CHAPTER TEN Page | 7
Title: Project: More Teeth
Author: Divine Dark Angel
Summary: If the I-rex had been prevented from killing her sibling, if someone had stepped in and stopped I-Gen and the people of Jurassic World from isolating them and had gotten them properly socialized, if they had been trained to know what they are…how would life be different for the I-rex sisters and the rest of the park?
Rating: M for mentions of death and a mature relationship.
Pairing: Owen/Claire, Oc/Katashi Hamada
Disclaimer: All characters that you recognize belong to and are copywrite of Universal. The recognizable plot items and other such things are also copyrighted to Universal. I am simply playing in the rich world they have created for us.
Emma was trying really hard to not let her emotions overflow onto her training, but the meeting with her family had gone about as well as a trip to Disney with six children under ten. Unable to focus on any of the tasks in front of her, she snatched the girls harnesses off the wall and whistled for them. Seeing the harnesses Nefret bounded forward, eager to get into her harness and go on a trip. Nefretari, on the other hand, hovered near the door to the paddock not enjoying the restraint of the harness. Emma had to coax her over with a tidbit from her training pouch, slipping the harness over her head and around her belly before she finished her treat. Nefretari's face showed she was not amused, pulling against the chain leash instantly.
Emma grabbed her keys and phone, snapping it and the leads onto the holsters on her belt as she made her way to the interior door. Training the girls to wait as she navigated the doors had been slow work, the older they got the more independent they got and the more likely they were to try and explore on their own. Tugging the leads, she urged the two to come into the connecting hall, shutting the door once they were through. It was getting to be a snug fit, since the two were now about the size of Dobermans. Emma was understandably concerned, since the t-rex growth chart indicated that they were growing much more rapidly than projected.
Shaking her head to clear the thought, Emma waved to Jenkins as she emerged out into the alley between paddocks. Jenkins waved back, his grin infectious, "Going for a run with the terrible two?"
"I'm not getting anything else done. Can't focus and I'm bleeding tension all over 'em, thought a run would help." Emma cocked her head to the side, "My usual route clear? Do I need to take the alternate?"
"Hold up, let me check," Jenkins gripped his radio, "Raptor One? This is IRex, come in Raptor One."
A faint crackle of static came over the radio before a familiar voice replied, "IRex this is Raptor one. What is your status?"
"Raptor One, IRex stat is green. Momma Rex wants to take Thing One and Two on a run. Clearance on route?"
"IRex, route is clear. Tell Momma Rex that she can take the long way and swing by should she want. Alpha wants to speak with her about training logs."
Jenkins raised an eyebrow at Emma's sheepish expression, "Trainer McGovern! You've been neglecting those really important logs? How dare you!"
"Shove off Jenkins, you know I hate those things. It's just a bunch of checkboxes and number sliders anyway, I could just Xerox them and they'd never know." Emma pulled her ear and winked, "Maybe I'll just do that. You won't tell, right?"
Jenkins reply was cut short by the radio crackling back to life, a different voice snarking, "Hey Momma Rex!"
Jenkins calmly held out the radio, unwilling to get in the middle of the argument about to ensue. Emma took it with a grin, "Momma Rex here, how can I help you Owen?"
"No fair Emma! You're supposed to call me Alpha! That's the whole point of call signs!"
"I absolutely refuse to call you Alpha, Grady. Pick a different name if you want me to use it. What do you want, I'm about to head out with the girls."
"Are you coming by here? I want to test something out while those beasts are still small enough to control."
"Yeah, we can make it. Might need a lift back Commander."
There was a squawking as the other radio was presumably taken away from Owen and Katashi's voice came over, "Roger that Momma Rex, Raptor One out."
Emma handed Jenkins his radio back and turned to stretch. The girls sometimes mirrored her, stretching out broadside next to her as she stretched her quads, but today they just tugged impatiently at the lead. When she got to her feet, Nefret tugged hard enough the Emma was forced to reprimand her.
Once she was certain of her control, Emma waved to Jenkins and took the lead down the left side of the paddock wall. The girls flanked her, one on each side as they ran on their hind legs. When they ran with Emma the girls stayed on their hind legs, pacing her and staying slightly behind her in a small v. Emma observed the same behavior in the raptors, enforcing her belief that whatever else Wu had mixed into their genes…. the girls had raptor in them. While that should terrify her, Emma was a little relieved. Owen trained the raptors every day and having his experience with them had vastly improved her training once she incorporated his knowledge into her own program.
