Indigo: Several Blackhawks were powering up their engines as armed workers swarmed onto them. As they did, Grant, Billy, Jake, Gerry, Danni, Stephanie, Henry, and the dinosaur moved across the airfield as the winds buffeted them.
"Never imagined I'd be going back to Nublar after all these years!" shouted Grant over the helicopter rotors.
"Hey I'm just excited to be going in the first place!" responded Billy excited.
"Yeah well there's not much left there; Ingen basically cleared the place out when Site B unfortunately went south," shouted Henry. The group leapt onto one of the choppers, but Jake didn't follow suit.
"Have fun Henry," said Jake.
"You're not coming with us?" asked Grant confused.
"Yeah if I thought anyone would want to see this to the end it'd be you and Henry," said Billy.
"Unfortunately that island has too many bad memories for me," said Jake with a lighthearted smile. "Good luck though let me know how it turns out."
The others nodded and Stephanie looked at him sadly as Jake looked at her with sadness in his eyes for his lost friend, Jeffrey whom the raptors had killed in what seemed like a lifetime ago. A tapping on his shoulder caused him to turn around.
"Yes?" he asked as a fist came flying out of nowhere knocking him unconscious.
Later: Jake groggily held his head as he came to with a mild headache. Looking up he saw the ceiling of the helicopter bay and sunlight flooding in from the opened bay.
"Hey," said Stephanie appearing above him and giving him a smile. Looking past her, Jake saw land and several workers in the distance fanning out amongst the trees.
"Please tell me I'm not on Nublar," he said.
"Fraid so," said Stephanie sympathetically.
"Shit," said Jake struggling to sit up as Stephanie helped him as best she could. "How the hell did I wind up here?"
"That raptor gave you one hell of a punch," said Stephanie. "And then it pushed you onto the helicopter and practically threatened to kill us if we didn't take you with us."
"I should've shot it when I had the chance," Jake stated with regret for not having done so.
"Well you won't get your chance anytime soon, it took off right after we landed," said the former secretary.
"Probably to reveal our location to his fellow henchdinos," said Jake swinging his legs over the side of the helicopter and standing up finally on Nublar's surface.
"Doubtful, we've been here for a few hours and so far nothing," said Stephanie. "But they're out there…somewhere."
"If you say so," responded Jake as he stumbled away from the helicopter. "God I hate this island."
"More than Sorna?" asked Stephanie doubtful.
"More than Sorna," Jake confirmed. "If this island had been full of tourists…"
"So where are, were, we?" asked Stephanie.
"Jurassic Park," responded Jake giving himself an opportunity to laugh while he still had the chance.
"I meant-," began Stephanie.
"Well how should I know, I'm not a GPS," Jake said. "We could be anywhere I don't remember this place as well as I do Sorna, especially with no landmarks to give me a point of reference."
"Yeah they sure cleaned this place out," Stephanie agreed looking around. "Dinosaurs, buildings, fences, roads, all gone."
"Just as it should be," Jake stated as he walked off towards where he spotted Henry. "Better no one really know of our catastrophic failure here on this island. This island had so much potential…"
Stephanie put her hand on his shoulder in sympathy before Jake shook it off, all business.
"Hey Jake," said Henry as the two approached. "Sorry about you being here."
"It's not your fault," said Jake cracking his neck. "So what've you been up to?"
"Well John actually planned to survey this island first when he and the others finished up with that cruise liner so we're just following his plan," responded the scientist as he produced a small map of the island with various dots on it indicating where the various choppers had landed.
"Standard search patterns," said Henry. "Whatever the hell that means."
"I wish I had my car," Jake said with regret. "How're things on Sorna?"
"The same," answered Henry. "Which is how it should be I mean we had those plans drawn up months in advance."
Jake nodded but otherwise remained silent as he took the map from Henry and they headed off into the trees.
Nearby: "Oh do I remember this tree," Grant commented as he looked at an old dried tree on the ground, with a sloping hill behind them. "I was nearly killed by stampeding Galimimuses and then a Tyrannosaurus which came from out of nowhere to attack them."
