I hope you all enjoy this one!
Disclaimer: I do not own Jurassic Park/World. All OC's belong to Macx except for Kavita and the ARU guys.
They met the men Masrani sent by the Mosa enclosure. They were a team of men, well-armed and clearly equally well trained.
"Dan Carter," Carter said, "Head of security."
"I've heard of you," said the leader of the group of men. He appeared to be in his early forties. He was slimmer than Dan, but well built and his eyes were intelligent but friendly. "I'm the head of ARU. Masrani thought you all could use some back up and luckily we were close enough to get here quickly."
"ARU?" asked Claire. "What the hell is ARU?"
"Asset Recapture Unit," the man replied.
"What the hell is that?" asked Owen, speaking up for the first time. Something about the man niggled at his brain. He looked familiar.
"You've had mercenaries taking dinosaurs of Sorna and selling them right?" said the man, "Well ARU recaptures them from where they've been sent and returns them to Sorna. Masrani instituted us soon after the incident you guys had here."
"Why didn't he tell us?" asked Claire.
The man shrugged. "How should I know? But we're here to help. We heard you all have dinosaurs roaming around. ACU is trained with containment not capture. We are. We'd be happy to lend our expertise."
There was silence as Carter contemplated and then he said, "Fine. But I still didn't catch your name."
"Billy?!" A surprised voice echoed across the boulevard. Owen turned to see Kavita who was being led off by some of Carter's men, probably to somewhere where she'd be safe and under their watch. She's was little cleaner than before and Owen surmised she'd probably spent some time in the bathroom, cleaning up a little which was why they were only now leaving the building.
Owen's head swiveled back to the man, Billy, apparently only to see his face in pleasant surprise.
"Kavita?" Billy said.
Across from them, Kavita shrugged off her captors' arms and headed over to the group.
"I take it you know each other?" Carter said.
"Yes," said Billy, "Kavita ran with ARU for a few months."
"Well that explains some things," Owen murmurs. Billy cocked an eyebrow at him but turned his attention to Kavita who came up to them.
"What are you doing here sir?" she asked.
"Orders to help up." He eyed her up and down. "You look like you've been in trouble."
"Yeah well, trouble finds me," Kavita said simply. She stance had settled into something more soldierly and Owen remembered that smooth graceful movement on the first day, when Blue snorted at her, the way she parkoured up the walls to bat away the grenade and how comfortable she was with his rifle.
"So you're a soldier," he said.
"Hardly," she said, "I was an intern there too."
"So Billy's the name?" Carter interrupted.
"Billy Brennen," said the man and Owen felt his eyebrows sky up in surprise. So that's why the man had looked familiar. Billy Brennen, Dr. Grant's young assistant who'd gone with his on his trip to Isla Sorna. So this is what had become of him.
"I thought you were a paleontologist," he said.
"I am," Billy said, "A man can't have multiple talents? But as much as I enjoy the small talk, we have work to do." He turned to Carter. "Shall we?"
After a moment, Carter nodded. "This way."
They all crowded into one of ACU's briefing rooms, Kavita included since Billy had wanted her along. Carter briefly outlines the situation, and Billy absorbs it thoughtfully and then turns to Kavita.
"What's it like out there KRM?"
"Little hectic, nothing we can't handle. But the raptors are moving fast. If we and Owen want to catch up to them we'll need to fly in for a bit, put down maybe a mile or two out and run the rest."
Cleair pulls up a map and they point out where the parks dinosaurs are, where there've been sightings of other dinosaurs and the attacks on the attractions. Most of the attraction attacks have been quelled but everyone is still on tenderhooks. There could be other people hiding among the civilians.
ACU is already trialing the dinosaurs they've spotted but of course they have no idea how many are released and how many can be released again.
"Sir," said another one of Billy's team. He'd spent the entirety of the briefing looking like he'd spaced out and was viewing different galaxies. "New development."
"What?" said Billiy, head snapping up sharply. Owen's eyes narrowed. The guy tapped a spot on the map.
"This is where Grady's raptors are supposed to be around right?"
"Yeah," says Owen, worry filling him. He should be out there, with his girls. He itches to be near them.
"Well, I'm getting a similar fauna signature in two spots, here and here." He tapped two spots on the map. "Packs of six each I'd say."