Emma quickly had no more room in her thoughts for anything but keeping pace with her girls. If they felt she was slacking they would usually bump her with their snouts, and she'd felt both of them in the last few minutes. Picking up a faster pace, Emma was forced to concede that the girls were getting nearly too fast to continue running with. On all fours, she knew she would never match them, and she was grateful that for whatever reason they continued to be bipedal when they ran with her. If she was more sentimental she would attribute it to affection, but she was still unsure how much the girls felt emotionally. Mammals, she knew, formed pack-bonds with those close to them. Reptiles did not.
When the raptor training compound came into view, Emma was relieved. The pace the girls were forcing her to adopt was grueling and she felt the sweat from the exertion and the humidity running down her back. Seeing the guys standing out in front of the observation tower platform, Emma lifted a hand to wave and was yanked off her feet as the girls slid to a dead stop behind her. The resulting force on her belt pulled her stride off and sent her tumbling into the soft tropical dirt. Emma grimaced as she felt the stuff adhere to her sweat drenched skin, already mentally breaking out in hives at the thought of scrubbing it off.
Flopping over on her back, she observed the crouched behavior of her girls. They were at the farthest point the leads would allow, talons in the dirt and snouts low. The third eyelid had slid over to protect their eyes, and the nearly foot and a half long tail swept behind them in slow motion. Huffing, Emma got back to her feet and started trying to knock the dirt off her clothes. Her back to the compound, she put her hands on her hips and studied her charges for a few more moments before giving the up command. Nefretari twitched all over, like she was going to resist before she got to her feet and came to lean against Emma's leg. Nefret remained crouched in the dirt, barely lifting her head to glance up at her mother.
Startled by this behavior she glanced around to see if she could figure out what was causing the girls behavior. Seeing Owen and Katashi approaching at a mild jog Emma waved them down, unwilling to have more players enter the game until she figured out the rules. The wind shifted, blowing Emma's short hair into her eyes. Crouching down in front of Nefret she gently took the juveniles jaw in her hand and tilted it up to force her to meet her eyes. It took a few moments for the membrane to slide back and her child's bright amber eyes to clearly meet Emma's concerned gaze. Nefret made an inquisitive whistle, bumping her nose into her mother's, and Emma watched her a few more moments before getting up.
Thinking how strange the whole incident was, Emma waved the guys over. Owen jogged up next to her and whistled a greeting to the girls. They whistled back, clambering over each other to bump heads into his thighs. Their chirrups and whistle-clicks sounded so much like his girls that Owen cold usually decipher how they felt and right now the noises they were making were unsettled. Owen glanced up to meet Emma's gaze and they had a moment of perfect communication while Katashi came within reach.
Emma switched her gaze over to her partner, the concern apparent. Katashi glanced over her and the girls but found nothing obviously wrong with them. Emma's sweat streaked through the covering of dirt that she had accumulated but he found no injuries on her to suggest that the girls were protecting.
"Emma, what has happened? We saw you coming up the path and then it looked like you tripped, however I see nothing in the path to have caused this. Is something wrong with the little ones? A squabble perhaps?" Katashi's deep voice was warm with concern as he stepped forward to run his hands over her quickly checking for injury.
Emma waved him away, "I'm fine sugar, the girls just brake checked me hard coming up the hill. I dunno what set them off, maybe they caught wind of your girls Owen? Are they up in containment today?"
"Nah, I asked you to come up so I sent them off into the big paddock. I think it would be a disaster at this point in both programs to introduce them. My girls are just hitting the middle of puberty, and yours are too big for them to treat as hatchlings. They're growing too fast, aren't they? T-rex hit this size at almost a year and half, and your girls aren't even a year yet…"
"I thought the same thing. At two years Rexy was about the size of a golden retriever according to the files. It took her nearly ten years to achieve her adult size, and she grew another five after that before she finished. There two are already nearly the size she was at only seven months old. The fucktard in the lab must have accelerated their growth cycles." Emma let out a low growl, echoed by the predators at her feet. She set a hand on each head, stroking her charges until their eyes half-lidded, "I think we need to take growth measurements away from the main lab and keep our data a secret. I don't want them to push these two to reach maximum size in minimum time, and I think they'll try if they have any idea how fast they grow."
"I think you're probably right. They lost the entire clutch of the new hybrids, did I tell you? The males had a faulty gene sequence carried on the Y-chromosome that killed them in the egg. Wu was ranting about it all morning before the trainer's meeting…. that you missed again, by the way."
"I was in no mood to put up with those bumbling idiots this morning. I couldn't get away from the twins anyway, they tracked me around the house all day. I think there's a storm coming in again." Emma glanced up at the crystal clear blue sky, seeing nothing that should cause an issue. "I still think they can sense the barometric pressure drop."