"Wow," said Billy. He'd heard these stories before in the past, but to be where it actually happened was a whole other experience. He snapped some photos with his camera to remember the whole event.
"Billy?" asked Doctor Grant as he rested on the tree and tipped back his hat. "What do you make of all this?"
Billy whistled. "Well Jurassic Park was quite the entrepreneur's dream back in its day. That it went so badly is…"
"I meant about the whole 'super-smart dino' deal," responded Grant. "Jurassic Park is its own can of worms that I'd rather not open right now."
"Scary," was all Billy could come up with. "I mean we had enough problems with the 'normal' raptors back on Sorna, if these have had their intelligences ramped up then they could either be more intelligent or more ferocious or both."
"Did you ever read The Island of Doctor Moreau?" asked Grant curious.
"Well I saw the movie," offered Billy lamely. "The Marlon Brando one."
"Then that will be your reading assignment if we make it back from this, read the book," ordered Grant.
"Okay," Billy agreed. "So why'd you come back?"
"Had to," was all Grant could come up with that he could put into words. "I had to come back just as much as they had to come back to Sorna. Unless you were on these islands when it happened, you just couldn't understand. I mean you came close with Sorna but…not as much as we did. We were totally unprepared for what happened and barely made it out alive, for those of us who made it out alive at all. I had to come back here, for their sakes as much as my own."
Billy nodded before something caught his eye. "Movement."
Grant spun around the two ducked behind the tree as two green blurs streaked across the meadow.
"Radio them," Grant whispered. Billy took out his radio and flipped it on.
"We've spotted something at the meadow," he said into it.
"On our way," came the response. Grant took out his binoculars and looked through them at the two objects. "Deinonychosaurs and an Oviraptor…on second thought, make that a Chiapati."
"All bipedal intelligent carnivores anyway," Billy observed dryly. "How fortunate for us."
Various workers appeared and set up high powered rifles on the tree and aimed them at the dinosaurs as Jake and Henry squatted down on either side of them.
"Yeah there they are," said Henry. Abruptly their radios crackled to life.
"Henry, Jake, I was hoping you would come," came Graves voice over the radio. Henry and Jake looked at each other unsure as to how to respond to that.
"Hello Gustavius," was all Jake could come up with.
"No doubt you've seen my specimens, what do you think?" asked Graves evidently curious.
"They're exactly what Jake and I feared they'd be," answered Henry on that one.
"They're the most unique specimens to walk this Earth. The combined intelligence of a homo sapien with the instincts of a dinosaur makes them the only ones of their kind," Graves continued.
"Didn't our last talk here mean anything to you?" said Henry upset. "You said you'd think about it!"
"Anyway, I hope you're impressed with the results let me know wha-…," began Graves and then the whole transmission erupted into static. Jake hit his radio a couple of times before giving up.
"So what do we do now?" asked Grant still looking at the two dinosaurs just standing in the meadow oblivious to them.
"Saddle up, lock and load," said Danni.
"No, we can't," said Jake surprising them all as Henry nodded in approval. "Not until we talk to Graves first."
"Yes because they're just the puppets, it's the puppet master who is pulling the strings that we need to…stop," said Henry slightly downtrodden at that prospect.
"C'mon let's go," said Jake moving away from the tree. The others reluctantly followed suit and soon they were walking away from the dinosaurs. After a few moments, the groups filtered off with the regular workers swarming about looking for the dinosaurs. Stephanie and Danni began chatting amongst themselves as Grant pointed out various locales to Billy, while Henry and Jake were bringing up the rear. Both had a single thought raging in their heads before they both finally came out with it.
"Did anything about that radio call seem odd to you?" they both asked the other. Then both remained silent at that unsure where else to go with it. They both continued debating the subject on their minds when a low growl caught their attentions. Turning slightly, each scared that the two dinosaurs from earlier had caught up to them unawares. But to their slight relief it was just the Velociraptor from earlier. It was poking its head past the tree line looking straight at them. Henry and Jake looked at it expectantly as the Raptor looked at the rest of the group getting farther away from them, oblivious to Jake, Henry, and the dinosaur's presence. It then jerked its head backwards to indicate they should follow it. The two scientists looked reluctantly at the rest of the group and then at each other and nodded before following the Raptor into the trees. Up ahead, Stephanie watched them go out of the corner of her eye.
