedatives so they could enter the paddock and extract the damaged tooth. The first time it happened, they were wary they might lose some trust in the animal. Indie had approached the glass wall afterwards looking confused and maybe a little angry, until Izuku had held up the rotten tooth for her to inspect.

She'd blinked comically at the object, caught the scent of decay, and he'd watched in bemusement as her tongue poked at the spot that had been causing her such discomfort. When it clicked in her brain what had happened, she'd trumpeted happily.

She didn't mind the sedatives after that. Dr. Gerry said she was one of his new favorite patients.

Most of the other predators in the park despised sedatives. Especially Rexy. The old lady would get horribly cranky if she was given sedatives for a vet check. Her attraction would be closed down for the day if she needed work because she'd throw chunks of goat at the glass window in a fit of rage.

That had not been fun.

"Everything looks good," Mina proclaimed, pulling out a tablet and typing a few things into Indie's health log. "You can close up now, babe."

Indie did so, trilling low in her throat. Mina pressed her fingers beneath her eyes next, pointing to them. The Indominus turned her head first to the left so Mina could see one eye, then the other. Both were good.

"Last one, girl," Mina told her. Indie backed up, knowing what would be expected of her. Mina held a hand up and spun it in a circle. The Indominus garbled and slowly made a small turn, allowing her vet to get a good look at her entire body.

"Really good, Indie. You look beautiful," Mina declared. She typed a few more things into her tablet before pocketing it. The dinosaur returned to the front of the glass, looked at Izuku, and snapped her jaws twice. A signal for food, which she knew would come next.

He nodded and pulled up a couple of pictures she'd learned when he was trying to establish a healthy pattern in her daily life. One was a picture of the stripped steers she was sometimes fed, and the other was a picture of a tuna they'd tried to expand the range of vitamins she was getting.

As it turned out, she loved fish.

He was unsurprised when she cocked her head to the left, the picture of the tuna. Izuku reached for the feeder controls and selected the intended meal. The machine would trigger the pulley system to bring a tuna out from storage and haul it down where Indie could get to it.

The huge fish was lowered within a minute, much to Indie's delight. She trilled happily as she reached up with her hands to snag the tuna in her claws. It was easier to grip the slick skin that way. She snapped her jaws into the meal as Mina walked over to Izuku.

"She looks great. Perfect marks across the board," she reported. "She seems happy, too."

"Yeah. I can't wait to see what she thinks of the paddock expansion," he admitted. "This place will do just fine for her attraction and checkups, but she needs to run. I can only come up with so many puzzles and games for her in a space this small. She's just too big for it."

"Agreed," Mina watched in bemusement as the Indominus swallowed another chunk of fish. "I think she'll be fine. As for her attraction, you told me you were planning on bringing in small groups of people to the observatory below, right? To see how she'd react?"

"Mmhm. I think she'll be fine with it, but she needs time to get used to everything first. I don't want her to become uncomfortable when she realizes there's a ton of people around her."

"The expansion should help with that. She'll know she can leave this space whenever she wants. Get some peace and quiet."

Indie polished off the last of her fish with a big gulp, holding her head vertically to let gravity give her a hand. She shook herself once the meal was down and turned back to the glass. The checkup was over. Next was routine. Games. Puzzles. Stimulation.

Izuku smiled at his eager charge. "Gotta get back to work. Don't want to keep her waiting."

"Nope. She's been a good girl. She deserves some fun," Mina agreed, then pursed her lips for a moment. "Are we still on for tonight?"

Izuku nodded a little nervously. "I am if you are."

"Great. My place at nine."

"Yep."

"It's a date," she grinned. She looked at the Indominus watching patiently. "So, you two have fun and stay out of trouble for me, ok? I've gotta help Dr. Gerry give the Velociraptors a visual checkup."

"Yikes."

"They've actually been doing pretty good lately," Mina told him. "Grady's worked some of his magic and gotten Blue to be more hands-on."

Izuku's brows rose high. "Blue. Hands-on."

"Hey, I'm as surprised as you are. She's not gonna let anyone else touch her unless she's trying to eat them, but she's letting Grady into the paddock for the first time since the raptors were babies. Her sisters are pretty happy about it, too."

"Go figure," he hummed. "See you tonight."

"She you tonight," she winked, then turned and sashayed her way out the door. Izuku watched her go before turning back to his dinosaur.

Indie was already looking at him, but he swore she had a dry expression in her eyes. Like she knew what he was thinking.

"Hey, I can't help it," he protested. "She's beautiful."

The hybrid snorted and rumbled. Izuku shrugged helplessly and decided to move on.

"So, puzzle?" He held up a rubix cube, a symbol of said option. He then pulled a laser pointer from his other pocket and flashed it twice on the ground. "Or game?"

Indie snorted and gestured towards the cube, which made Izuku grin. She'd like what he had in mind today.

He'd snap a picture of his dinosaur when she figured it out. Mina loved seeing the animals happy.

A/N: If you didn't know, I am an absolute nerd for dinosaurs.

So this was the Zoo prompt! Tomorrow's will be Pocky Game ;) Look forward to it!