"I don't know Emma, maybe they just know the schedule and when you're going to be leaving? My dog used to do that when I was a kid." Owen shrugged, "I have all the equipment here to run the tests, we can't exactly run the raptor's up to the main compound so everything we need is here. We even have a full lab and imaging room if we need that at some point."
"This is a good idea, but we must be careful. Perhaps we should involve one of the executives? Ms. Claire seems to be a reasonable woman, should you explain to her the concerns you have about the health of the asset I am sure that she will approve." Katashi broke into the conversation, standing from the crouch he had assumed to check out the girls. "I see nothing of concern with the little ones."
"Let's get them into the compound and get baseline information on them…" Owen trailed off as Nefret shoved him hard with her snout, pushing in front of him to crouch down on all fours. Her tail swept behind her to push him further towards Emma, shoving at him until he moved to stand behind her. Nefretari charged up to stand next to her sister, osteoderms bristling and lips pulled back to expose her large teeth as she dug her claws into the dirt. Her tail too shoved at Katashi until he moved behind Emma. This positioning formed an inverted V with the girls in front and the guys flanking Emma as the anchor point. The two predators tracked a distant figure as he crossed the ally from the compound, sauntering down the path towards where the group waited.
"Owen, who's that?" Emma gripped the leads further down towards the harnesses in preparation of the girls lurching forward to attack. It hadn't happened since they were young, firm training to see humans as 'pack' preventing most aggressive movements. There were slip-ups of course, but most of them were contained and resulted in only minor injuries. A large safety poster outside the entry to paddock six as well as a class for everyone who would be involved in the care of the sisters had resolved the remaining issues.
The approaching figure was ignoring all of the safety protocols, sauntering up with an aggressive swagger and not waiting for Emma's permission to approach. Emma hesitated to give the all-clear whistle, since she felt uneasy herself. She felt Katashi reaching around to anchor Nefret, leaving her free to switch all her resources to holding Nefretari. The figure resolved himself into a man, large framed and someone that Emma did not recognize. His I-Gen cap and polo shirt over khakis gave him away as not being part of the park staff, since they all wore the JW logo.
"Fuck! I forgot he was coming today! That fucker is Vic Hoskins, part of a team sent to monitor the IBRIS project. Constantly up my ass about SITREP reports on the girls, how many commands they've learned, applications for combat…" Owen's face tightened, "Like I'd ever agree to letting them put my girls on a battlefield. It wouldn't be safe for them or for our people. I can't believe I forgot he was gonna be here today."
"Katashi, you got her? I'm not getting a good vibe off this guy…" Emma trailed off as Vic strolled right up within striking distance and all of her energy was diverted to sinking her weight back and pulling as both girls lunged towards the man, hissing and scrabbling with their claws.
"Goddamnit Hoskins! Back the fuck up! Don't run you fucking idiot, they're fucking predators!" Owen's voice was harsh but calm, gripping Emma's waist to try and brace her against the jerking. The man was pale under his tan, his hands up as he scrambled back out of the strike zone.
Emma's voice was calm and firm as she commanded the girls into the down position, not allowing them to grumble against her commands. The girls hissed as they crouched down on all fours, third eyelid back in place, and tails lashing behind them. Emma hissed in through her teeth as Nefretari's tail impacted her bare calf, certain that bruises would follow. "Mr. Hoskins, be very still. Stop moving. Stop staring at them. Drop your eyes and look away, put your hands down by your sides and be perfectly still."
"Ms. McGovern…." He tried to speak and she cut him off savagely.
"You don't get to speak. You get to stand there and watch me try and prevent these two apex predators from ripping your goddamn throat out." Emma's soft tone didn't match her words, and she crouched to stroke the girls from crown to the middle of their backs. She hummed to them, the soothing sound she's used since they hatched. Slowly she watched as they relaxed, but remained crouched with their eyes covered. "Mr. Hoskins, you're going to leave now. You're going to back away about thirty feet, and then you are going to turn and go back into the compound. You are not going to come back out here until we're gone. You will not try and contact me ever again. I don't even want to see you again until you've studied up on the I-Rex protocols. I will not lose either of these creatures because you were so fucking stupid that you came strolling up to them with no fucking clue how to approach them. Director Mazrani will be informed of this and he will not be happy." Emma never lost the calming tone in her voice, her hands rubbing over the girls slowly. "You are dismissed Mr. Hoskins."
Vic did as he was told, the large white predators watching him with focus he could feel on the back of his neck all the way to the compound. Pulling out his cell phone he called Henry, "Doc, we have a problem. The I-Rex females know."
