Chapter 3: The Basics and the New Kid

Darius looked at the four Indoraptors as he sat down in a play pen with them as they were either playing with each other or fighting for his attention. He petted the black one while the orange-whiteish gray and gray-blue stripped one wrestled. The black and red one just cuddled against his leg.

"Okay," he said, looking up to Owen and Brooklynn. "I want to name them now, but I don't know about their gender."

Owen looked to the four Indoraptors for a moment before looking up to Darius. "You got two males and two females." he told the kid.

"Really?" Darius blinked in surprise. "How do you know?"

"Because in my experience, the males are the ones with quills," Owen replied, gesturing to the black one and the orange-whiteish gray ones. "Those two are males, the other two are females."

"Okay then," Darius looked down on the infants. He points to the black one with green eyes. "Toothless."

The black hybrid tilted his head as if considering the name before nodding his head. "Okay, Papa. My name is Toothless."

Owen looked a bit confused. The black Indoraptor was anything but toothless. He turns to Brooklynn. "Is that like some kind of reference?" he asked.

Chuckling in amusement, the YouTube vlogger answered, "Yep, a cartoon dragon from a very popular movie franchise. Looking closely, there is a resemblance. Black scales and green eyes." she said.

"And at the moment, he's the same size as Toothless from the books," Darius said, chuckling. He looks at the orange male. He narrowed his eyes. The orange scales with whiteish gray stripes seemed familiar to the African-American boy. The Indoraptor moved like a cat on the prowl before he pounced on his sister and then took her food from her.

"Hey!" whined the black and red Indoraptor as her brother ran away with her food.

"Diego," Darius scolded the male Indoraptor. "Don't take your sister's food."

Diego seemed to chuckle in response to the scolding.

"Papa, what about me?" whined the black and red female as she scurried over to Darius and laid her head on his lap. "Sorry, Ruby." Darius chuckled in response, getting Ruby to smile at her name, before looking at the other female that had gone straight to his side while her brothers were now wrestling around in the play pen.

Darius hummed in thought before coming up with a name. "Meg." The gray scaled and blue stripped Indoraptor lifted her head and looked up to him. "You want to sleep or are you just tired of your brothers?"

"Yes," Meg huffed and laid her head back down. Both Darius and Brooklynn chuckled in response.

Just then the door opened up and an overweight man with gray hair, a small beard and dark tanned skin walked in. "Owen!" he called to the Raptor Wrangler.

Owen sighed, eyes glancing upward as if saying silently, 'Oh God, it's this guy again.' He turns around to look at the man. "Hoskins." he greeted curtly. He was not excited to see Vic Hoskins.

Toothless looked over to the fat man and growled. "I don't like that guy."

Darius and Brooklynn looked over to the two men. "When were you going to tell me that the batch of Indoraptors had hatched?" Vic Hoskins asked. "And what is this I hear from Wu? They're bonded with a child?"

"It's a recent development, Hoskins," Owen replied. "They've only been alive for about three hours now. Just make sure their paddock is up and ready. I'll still do my job."

Hoskins smirked in response. "Oh, don't worry about that, Grady." he said. "The paddock is up and ready. You just need to move the Indos when you're ready to begin."

He then noticed Brooklynn with her phone out. "Hey, young lady, no recording." he demanded. "I'll have to report you security if you keep it up."

"I have permission from Mr. Masrani," Brooklynn replied, not fazed by Hoskins. "If you don't believe me, you can ask him yourself."

Hoskins frowned before smirking with a shrug. "It doesn't hurt to be safe than sorry." He then approached the play pen and looked at the Indoraptors with a smirk.

Darius leaned back. He wasn't getting a good vibe from this guy. And based on how Toothless and Diego jumped onto his lap, they weren't either.

"Well, as long as you can train them still," Hoskins said to Owen. "I don't care if the kid's involved."

Owen chuckled at that. "Well, that won't happen. I can't train them." he admitted.

Hoskins looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean you can't train them?" he asked. "I thought this was your job. What, are regular Raptors too much for the great Owen Grady to handle?"

"No, I can't train them like my Raptors because these Indos have imprinted on the kid," Owen explained. "Best case scenario is that they'll grow up to see me as an ally/friend or an outsider at worst. The only way they'd see me as the Alpha is I kill the one they've imprinted on and I ain't doing that."

