"Due to technical difficulties, all exhibits are now closed." Dr. Wu couldn't help but roll his eyes at the repeating message. Much as he understood that the message wasn't meant to cause panic, he could see the flighty look in the eyes of tourists that flooded out past the display windows of the labs; they knew intrinsically that something was wrong. It made for an amusing sight to see the dullards' eyes scan past the labs, looking in and pointing to their naïve children as the scientific teams showcased the process which their animals were made from, while at the same time others nervously looked about or complained about the service of the park as though it was a god damn tourist trap!

Masrani, InGen… at this point, they had lost the care for this craft in favor of the profit they could generate off of it. There was no wonder, no joy in the eyes of the adults… only the children. And even then, he could see that wonder fade into boredom the longer they spent around the lab. Imagine going to nature's only biological preserve for extinct animals, and being more concerned that your seven dollar soda didn't have fizz in it, or that the price was so expensive! It made him sick… and only reminded him that the work that he was doing with Hoskins would finally pave the way for his laboratories becoming a haven of genetics research and paleobiological preservation… instead of this ripoff Disneyworld.

However, as Henry gave out a sigh in boredom at watching the imbeciles pass by, his sharp gaze caught sight of someone standing out from the droll, side-to-side sway of overweight and spoilt tourists. He could see the irritation in his green eyes, the discoloration of the sclera at this point abundant and obvious; Owen Grady, head of the Raptor research program. He'd only met him once before, in handing off the last batches of raptors made on the island. What could he be doing here? Walking over to the Creation Labs door, the good doctor tried not to stare too much into his eyes as he opened the door.

"Mister Grady," Henry greeted, "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Yeah, well neither was I," he gruffly retorted, shoving his way past Henry and into the laboratory. He was about to reprimand the animal trainer, but before Wu could get a word out, Owen gestured around.

"Is there somewhere we can sit? I need to have a word with you about your hybrid." Henry nodded meekly, gesturing over toward a back section of the labs. Guiding the raptor trainer over to it, Henry took a seat. He'd prepared himself some tea beforehand, having planned to enjoy the peace and quiet with a glass of warm amber to perfectly match the stone that was set on his desk: the first chunk of amber they had successfully extracted a dinosaur's preserved blood from. He had decided to keep it, a symbol of his triumph over biogenetics.

"Is… something the matter?" Henry asked, handing over a cup and pouring some of the tea from the clear pot — a gift from Simon Masrani on the first anniversary of Jurassic World's operation.

"You know damn well something is the matter!" Owen snappily replied, taking a seat in front of him. Henry couldn't help but feel even smaller in front of Owen than he did Hoskins. Vic was a deplorable, slimy, smarmy, profit-oriented man that he despised. From what he understood of Grady from the IBRIS reports, the trainer wasn't particularly respectful, but he was more knowledgeable than the fat ape. "Your hybrid escaped."

Wu only blinked in response, practically flabbergasted as he tried to come up with a response. The Indominus Rexes escaped?

"They escaped?" he repeated, his tone a mix of surprise.

"Yeah… they escaped… people are dead." Wu had expected such a catastrophe to happen at some point. He'd designed the animal to be the perfect mix of predatory traits. An escape would've meant death regardless of what was done.

"That's unfortunate… but surely you have their locations?"

"Their?" Owen asked incredulously. "Christ, are you that out of the loop?! Your hybrid cannibalized its sister!" The implication of cannibalization hurt Henry's heart. He had known that the traits introduced in its DNA sequences would potentially make them aggressive… but he hadn't expected one of the two creatures he had introduced to the world to be dead… by its sister's claws no less!

"Doesn't matter," Owen clarified, rubbing at his irritated eyes. "I need you to start talking, 'cause there's things that don't add up." Henry clasped his hands together at that point, looking at Owen's eyes to observe them while he asked his questions. While one animal was dead, Dr. Wu could always mourn the loss as a casualty of scientific progress. Especially in seeing how the retrovirus he'd introduced earlier that month to the trainer had affected him. It was truly fascinating to see how it was already affecting him… were his fingernails longer?