"Be safe you two," she said as her eyes began swelling up with tears.
"What?" asked Danni confused having not really heard her.
"Nothing," said Stephanie faking a smile. "So when did you first meet up with those two…"
Sorna, 14 years ago: Jake was reading through his notes on a problem that had been popping up more and more recently amongst the carnivores that had simply been labeled: The DX Virus. Leaning back in his chair Jake propped his feet up on his desk as he twirled his pen in his hand. The virus had been plaguing him for awhile now and he really needed Henry's help on this one. The problem was that with Jurassic Park nearly operational, Henry was needed more and more on that island to ensure that everything went along smoothly. Ordinarily Jake could just travel to Nublar and they could discuss it there, but things had changed. Jeffrey had died trying to get that Velociraptor into its pit and it was all Jake's fault. He had found the amber specimen that had cloned that creature, he had perfected the technique to allow it to be created from a simple blood sample, and he had gotten Jeffrey the job on Nublar in the first place. That was why he couldn't go back there, he couldn't face that guilt. And so he was left to work alone with little outside contact with anybody. Finally sighing to himself he picked up his phone and dialed a number on it.
"Hello," came the response on the other end.
"Hey Henry, what's up?" asked Jake into it.
"Not much," confessed the scientist. "This place has been a madhouse because Hammond's trying to make sure everything's in order when our guests arrive."
"Yeah I heard," said Jake. "Listen what're you doing this weekend?"
"I already told you," answered Henry.
"I meant after that," said Jake. "When they're done with your part of the tour why don't you hop on over here for the rest of the weekend?"
"I don't know," said Henry unsure.
"Ah c'mon, it'll be like old times," said Jake. "Besides, everyone else is leaving during the crew shift so it's not like you'll have anyone to talk to, especially after that tropical storm hits."
"Oh alright," Henry relented. "I mean what's the worst that could happen if I'm gone for one weekend out of the year?"
Nublar, present: Henry brushed aside a fern revealing a dilapidated old building hidden amongst the trees.
"Thar she blows," said the scientist as Jake emerged right behind him and looked at the thing.
"I still don't know how he got that thing built out here without anyone knowing about it," stated Jake.
"I guess we'll just have to ask him," said Henry anticipating their encounter with Dr. Graves and secretly dreading it.
"Yeah," said Jake as if harboring a deep secret that only he himself knew.
"Jake, what is it?" demanded Henry sharply as they reached the only dear leading to the inside.
"I think we both know what's beyond that door," answered Jake sadly.
"Jake you can't beat yourself up over everything that's happened on these islands, it's not healthy!" shouted Henry.
"I know that, but damnit Henry you were right!" said Jake frustrated. "You knew better than I did, we should have helped him and we should have done it sooner rather than later! But I couldn't see that until now and now…"
Jake brushed past Henry and yanked open the door and stepped inside. The inner room was dark with only minimal lighting from the occasional piece of technology that was still on. At the end of the room lay a darkened humanoid object flat on a table.
"…And now Graves is dead," said Jake as he flipped on the lights revealing Graves's corpse lying on a table in a serene position that belayed the fact that the lower half of his body was drenched in blood and had several gashes along it.
Elsewhere: "Where the hell did they go?" demanded Danni when she realized Jake and Henry were gone.
"They went where they had to," said Stephanie crossing her arms trying to remain strong despite feeling terrible for allowing them to leave without protest.
"They could be dead for all we know," said Danni. "Could you live with yourself for allowing that to happen?"
"I think we have bigger things to worry about right now," said Grant cutting in as he and Billy were quickly backing up towards them.
"Like what?" said Danni doubtful. Several carnivorous dinosaurs came flying out of the trees and landed nearby roaring at them.
"Like that," said Grant as he and Billy took off with Danni, Stephanie, and the other works as the dinosaurs chased after them.
Building: Jake and Henry stood over Graves' corpse that thanks to the ventilators still working did not smell as bad as it should for having been unattended for however many years. Or so Jake and Henry assumed, to otherwise assume that the dinosaurs had been looking over it, or eating it, was a probability both were too disgusted to consider.