Hoskins was confused before it began to dawn on him who was the Indoraptors' Alpha as he looked to the kid. "Shit." he muttered. He didn't expect this. He looks at Owen. "Can he do it?"

"I don't really know," Owen admitted with a shrug. "So far, they seemed to respond to the names he gave to them. But there's no way to know how they'll turn out in the future. New species and all that. And three years with Ripper and his sisters and progress is still slow."

He was albeit lying there. Progress had quickened slightly, but he wasn't going to tell Hoskins that just yet.

"Can you train him?" Hoskins asked, a little impatiently.

"We're starting lessons tomorrow," Owen replied, rolling his eyes. "He's willing, I'll say that, but it really depends on what his mother will say when she gets here."

"Well, you better hope she says yes." Hoskins replied. "And salvage this. I'm not waiting another year for the next batch." With that said, he left the room. But not before looking at Darius. "Good luck, kid."

"I'm going to need it," Darius remarked.

After a few moments, Brooklynn looked at Owen. "So, who was that asshole?"

"Hey, watch the language around the babies!" Darius said, covering Ruby's ears with his hands.

"Asshole!" Diego laughed, pointing at Toothless whose jaw dropped, green eyes wide in shock.

Meg and Ruby laughed at their oldest brother's expression.

Owen let out a laugh, both at Brooklynn's question and Darius's reaction. "That's Vic Hoskins. Head of InGen and the Raptor Training Program." he explained. "He has Dr. Wu as his lapdog in the science division."

"And he's your boss?" Brooklynn asked, lowering her phone as she remembered what she read in Wu's private office, especially Project War Dinosaur.

"He approached me when I was in the Navy," Owen replied. He shrugged. "It was a chance to work alongside dinosaurs so I couldn't really pass that up."

"I can relate to that," Darius shrugged as he petted Toothless who nipped at his Raptor tooth necklace. He would have done the same as Owen. "I guess the pay and your Raptors make it up for your boss being a jerk."

Owen chuckled. "Well, you are right about the second part. The least he does is provide for the animals. But as long as he doesn't mistreat the animals, I don't have the urge to knock his lights out."

That is going to change in a couple of days.

"How fast are these guys going to grow?" Darius asked, pushing Toothless away and making sure the black Indoraptor wasn't going to take his necklace with him.

"Well, my Raptors got bigger than a wolf in about nine months, Ripper was the size of a Grizzly," Owen replied thoughtfully. "They all reached full maturity at around the age of two and three."

"Okay," Darius nodded his head. "So, what's the first lesson tomorrow?"

"I was thinking of moving them first," Owen replied. "Hopefully, Hoskins was right when he said the paddock is ready. His people are usually slow."

Darius chuckled in response as he turned his attention to the Indoraptors that were now play fighting.

"You take that back!" Toothless screeched to his brother.

"Nope!" Diego chirped as he and Toothless wrestled.

Owen smiled a bit at the scene, remembering how it was for his Raptors. At the time, all he could do was watch and worry and he had the distinct feeling that's what Darius was doing now.

And he was right. Darius was worried about his mother saying no. If she did, and Owen wouldn't be able to train them, the hybrids could be killed. He wasn't willing to let that happen.

"I'll be back," Owen said as he walked out of the room. Darius shrugged, concluding that they were staying a bit longer. Brooklynn moved forward closer to the play pen, crouching down and took a few more photos and recorded another video as the Indoraptors played fighting and Darius moved to sit close to her.

"So, how are you feeling about this?" she asked after a moment.

"Terrified, excited and anxious," Darius replied bluntly. "I guess I know how my father felt. And I'm not sure what I'll do if my mom says no."

"Do you really think she'll say no?" Brooklynn asked.

"I want to say I don't," Darius admitted. "She and my brother always supported my love for dinosaurs and she respected wildlife. But she didn't think this would happen. And to be honest neither did I. I just thought I'd see a live dinosaur birth and move on."

Brooklynn hummed. She glanced back at the door behind her before leaning in close to Darius. "I read a file in Wu's office about something called Project War Dinosaur." she whispered to his ear. "I think the Indoraptors are designed to be war animals."

Darius looked to her surprised and confused. "What, you mean like war elephants and horses?" he asked.

"No, like military dogs," Brooklynn shook her head. "The adult hybrid you and Kenji saw with the Raptors last night has infrared and night vision and echolocation with a powerful immune system and bullet resistant skin."

Darius ran a hand down his face. Was this some secret program aiming to train dinosaurs to be used in war? Was Owen a part of this? Darius hoped not.