"When I was at that paddock, that thing you made… it distracted us, lured us inside, and then escaped. It hid from thermal cameras… what do we need in an animal that can do that?!" The doctor took a sip of his tea, trying his best to remain calm as he stared into Owen's eyes. Even the shapes of his pupils had significantly changed. It wasn't noticeable from afar, but up close, Henry could see that the pupils had been distorted, almost as though his green irises were bleeding into them, or pushing them inward, almost like they were a bit splotchy. Fascinating immune response…

"Really…"

"Yeah, really… that all you have to say, or are you gonna explain it to me so I can tell Control what to expect?!" Owen's tone was grating, impatient and overall disrespectful, but Wu could tell that it came from a place of genuine concern for these… people.

"You know I cannot disclose the full specifics of its genetic makeup to someone of your standing, Mister Grady."

"I'm not asking for you to disclose everything… I just wanna know what this thing can do." Owen protested. "Or are you gonna have more blood on your hands 'cause you'd rather keep secrets?"

"As unfortunate as these casualties are, Mister Grady, I cannot…"

"Jesus Christ… Wu! That thing you made, it's not a dinosaur, it's not even something that naturally evolved! You already gave us more than enough before! Why so skittish now?!"

"Mister Grady, please calm down." The trainer seemed tense, aggravated, though as he reached to point, his right shoulder seemed to give a twinge, and he clenched his eyes shut.

"It's… Owen… now tell me, so I can understand why." Wu trudged through his thoughts, internalized notes on the Indominus Rexes — no… Rex. Wu's grimace must've been caught by the trainer, so he quickly responded.

"Tree frog DNA was used as a gene gap filler in all of our animals in order to adapt them to a tropical climate. Certain species of tree frog can modulate their infrared output and thermal signature to hide from predators… but I'd never expected the DNA we used in the way we used it to be able to do such a thing." Of course, it wasn't entirely untrue. Certain species of tree frogs could do that… but it wasn't the reason why the Indominus could hide from thermal cameras. Of course, Grady didn't need to know that, and the answer seemed to satisfy him enough.

"And the camouflage? That thing camouflaged so well in the jungle that it was practically invisible. ACU was right on top of it and didn't even see it until it revealed itself." Now the doctor stood up, looking away as he went through his mental catalogue of the Indominus' species combinations. And one in particular came up: Carnotaurus.

"Carnotaurus sastrei was one of the genomes we used in hybridizing the Indominus Rex in order to give it distinctly-textured osteoderms and perhaps even its horns. The donors we used for it were the Carnotauruses that had been brought in from Isla Sorna, the ones with the chameleon DNA that Jurassic World keeps in the holding paddock in the Restricted Area for research purposes. That would be my hypothesis for its advanced camouflaging." It was all a deliberate decision, of course. The donors had some of the best traits for survival as predators that InGen had created, with exception to maybe the Troodons that had been recontained by InGen. Yet Owen seemed displeased by this, rubbing at his head in abject frustration.

"Jesus Christ… you really put everything into that thing, didn't you?"

"I'm… sorry?" Henry asked, wanting clarification.

"Doc… listen to me carefully. What I saw out there? That was no dinosaur. That was a genetically engineered killing machine, a hybrid with all of the best and worst predatory traits that I could've ever seen! It can camouflage, hide from thermal cameras! I'm not stupid! What gave you the gall to think that you could make this thing and keep it in captivity, never socialize it?!"

"Masrani did," Henry answered simply. It was, of course, easy to shift the blame. Owen's face only seemed to contort into confusion as the doctor went on. "Bigger, scarier, umm… 'cooler' was the word that he used in his memo. You cannot have an animal with exaggerated predator features without the corresponding behavioral traits."

"What you're doing here… Henry, there are people dead! Christ, it didn't even eat them! It just killed them!" Henry gulped in an effort to bite his tongue, to hold down his ire for the man's easy irritation. Would nothing satisfy him? "She is finding her place on the food chain, and where do we fit in?! When this all goes public, you're going to lose everything! I will guarantee it! And Hammond's legacy or Masrani are not going to be able to protect you!" Henry's expression faltered at the threat, clearly not used to having someone attempt to hold that kind of power over him.