"Oh Graves you poor bastard," said Jake shaking his head in pity. "You never stood a chance."
"I wonder how long it was between when we last saw him and when they killed him?" asked Henry. A roar broke their reverie as the Velociraptor behind them pointed its snout at a collection of video tapes. Henry and Jake looked at the beast before Henry took the seat in front of the tv/vcr combo sitting on the bench as Jake sat behind him on the bench on the opposite side next to some centrifuges and microscopes that were covered with a fine layer of dust.
"Do you want to see any of the day to day stuff?" asked Henry reading through the various labels.
"Not really I don't care how he did what he did, but why he did what he did," said Jake crossing his arms and leaning against the far wall.
"That's odd," said Henry pulling out a videotape and looking at the label.
"What?" asked Jake sitting back up.
"There's a tape addressed to us," said Henry showing him the label with both their names on it.
"Is there anything that isn't a dated entry that also isn't that?" asked Jake slightly desperate. "I'd rather play that last if at all possible."
Henry rooted through the rest of the tapes.
"Ah, here we go: mission statement," said Henry producing a tape. He popped it in and the television sprang to life. Doctor Graves was seen on the other end likely at the exact same place where Henry was now sitting.
"Hello gentlemen, I'm sure you're hearing this and are no doubt wondering who I am," said Graves. "Well I won't keep you in suspense much longer. My name is Doctor Gustavius Graves and these are my creations. They are the end result of months of labor on the Dinosaur Super-Intelligence Project or DSIP for short. This project combined the intelligence of a human being with the carnivorous instincts of a dinosaur."
"Why though?" demanded Henry of the image of Graves, but he couldn't respond. The image then flipped to a field somewhere on Nublar where various dinosaurs that were evidently part of the project.
"I apologize for the unconventionality of this test run but I have no doubt you'll be impressed with the final product. What you see before you is the end result of Project DSIP. But why don't I let them show you instead. Go my creations, impress our guests," said Graves who was also in the field with the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs streaked off across the ground moving faster and faster as they advanced on a herd of various herbivores. The herbivores immediately engaged in a stampede but rather than split in opposite directions, the carnivores carefully herded them past various obstacles before finally reaching the crest of a hill and stopping to let the herbivores go on their way all without touching one of them. Jake whistled at that, impressed as Henry sat there trying to take it all in.
"As you can see they are very well behaved," said Graves as the carnivores returned to him and all stood at attention in a single file line. "But of course they don't just have to wrangle up lost dinosaurs they can be trained to do any number of things. Well that concludes the first part of our program, if you have any questions please feel free to issue them now."
The screen went dead at that and the tape ejected.
"Well that wasn't very helpful or informative," said Henry taking the tape out and tapping it against the table frustrated.
"I think it was just a temporary demo tape until he would've had time to make a proper one," Jake reasoned. "Though how he went from that to that over there is the real question."
Henry spun around in his chair to face him. "Why do you think he did what he did?"
"I don't think we'll ever know for sure," admitted Jake. "And that's probably for the best. Somehow I think whatever he could tell us wouldn't be the whole truth anyway."
"We should've confronted him earlier about it, been more forceful," said Henry. "I just wish we could still talk to him about what happened."
"Yeah it's too bad these dinos don't talk," Jake said with slight remorse. "But even if they knew how, they lack the vocal cords to pull it off."
"Yeah," said Henry softly. "Well I guess I'd better play this then."
Henry moved to put the tape into the VCR when Jake began grinning lightly to himself.
"Eight bucks says he goes on some maniacal rant," said the scientist laughing to himself about that one. The raptor growled angrily at that.
"Well whatever it is, it'd better be with worth it," said Henry as he popped in the tape and it began to play. It showed an image of a heavily distraught and exhausted Graves as his body shook from nerves while a massive storm could be heard slamming into the building on the outside.
"Jake, Henry, I can only trust that you're hearing this and if you're not Jake Whitacre or Henry Wu, could you please stop watching this and please give this tape to them if they are even still alive," said Graves as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Henry, Jake, I was hoping you would come because if you're watching this then that means I am dead…"
Elsewhere: The dinosaurs were racing amongst the trees chasing after the group as they did their best to avoid them.