Just then Toothless scrambled up the play pen wall and perched on top like a bird and he looked at Brooklynn, tilting his head at her like a curious cat. "Hi there. Are you my mother?" He leaned in close to her and sniffed. "You do have a bit of my father's scent on you. . ." he chittered in thought.

Neither Darius nor Brooklynn knew what the black Indoraptor was saying and were confused by his behavior. Darius comes to a conclusion of his own. "I think he wants you to pet him," he said to the pink haired girl.

"Uh, you sure?" the YouTube vlogger asked the African American hesitantly. "I don't want to lose a finger."

"Here," Darius said and without thinking, grabbed Brooklynn's free hand and moved it out to Toothless. He moved his fingers over her own and slowly pushed her hand to Toothless's head. The black Indoraptor chittered curiously, now thinking his theory was correct and moved his head forward and the girl's hand touched his head quills.

After a few seconds, Darius pulled his hand away and Brooklynn began petting Toothless on her own while recording with her phone in her other hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Momma," Toothless happily chirped as his quills were stroked. He turns his head to his siblings. "Hey, guys! Get over here and say hi to our mom!"

"Huh, our mom?" Diego and Meg looked over in confusion before-

-Ruby barreled over them while squealing, "Momma!" and then climbing up the pen wall, knocking Toothless into Brooklynn's lap. "Momma! Momma! Momma!"

"Oof!" Toothless squeaked in surprise from being knocked off his perch but laid on his back in the girl's lap. Brooklynn chuckled and gave him a belly rub. "That's nice," Toothless sighed.

"Is this food?" Ruby asked, looking up at Brooklynn's phone in her hand and nipped at it. She pulled back from it, shaking her head. "Nope, not food." she hissed while Brooklynn pulled her phone away.

"Oh, nope!" Brooklynn moved her phone away. "Not food. Not. Food." Brooklynn said to the black scaled, red stripped and silver eyed Indoraptor.

"Okay, Momma." Ruby nods her head and lowers it. "I'm sorry."

The YouTube vlogger chuckled, amused by the Indoraptor's behavior, giving her a few head pets before Diego climbed up and fought for her attention, getting jealous of the petting his younger sister was getting. "Okay, my turn for head pats now!"

Meg was the last Indoraptor to approach Brooklynn with caution. "Well. . . you seem trustworthy enough." she chittered before she let the pink haired girl pet her a couple of times before she and Toothless went over to their Alpha and father.

Darius chuckled as he picked the two Indoraptors up in his hands and held them close. He got a bit worried about his mom rejecting this idea and these Raptor hybrids have grown attached to him already. If she said no and he left, these infants would think that he abandoned them.

Trying to take his mind off that possibility, he sat in a chair with Meg and Toothless. The two Indoraptors curled up in his arms like puppies and closed their eyes. Brooklynn sees this and quickly takes a few pictures.

Owen would give Darius a webcam, a small computer and microphone to record each of his days working with the Indoraptors. Brooklynn would offer assistance to edit video journals.

"So, I'm now a vlogger?" Darius said dryly. "Great. Just want I want to do for the summer."

"Hey, at least you're going to show the entire WORLD that you've bonded with dinosaur hybrids," Brooklynn said, defending her line of work. "That has to count for something."

Darius shrugged. "If I was vlogging about video games, I'd see the appeal."

After some assurance from Owen that him leaving for the night won't create trust issues with the Indoraptors, Darius and Brooklynn returned to Camp Cretaceous where Roxie would voice that she has concerns about this whole situation.

One cannot blame her for that.

For about fifteen minutes, Darius lied awake, not knowing what tomorrow would bring. He just hoped he would succeed with the Indoraptors.

Just as he closed his eyes, he heard a voice whisper to him. "Psst. Psst!" Darius opened his eyes and saw a girl, about the same age as him, peeking from the bottom bunk below him. She had shoulder length light brown hair and matching eyes.

"Hi, I'm Maisie." she said shyly. She pulls herself up a bit for Darius to see her face. "Did you really bond with four infant Raptor hybrids?" she asked.

Darius blinked in surprise but nodded his head. "Yeah, I did." he replied.

"Awesome," Maisie Lockwood replied, shaking in excitement before she went back to her bunk below his. "I knew this was going to be fun."

Darius chuckled quietly in response. "You and me both," he whispered.

If only his dad could see him now.