"This place… this park… it exists because of me," Henry responded. "If I don't innovate… someone else will. What? Would you prefer the Indominus Rex have been made for military application by a company like Mantah? Dinosaurs pushed onto the international market as weapons?" Owen now looked away, as though contemplating a response to the notion of what he'd just stated. Only for him to turn back and shake his head.

"So that's it? You made her because if you didn't, someone else would? You bioengineered this thing so unnaturally that it cannibalized its sibling!"

"You speak of what I'm engaged in here as… some sort of… mad science!" Wu protested, "But we are doing what we have done from the beginning!"

"No, I'm talking about how you created an unnatural monster!" Wu couldn't help but laugh at that, an open guffaw at the intellectual dishonesty in front of him.

"Mister Grady, nothing in Jurassic World is natural! We have always filled in gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals!"

"Yeah, at least those other animals don't set ambushes the way she did!" Owen exploded, standing from his seat with shaky arms and legs while Wu fumbled to hold himself steady. The two men stared at each other, alongside with other lab technicians before Wu responded.

"Mister Grady, monster is a relative term: to a canary, a cat is a monster. Your raptors? They could be considered monsters for the damage they caused to the reputation of these parks. We're used to being the cat, but that is what we do here; that is all we do here, isn't it Mister Grady? We make theme park monsters, oddities and sideshows? Nothing else?

We are only meant to humble our existence? Deextinction was the pinnacle of genetics technology once; now it is genome modification. And if I didn't create her, someone else would have…" Owen's gaze remained affixed to him, dangerously eyeing him as though he intended to toss Wu into the glass wall behind him. But then he stomped out, shoving past the doctor and leaving out the way he came.

As soon as the raptor trainer had left, Henry gave a hefty sigh of relief. He'd almost thought that Owen would've gone forward with it. He couldn't tell if that was a sign of increased aggression, or if that was just how Owen was. It'd make sense that Hoskins would have picked such a deplorably disrespectful man to head the IBRIS project. He knew the velociraptors would need a firm leash.

But now, he had confirmation. The attack? It had indeed catalyzed the retrovirus as he had hoped. It would be everything Hoskins would want. Now it was out of his hands, and the geneticist could focus on what mattered most.


Owen hadn't expected anything less from the great Dr. Henry Wu. The man was an insufferable know-it-all prick. At the drop of the knowledge that people had died, that he was to blame for the deaths of people, all he could've mustered up was a "That's unfortunate," and left it at that. No real look of sorrow. He seemed more concerned over the Indominus than the people that it had killed.

The raptor trainer took a few moments to take some deep breaths, trying to calm himself… the utter incompetence of Jurassic World's higher-ups… it didn't just aggravate him. How was he supposed to safely care for the animals if it seemed like people cared less for the animals and more for their profit quotas?! He felt sick. Not literally sick, though that definitely contributed to his irritation, but more so sick of the lies and bullshit.

"Hey there, Owen. Same as usual?"

"Umm… let's just start with a water," the trainer replied.

"You got it," Josh said, quickly heading off to the bartop. Even if it was noisy as Hell right now, with all the guests coming in from the north of the island, it wouldn't hurt just to have something to eat. Hell, even if he puked it up later, Owen needed to get something in his stomach. A breather from all that had happened was what was needed. So he took to taking a seat at the bartop at Winston's; he'd eat his steak on the way back to the raptor paddock, but water was kind of a necessity at the moment.

Though something else still stuck at the back of Owen's mind. The smells. Ever since that morning, he'd been catching all sorts of weird smells that didn't belong. He wasn't stupid by any stretch, but it absolutely bewildered him at the smell he'd gotten off Masrani before he left, like something bitter or sour. Similarly, Dr. Wu had that smell to him, but with something else: rotting meat. Yet no one seemed to notice it. It was even more pronounced around the back of the control room as well when he was there.

