Chapter 4: Meet the T-Rex and Tylosaurus

The next day, Peyton put her cousin at the daycare, having told to Joseline about the hybrids. Joseline was a Brazilian woman in her 50s with an exceptional ability to handle children. She accepted to take Valentina among other children in the daycare, as she knew Peyton volunteered to accompany Tim and his men while her father was training the Utahraptors.

Peyton also told her cousin to do whatever Joseline ordered, no matter what. Valentina had to obey, as she didn't want to be reprimanded by her uncle and cousin again. As Valentina was playing with Arya and Ygrit, Peyton came in Main Street alongside Tim and his men, practicing close-quarter battle drills in an abandonned shed separated from the visitors thanks to a high wall.

Meanwhile, Owen was with Hoskins and Barry overseeing the Utahraptors. Owen saw Blue and her sisters were much more obedient than prior to Valentina's arrival.

"They're so peaceful now." Hoskins remarked.

"Yes, and I still don't know why. Probably Valentina or something in her." Barry commented.

"True. And even when the little girl's away, they still remain calm. They didn't even get angry when Peyton scolded her." Hoskins said.

As they were discussing of Utahraptor behavior, Owen came by and waved at them.

"Hi guys. Bad news is I gotta go help Dr. Wu measure the T-Rex paddock so we can build a real home for our two new hybrids he created." Owen announced.

"Ah, and what are their names?" Barry asked.

"Peyton named the Ygrid and Arya." Owen explained.

"Game of Thrones" Hoskins answered as Owen nodded.

Then Owen got a text from Dr. Wu, who informed him he would need a sharpshooter to cover him from a perch while he was busy taking some notes in Paddock 9. Owen texted back he'll come now and ran to his motorcycle and drove towards Paddock 9.

At Main Street, Peyton has finished training with Tim and his men. The group then headed to Paddock 9, where they saw Owen preparing both his Marlin rifle and a M4A1 carbine fitted with a Pentagon M3d light, a Magpul angled foregrip, a DBAL laser module, a Magpul stock and a Tasco red dot sight. Owen saw his daughter, Tim and his men coming in the exhibit

"Dr. Wu, I think we got some unexpected help." Owen informed Wu.

"Tim Murphy and his guys. And your daughter Peyton" Wu told Owen

With that said, Peyton, her father, Tim and his men went inside the T-Rex paddock, which housed a forest looking like the ones we could see in Canada or Oregon. In the glassway, Joseline and other children, among whom Valentina with Arya and Ygrid in her satchel, came close to the soundproof glass. Valentina, Ygrid and Arya saw Owen, his daughter, Tim and his men inside the paddock alongside Dr. Wu. Fortunately for them, Rexy was busy eating a huge chunk of meat as Wu prepared a tranquilizer rifle with some carfentanil to sedate Rexy.

As Rexy was still busy eating her lunch, Wu aimed his tranquilizer rifle at her neck and fired it, hitting the dinosaur right behind the ear. The dinosaur roared before going to sleep in a calm erea of the paddock. Owen then took a laser rangefinder, aimed it at the other end of the paddock and wrote down the length of the wall. For the width of the future paddock, he just wrote down the lenght of the glassway. Owen then quadrupled the dimensions while Wu wrote down environmental notes so that the vegetation would fit Arya and Ygrid in their new paddock.

Peyton kept an eye on Rexy with her M4A1 carbine, fitted with an AN/PAS-13 thermal sight, an AN/PEQ-2 laser module, a Surefire M900 grip-light and a Magpul CTR stock. Thanks to the thermal sight on her carbine, Peyton saw a sleeping Rexy glowing white in a red crosshair. Just then, Owen nodded to Wu and Tim, meaning everyone was to get out of Paddock 9. Tim and his men exited first, followed by Owen and Dr. Wu with Peyton exiting last before the gate was closed.

Joseline and the children then exited the glassway. As she counted the children, Joseline realized that Valentina has disappeared. Inside the paddock, a park ranger spotted Valentina wandering in the paddock and grabbed his radio.

"Grady, this is Stevenson. Come in, over." the park ranger called.

"Let me guess. Valentina disobeyed again." Peyton told him

With that, Peyton and a US Marine went inside the paddock, where they saw Rexy licking Valentina. The little girl was giggling and rolling on the ground, which shocked Peyton and the US Marine. Peyton chambered her M4A1, shouldered it and fired at Rexy. The dinosaur quickly got angry and charged at Peyton, but the teen and the serviceman dodged the dinosaur and ran to the door. Realizing the T-Rex didn't want to eat them, Peyton changed her strategy and let out a tranquilizer rifle, chambered carfentanil siringe in the barrel and fired it at the dinosaur, sedating it on the spot. The teen then rushed to her cousin, picked her up as well as Arya and Ygrid, and ran out of the paddock before the dinosaur woke up.

Once out of Paddock 9, Owen gave a look of reproach to his niece, who was still giggling. Peyton put her on the ground and gave her an angry look. The teen then let out her cell phone and turned it on.

"What awe you doing?" Valentina asked with fear.

"Calling Child Service. To convince them to cancel your parents' will." Peyton said.

"Pwease, don't. I am going to change fow the bettew, I pwomise!" Valentina pleeded with tears in her eyes.

But Peyton wasn't listening, as she stubbornly called Adalyn Walker for information.

"Adalyn Walker." she said.

"Peyton Grady. Look I would like to ask for info." Peyton told Adalyn

"Anything you want to know." Adalyn replied.

"Is it considered child abuse to yell at a disobbedient 3-year-old spoiled kid while scolding said kid, which has been the case thrice?" Peyton asked.

"No. Provided he or she has messed up with socially acceptable rules." Adalyn replied, knowing what she was talking about.