"You're a preternatural?" Claire asks in surprise.
"How are you…?" Owen begins but the guy shook his head.
"Not like you," he said, "You sense animals, I sense plants. Fauna are like little holes in the sensory net formed from the foliage."
Owen blinked. "What?" said the soldier. "It's not any stranger than what you do."
"Right," says Carter. "Plant sensing later. Are you sure it's raptors out there?"
"Yup," said the guy. "Felt 'em before. And I think Grady's pack will be heading for them soon. Just as soon as they take care of this little blotch of fauna here. A group of small things, maybe more compys." He shrugs. "They feel like compys but they also feel like chickens so who knows?"
Owen turns to Carter. "I'm not letting my girls go up against another pack, two packs, without me there.I'm their alpha." He glances at Billy. "We'll need that chopper."
Billy nods. "You take care of one pack. We'll take care of the second. It's not the first time we've tangled with raptors before." He turns to KRM. "You up for an RBR?"
"Get me a couple of energy bars and I will be sir," she says, nodding.
"Good," said Billy. "Gear up. Raylan, Jeremy, you're with her."
"What the hell's an RBR?" Carter interrupts.
"Raptor Bait Run," Billy says and sends the room into silence.
While the rest of the room is recovering form that statement he calmly uses his comm to call for the helicopter.
"You're sending them out there as bait?" Owen asks incredulously.
"You need bait for an ambush," says Billy shrugging.
"That's unacceptable," Claire said sharply. They all know what raptors are capable of.
"Let us do our job, Ms Dearing," Billy says. "We are actually good at it. And frankly we can't waste any more time arguing. If you don't mind," he says to Carter, "We could use ACU's help for the actual ambushing part."
When Carter and Owen both open their mouths to protest, Raylan speaks up. "Contrary to what it looks like, we're not suicidal. We've done this maneuver before. So can we get moving please?"
Owen lets out a harsh breath while Carter looks mutinous. Owen wants to argue. He does. But his girls are out there and the longer he argues, the closer to danger they're getting.
"Fine," he says sharply. "I think we can all trust each other to do our jobs." Carter glances and him and Owen lets him know that he isn't going to take anymore setbacks. Carter nods after a moment and then gives a firmer nod to Billy. The ARU guys file out to begin prepping and Owen goes to secure his own set of gear.
When he returns outside, it's to find Kavita, also geared up in a tac vest, complete with her own rifle and knifes. She has an energy bar held between her teeth as she puts on some sort of high tech looking boot. The boots come up to above her knees and they're sleek, tough things, almost completely metallic and he sees some kind of tiny lights surrounding the heels and soles before they wink out of existence. Beside her, Raylan and Jeremy are both putting on the same kind of boots.
"What are those?" he asks frowning.
"Something Masrani's R&D department cooked up for ARU."
"Wanna give me a little more explanation?" Owen says. He's feeling pretty miffed between his intern and Simon, both not giving him all the details about Kavita. Kavita Cleary picks up on his tone.
"Raptors can turn on a dime," she said, "We can't, not without breaking ankles and knees. These boots give us a little more suport, leverage and push so that we can."
"Why just the three of you?" asked Owen. "I have to ask If you've tangled with raptors before, you know you're going to need more than three people. And why you? You were just an intern."
"And she's not the fastest runner out there either," Billy interrupts. He had approached them almost soundlessly. "But speed isn't the only essential thing in an RBR. Sometimes it can be the least. You need a team that can coordinate on the fly. Who can work together without speaking and make snap decisions together. These three are our best team when it comes to coordination."
"As for your other questions," said Kavita, grinning at him. "Remember the boomerangs?"
Owen blinks at here before remembering the boomerangs she had thrown into the cage. The ones that had best Blue and the others for a few tries.
"What does…." He freezes. Kavita gives him a knowing smile. "You're the boomerangs," he said slowly. "You're going to be human boomerangs. You'll coordinate the pack against each other."
"Just so," nods Kavita.
"You'll be cutting it close," Owen says.
"Understatement of the century," Jeremy grumbled softly. But in a few more moments they're all ready and the helicopter is setting down in the boardwalk.
Owen strides into it without hesitation. He's been too long without his girls.
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