Ever since Echo had bitten him, it had been odd little happenstances: his recovery was quicker than expected — and now he had the weird, leathery scabs on his shoulder and his side to show for it — he couldn't eat anything except deli meats, the seeming irritation with his eyes that came and went at the drop of a hat… and now the smells and the aches. Everywhere hurt; but most especially around his pelvis, legs and head. It'd been like he'd taken a long run around the entire island and was dehydrated as Hell.

Maybe actually eating something would help quell those pains and help him think a bit. And as soon as Josh brought his water, he already knew what he was getting.

"Know what you want?"

"Uhhh… six ounce sirloin… and how about medium-rare?"

"Alright… six ounce sirloin, medium-rare… is this to go today?" Owen gave a short nod.

"Alright… sounds good… should be up in about fifteen minutes or so. Did you need anything for the girls?"

"No," the raptor trainer replied simply. "Not today." And then it was just waiting as Josh returned behind the counter. Owen couldn't help but look around at the crowd of people outside the steakhouse. God, it was like an all-you-could eat buffet out there for the Indominus. If it managed to find its way further south, then all these people were going to be mincemeat for it.

His stomach growled in agreement at that… or it was just protesting its hunger to him. In any case, Owen couldn't afford to leave for the Mainland yet… not with this shitshow. They needed someone who knew animal behaviors well enough to make smart choices. If Simon'd been smart, he'd have had that thing killed by ACU instead of attempted to have been captured. The amount of bodies… the amount of smells. Animals were drawn to strange smells, and everyone, even those inside and with the smell of steak, smelled some shade of rotten, sweaty or… sour. If the Indominus was making its way south, it'd absolutely be able to pick it up and follow the scent to free food.

Though Dr. Wu describing what he'd put into the thing… it made Owen's skin crawl. He knew those Carnotauruses. Besides the raptors, they were some of the more ornery carnivores he'd seen; their name really hit the nail on the head, though only for the new ones. The Carnotauruses from Sorna weren't like the newer ones. They weren't all that big, least of all compared to the new ones. They were undersized, according to Edd. But that wasn't all: they camouflaged, just like the Indominus. It was quick, practically imperceptible and showed arrays of complex patterns. In the shade and in the dark, they were undetectable.

And they were particularly vicious. Sure, they were wild animals, but they weren't like the raptors. They stalked prey quietly in the dark. They didn't distract to draw attention, or seem to make any noise unless they were eating. And, like Rexy, they had fantastic binocular vision, and grade-A nocturnal sight; they were perfect predators, though likely not because they were made that way normally. Owen could easily blame genetic tampering and early processes for making the dinos that made them so creepy. Seemed to be the case with a lot of InGen's original animals.

It only made him want to confront Wu more on the matter, see what the other donors were. But before he could fathom the thought more, Owen saw Josh approaching him with a Styrofoam container. Even through the box and from about 2 yards away, he could smell his steak… juicy, tender, and calling to his stomach.

"Alright Owen… there you are. On the house today… orders are backed up, y'know?" Owen gave a halfhearted shrug. He'd never really worked in food, so he couldn't say for sure. "Alright, take it easy." As soon as the waiter stalked off, Owen was quick to grab his walkie from his hip, trying his best to hold off on eating for a moment.

"Hey, Barry, you copy?" he asked. A few seconds passed before an answer came from the other end while he walked out and toward the Innovation Center. It was the quickest way to Control, after all.

"Yeah Owen?" Barry answered. Though, given the noise that was coming from the other end, it seemed like the girls were agitated.

"Listen… change of plans. I ain't leaving today, I guess…"

"Is it the Code Nineteen?" The fact that they were calling other ACU teams from other areas put Owen off. Code Nineteen was simple: asset out of containment, big one.

"Yeah… it is."

"Is there anything you can you tell me? Asset Containment didn't say anything before they left," Barry asked, more indignant screeches and barks echoing over the line. Owen took a moment, stopping as he thought hard on it. But his thoughts were interrupted by the smell coming from his hot Styrofoam container. His mouth was already watering, and taking a moment to sit at one of the unoccupied benches nearby, he answered.