"Thanks. Because Valentina Grady has been spoiled by her parents." Peyton said.

"I didn't expect that. Thanks for calling anyway. I don't promise to be successful in giving the custody to somebody else." Adalyn told the teenager.

"Thanks. Goodbye." Peyton told.

"Thanks. And goodbye." Adalyn replied before ending the call./

Peyton then watched her father and nodded to him, making him understand the Child Service would try to get the custody of Valentina from them, yet didn't promise anything./

Peyton then turned to her crying cousin and began pinching the toddler's cheeks to force her to look at her in the eyes. Nobody reacted, as they knew none of this behavior was child abuse, in modern standarts at least.

"LISTEN TO ME, YOU SCUMBAG. YOU'RE GROUNDED FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. NO FUCKING TOY, NO FUCKING GAME, NO FUCKING TV, NO FUCKING COMPUTER, NO FUCKING SLEEPOVER, NO FUCKING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS, NO FUCKING BIRTHDAY AND NO FUCKING DESSERT FOR TWENTY FUCKING DAYS." Peyton yelled at her cousin, who began crying.

"YOU'WE SO MEAN! I JUST WANTED TO PWAY WITH NEW DINOSAUWS. THEY AWE MY FWIENDS AND I WANT TO GO IN THEIW PADDOCK. I ALSO WANT TO PET THE BABY DINOSAUWS. THEY WEWE SO CUTE!" Valentina screamed crying and punching the ground with her fists and feet, revealing she was a really spoiled brat.

"The more I punished her, the more she plays with my nerves. Uncle Matt missed a fucking notion named putting limits." Peyton told her father.

Owen nodded to his daughter, agreeing with her about his own brother's laxity. Owen knew his brother didn't hesitate to humiliate other people when they were in high school. Matt was Mr. Bully while Owen was Mr. Tolerant, which triggered arguments between the two of them. When Peyton was born, Matt began humiliating Owen about his service, and humiliating Peyton herself. The few times Owen and his daughter visited Matt, it always ended up with Matt idolizing the Vietcong army and Heinrich Himmler's Waffen-SS troops. While Owen was their parents' favorite son, Matt would always pull some cruel prank against every neighbors, leading said neighbors, as well as Geoff and Candace Grady, to punish him severely. All this as Owen was always willing to help out the neighborhood in which he lived.

Peyton, on the other hand, was much more like her father in her behavior and individual core values. Valentina was just as spoiled as her father was mean.

After a ride in the monorail with Peyton as a guide, Tim, his men and Owen arrived at the Gyrosphere Valley. Once there, Tim deployed a flare and a KC-130J plane dropped out two big plates with a M1151 Humvee on each of them and several crates before going back to base. The paradropped vehicles and crates landed next to the US Marines, who unstrappedthe vehicles and opened the crates. Tim and his men folded the parachutes, let out several .50 caliber ammunition boxes, which they stored in their Humvees, and two Browning M2 machine guns on the top of the M1151 Humvees. Lex then came into view and called her brother out.

"Hey, bro. The ACU told me the park was perfectly safe, as I thought. And Hamada agreed for your two Humvees to be airdropped with everything you packed.

"Thanks, sis." Tim yelled.

Then, Peyton and four of Tim's men mounted the first Humvee while Tim and his remaining mounted the second one. The two-vehicle column then headed towards the new building site while Owen drove the family Chevy Suburban with Lex and Valentina aboard behind and Wu drove his own jeep towards the same area.

At the new building site, Peyton, Tim and his men dismounted their Humvees and saw Hamada discussing with Claire about the height of the walls when Owen and Wu parked their vehicles.

"No need to discuss. We have every info we need." Owen told.

With that, Wu and him put their notes on the workbench, allowing the ACU and construction workers to know the dimensions of the Paddock 11. Claire then gratefully nodded to Peyton, who nodded smiling before mounting the Humvee, as did Tim and his men. Peyton then took lead and drove straight to Main Street, like Owen and Wu, with Valentina sitting in the babychair in Owen's car.

Once in Main Street, Peyton, Tim and his men saw Peyton's friends at the Tylosaurus Arena and dismounted their Humvees, which they parked with the other staff vehicles. After going with Peyton's friends in the attraction, Peyton saw her father carrying Valentina on his shoulders, preventing her from running away.

As the feeding show began, Peyton, Tim and his men were at one end of the bleachers while Owen was with his niece at the other end of the bleachers.

As the spectators were amazed by the feeding show, Valentina was litteraly jumping on her uncle's shoulders, but the latter just didn't say anything. After the bleachers were lowered Peyton, Tim, his men and Peyton's friends quickly got out of the exhibit, as they didn't want to see any dinosaur for the day. Valentina was over-excited.

"Uncle Owen, may I swim with the sea dinosauw. Pwease, say 'yes'. Uncle Owen, pwease, give me the authowizazion." Valentina pleedingly asked her uncle.

"No." Owen told his niece, who began to cry.

"Whewe awe we going?" the little girl pleeded.

"The lab." Owen dryly answered.

With that said, Owen walked towards the lab while the Tylosaurus looked at Valentina with curiosity. Valentina who was now crying after one more refusal. Owen then answered his ringing phone.

"Hello?"

"This is Adalyn Walker. Bad news is I couldn't convince my colleagues of allowing you to give custody of your niece to someone else. You will have to raise her as you did with your daughter." Adalyn announced.

"Thanks." Owen told.

"No problem, bye." Adalyn said before ending the call.

With that, a frustrated Owen carried his niece to the lab, where they would rendez-vous with Peyton, Tim and his men. There, Owen will ask for explanations from Wu about his niece's behavior with dinosaurs. But for now, he also knew his niece will be punished for her spoiled brat attitude.