"You know for supersmart dinos I'd have thought they'd have gotten us by now," commented Billy amongst the various dinosaur roars. Grant too had noticed this and nodded his head.
"Yes, it's almost as if they're herding us somewhere," he agreed. "They have yet to catch any of us, even the stragglers and that is not typical predator behavior."
"So what're we going to do about it?" asked Stephanie as she fired off a couple rounds from her gun but hit nothing.
"When we find out what they're up to then we'll make our plan," said Grant.
Building: "No doubt you've seen my specimens, what do you think? They're the most unique specimens to walk this Earth. The combined intelligence of a homo sapien with the instincts of a dinosaur makes them the only ones of their kind. But I guess that doesn't matter now," said Graves sadly. "I had such high hopes for them, I really did. I thought they could change the world…somehow. Whether by helping humanity or attacking it or something, I don't know. But these dinosaurs needed to be something more than just theme park attractions. These creatures deserve better than that, especially after having been gone for 65 millions years.
But I'll never be able to accomplish that. I did make these dinosaurs smarter, but I could never truly erase their primal selves. Over time that instinct of theirs has begun to manifest itself more and more, overriding their intellects until they have become both smart and dangerous. There's a tropical storm coming and I have to finish them off now. If I fail then all of Jurassic Park could be in danger. For their sakes as well as my own I will try and put a stop to this. But if you're watching this then that means that I have failed. Perhaps it's just as well, the creations always destroy the creator in the end, but where I have failed you must succeed. On the shelf to your right is a binder marked ELE2, it gives a layout of everything I've created and ways I've formulated to rid the world of them. I need you two to finish what I've started and maybe give me some peace in the afterlife," said Graves. A loud thud was heard from the videotape and Graves looked off panicky before remembering something. "Oh, the velociraptor, I'm sure you're wondering about it. If you've been contacted by a 'friendly' raptor it's because it's well…me."
Jake and Henry looked very disturbed by that.
"Oh not 'me' me," continued Graves somewhat sheepishly. "But I implanted some of my memory engrams into its mind sort of like placing files into a computer repository. It has the important parts of my memory regarding this project and my memories of you two. Now I'm sure you think it's going to kill you because we did not exactly have the greatest working relationship, particularly around this particular issue. But the truth is also that I do have the greatest respect for your work. This project could not have succeeded where it not for your efforts and Doctor Marko knew this as well as I. I just didn't want to believe that two amateurs could possibly do anything worthwhile. I won't say I'm sorry but I will say thank you and good luck," said Graves as a crash was heard and the image went dead. Henry leaned back at that, deeply troubled as Jake too was put off by what he had heard.
"Gustavius?" asked Jake of the Raptor finally. The Raptor merely bowed its head slightly at hearing that name. Jake stood up in shock and walked off in a stupor to the far end of the building not sure what to do now.
"Son of a bitch!" he decided on. Henry mildly smiled at that outburst.
"Graves, Wu, and Whitacre together again after all these years," he said. "Who'd have thought it possible? This must be the largest meeting of Jurassic Park scientists since Ingen went Chapter 11."
"Well we've got to do something about it and do it now," said Jake trying to get his head on straight. "For all we know those dinos have killed everyone else in our absence."
"Right," agreed Henry as he reached for the binder and brought it down. "Let's see what we've got to work with."
Outside: The group was still running when suddenly the ground opened up from under them and they all collapsed down into a hole in the ground. Looking up the group saw dinosaurs of all kinds snarling at them from the top of the pit. But they did not attack they just stood there looking at them before vanishing from sight altogether.
"Why didn't they kill us?" asked Danni clueless.
"Because we're bait," answered Grant getting up. "They're using us to lure Doctors Whitacre and Wu here."
"Yeah but why would they fall for something so obvious?" asked Stephanie confused.
"Yes you're right which is why they're merely corralling us here. Which is why I suspect they'll begin killing us one by one after awhile to ensure they show up," said Grant crossing his arms and leaning against the pit as dinosaur roars could be heard permeating the air around them.