"Uhh… yeah… has to do with it. It's the new thing, the one that I went to go look at this morning."

"You're serious?! These people… they never learn…" Owen couldn't help but agree with the disappointed, almost disgusted tone the Frenchman had. "How long do you think?"

"Umm… I dunno… probably a few hours at best. I'm hoping they smoke it." He didn't want to admit it'd killed people… but only because of all the guests around; this wasn't the kind of conversation to be having in public. Getting up, Owen knew he could eat where it was cooler, like in Control or the Employee section of the Innovation Center.

"Look, I gotta go Barry. I'm headed back up to Control. After I make sure everything's smooth, I'll be on my way over to feed the girls."

"I've got you," was the response, with Owen already heading down the hallway toward the elevator. He hoped to Christ that he wouldn't be puking up that steak later.


This One was bored. Patrolling the tall wall made for a less than enthusing task. The small things liked their tall walls, putting them up where they pleased and how they pleased didn't seem to cross their minds, regardless of the creatures that they imprisoned. It made This One only huff in frustration. Why were the small things so… against the natural order of things? It made no sense to her. Though maybe it was because she had been in the tall walls for as long as she could remember.

But not anymore. This One was free, and the small things would pay for hurting her then, and hurting her now with their sticks that made her muscles flinch. Or… she would be free, if she could find a weak point in the tall walls… her trekking away from the chuckling waters and along the edge of the tall walls had pulled her far from where she had hoped to build her nest. This One would make note of this territory as well, especially where there was a weak point.

It wasn't obvious at first, but the scent of the small things clung strongly to the shorter-length portion of the wall. It was as tall as the rest of the tall wall, but had a thicker pair of trunks between the smaller parts of it, and there was a small gap between the tall wall itself and the trunks of it. There was something similar back where the small things had first kept her. She had watched them fiddle with something on that part of the wall, and opened it up, like the sliding wall at her nest, but instead toward the inside.

This was a weak point that she could exploit. Growling in excitement, This One tenderly touched it like she would a hatchling. She could figure out what the small things did. Her crimson gaze flickered across it, trying to figure out what was there for her to use. Yet there was nothing. She could see something on the other side of it, leading out to the plains behind the tall walls, but she couldn't reach her claws through the gaps in the tall wall.

Chuffing in amusement, she decided to try and nudge up against it, determine how stable it was. The tall walls of her old nest were tough and sturdy. They were good for sharpening her claws against. These ones weren't nearly as sturdy, at least she didn't think so by the look of them. Pressing into one of the thick trunks, This One huffed and grunted as she tried to push it. They were lodged into the ground, sturdy as the trees around them… though not bendable like they were. They were stuck.

That was when she heard a soft sound: curiosity beckoned her red eyes toward the tall wall and away from the trunk again. She didn't know how to describe what she was seeing behind the gaps, but she could tell that this thing was big. She hadn't known anything else besides her own kind and the small things. This creature held itself high, with a neck that extended far above its body. She could barely see its head, though the brown eyes observed her carefully through the gaps.

'What is it?' was the thought that came to mind. This One couldn't believe what she was seeing, and warbled a low greeting. The sound only startled the creature, and it reared itself with a distressed cry. This One couldn't help but cock her head to the side, trying to get a better view through one of the gaps as the creature trundled off. Its hide was a dark shade, with what looked like a brighter stripe and some lighter splotches on it that would've made it blend in well in the mud… were it not so large.

The neck wasn't the only long thing about it. Its tail fwipped and swayed as the creature stopped, looking back now at the tall wall with some form of apprehension. Some part of This One told her that the tail was dangerous. Of course it was. Any tail could be dangerous. She'd proven that much to the small things near the water.

But what she didn't expect was to see more of these things. Another, and then another all waddled their way toward the one she had unexpectedly met. Their hides were similar, though slightly different in their patterns. One gave a bellow in her direction. This One didn't know what such a sound meant… but she knew it had to have conveyed a warning, given the volume of it. Why was it warning her? This One couldn't

She couldn't help but snort. This thing thought it was a danger to her? If it were not for the tall walls separating them, she would have gladly taken the challenge… in fact, when she would figure out how the small things opened up the smaller section of it, she would take that challenge. But something else irked her about these things beyond their brazen attitudes. The way that they huddled close to each other. The way that they moved in front of the smaller one that had approached the tall wall. It reminded her of another small thing from long ago. The way that she would do that with it…

Then she felt it. That dull hurt in her chest when she thought too hard about it. She knew what this was: a pack, a herd of these long necks. She had almost not felt alone in that moment, that she could connect with another big thing. But she couldn't. They didn't want to! They saw her as a threat! They protected their pack! They couldn't imagine what it was like to be alone, hidden from the great warmth in the sky or trapped in small confines! They had big territory!

A new growl bubbled from This One's throat, this one of malice. Well, if their pack didn't want to be with her, she'd make it clear that she didn't want to be a part of their pack either! Rearing herself back, This One took her anger and turned it into a furious, screeching roar that echoed across the plains, and then she charged at the tall wall. She'd tear down the small things' creations, and then she'd tear apart this herd. She'd show the last long neck what it was like to be alone.


Blue perked as soon as she heard it. The excitement had made her sleepy. The noise of the soft prey made it clear that something was off. Especially that big flying thing that was close. That had particularly disturbed Echo. Echo wasn't having any of it. She had kept screeching about how she'd tear apart the soft prey for waking her.

Blue wasn't forgiving either, to be fair. The soft prey had to learn where they were in the food chain, after all. They were weak. Blue and her pack were strong… but not as strong as they could be. When Stupid Alpha hadn't come that day, and instead it was just Dark One, she made it a point to snarl her displeasure. Pack needed to stay together, and Stupid Alpha was going off on his own while he was sick!

And now Blue was worried for her pack. Maybe Stupid Alpha had been attacked by some bigger pack. Maybe the soft prey had taken him away to eat him! No… the soft prey didn't do that… what did they do with the ones that she hurt, then? Blue never saw them again after those days.

A chirp from her right got her attention. Delta was concerned too. She'd heard it. The call on Wind. It was loud, loud enough for them to hear, but it sounded very far. It was unnerving. It reminded her of a screech from one of her clutchmates, but it wasn't. It was deeper and louder. So loud that she could hear it from well beyond their territory.

There was a hiss from Charlie nearby. What was going on? Was there a new challenger to their tall walls? Was that what that roar was from? A challenger?! Was that why the soft prey left?! It called for Death, and now two of her clutchmates were looking to her for guidance. Blue knew that she needed to take charge. She was the pack's beta! She was damn good, and she'd make sure that her pack was damn good too! Getting up from her nest quickly, Blue called out, barking quickly and repeatedly to draw the attention of the entire pack. The pack needed to be together. The sounds of rushing pawfalls and an annoyed snarl told Blue that Echo had arrived, and the pitter-patter above them told of someone coming. Was it Stupid Alpha? Had he heard her call?!

No… it was just Dark One. He wasn't Stupid Alpha, so she kept barking, pacing around the edges of the tall walls where she had heard the roar coming from. They had to be ready.

"Blue! Blue, what're you doing?!" Dark One barked to her. She could hear his concern in his bark… maybe it was Dark One's way of wanting to know what was going on. Had he not heard that screeching roar?! Honestly, the soft prey irritated her, and she made clear her displeasure of his lack of skill or senses by screeching in his direction.

"Hey! Don't you do that to me!" Dark One called. Echo now hisses at him, Delta snapping her jaws to shut him up while Blue continued to call out for Stupid Alpha. Death was here. Why wasn't he more concerned?! Why wasn't he calling out for Stupid Alpha?!

"Jesus!" Dark One snarled, reaching a paw toward his hip to grab at something. "Owen, something's up! The girls… they just… started freaking out!"