Featuring the Mortem Rex, Omega 09 and more.
And inspired by a story from the AVP Expanded Universe novel, "Ultimate Prey." It may more or less sound outlandish for the Jurassic Saga, or not given that the original plans for Jurassic Park 4 invovled humanoid dinosaur hybrids and that's not even mentioning some other fanfics I've read.
Space. Time. Reality.
It's not a linear equation. It is a prism of infinite realities where a single choice can create entire new worlds.
I am the Watcher and I am your guide to these strange new worlds. Follow me and ponder, "What If. . . ?"
What If Maisie Lockwood was Weaponized by Mantah Corp?
In the main universe, Benjamin Lockwood kept the truth about Maisie Lockwood's true origin a secret, letting his partner John Hammond believe he was responsible for her creation.
In this universe, he failed and some more sinister forces saw some other use for her elsewhere.
From across a darkened hall, they pace, ready for the sirens to go off, their nightly signal; for their cage doors to open so they can
.
.
.
Go out and play.
They can sense one another from where they stand-their smells; their patterns; and for some, their growing fury.
They've been waiting for the moment when the doors open and they're standing face to face. Sometimes it's just two of them or more. Rivals. Enemies for as long as they can remember.
Enemies with a score to settle, or enemies because they stand on different sides of the line drawn between 'Predator' and 'Prey.'
But until then, all they can do is wait.
Wait for the sirens to go off.
Wait for the fight to begin.
Another perfect day in Vale, Maisie Lockwood thought as she rode her bike down the quiet manicured streets of her small town, passing by all the cookie-cutter houses with their lush green lawns and white picket fences.
She often tried to look for flaws on her daily ride to work-peeling paint or a porch chair one inch too far to the left-but no matter how hard she looked, nothing was ever out of place.
Well, except for the air-raid sirens at the end of every street. They stood fifteen feet tall, looking weathered with rust or fading paint and red bushes planted at the base as if those plants were meant to distract anyone from the relics of a time when no other technology existed to warn the prairie town of an incoming tornado or some other disaster.
Maisie had never seen a tornado, let alone heard the sirens go off.
Nothing new ever happened in Vale, not even a change in the weather.
If there was one thing that could be relied upon, it was the truth that every day was the same in Vale. Clear blue skies, the Sun blazing overhead, regular people coming to the diner Maisie worked at for their daily meals; her bike ride home through the patch of forest that flanked the elementary school. Her evenings were spent watching TV or reading a book or going out for a jog, with a quick shower or bath before bed.
Then wake up and do it all over again.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Another perfect day in Vale, Maisie sighed as she sped past the school, where shadows of students gathering for class behind curtain drawn windows moved about.
Maisie stood behind the counter of the now empty diner, marrying ketchup and mustard bottles. She eyed the clock as its hands ticked by-now it was 9:59. The last customer had gone an hour ago, but she never felt right about closing early.
Maisie always maintained the hope, no matter how desperate it seemed, that this night would be different.
Sadly, it never was.
Time went by faster with the customers but Maisie often daydreamed, usually about renovations she wanted to do to the sixties-style diner, make it current or just got lost in thought looking out the window, thinking of the pictures of other Main Streets of faraway towns-towns that she had longed to visit. Towns that looked as though time had forgotten them as well.
Maisie had never stepped outside of Vale, and it was during those endless work hours she found herself longing for something more than just working at the diner for the small farming community that was spread out for a few kilometers, the prairie land flat, vast and dull. Something more than canola fields and dairy farms.
Maisie jumped as the clock struck ten, knocking an empty bottle off the counter with her elbow.
Quickly, she lunged to catch it in her hand before it could shatter on the floor. She sat up and placed it on the counter with a sigh.
"Another perfect day in Vale," she said to herself. Then, the bells over the front door rang out.
That . . . was new.
Maisie stood as six kids she had never seen before, wearing dirty and torn clothes she had never seen before entering the diner. There were three boys, a dark skinned one close to her age, a blonde boy with a white tank top, an older teen with black hair and a blue shirt, and three girls, one with hair dyed pink (Something that no one has done in Vale), and two girls with black hair of different lengths.
The Nublar Six had arrived on another island just like in the main universe. However, this island wasn't just used by Mantah Corp. And had a much bigger operation going on.
And they were armed. With a baseball bat, a spear, a couple of golf clubs and a cattle prod.
"Um, can I help you?" Maisie asked, nervously eyeing the spear and cattle prod the most.
Darius Bowman and Brooklynn Colin looked to her before nodding to the others. Kenji Kon and Ben Pincus moved past Maisie, into the kitchen. Sammy Guiterrez and Yazmina Faduloa turned to the street outside, standing watch at the door.
"What are you doing?" Maisie asked.
"We're clear," Ben said to Darius and Brooklynn.
"Okay, then," Darius turned to the other two girls. "Sammy, Yaz? How're we looking?"
"Quiet as a sleeping Compy," Yaz replied. Sammy glanced to Darius and Brooklynn.
"Are you sure about this?" she asked, her eyes looking at their surroundings. "Getting in here. . . finding her. . . was easy. More than it should have been."
The six kids turned toward Maisie. Maisie looked at them all before backing up against the wall behind the counter. "I don't want any trouble," she swallowed and gestured to the cash register. "Just take the cash and leave."
Brooklynn and Darius glanced at one another as if realizing how they look in Maisie's perspective and then at their weapons before lowering them.
"Sorry, we just half expected trouble," the Superstar of the Six said to Maisie. "Kash had this biome locked tight outside."
Kash? Biome?
"We're not here for money," Darius added. "We're here for you."
It was then that the air-raid sirens went off. The wails shattered the quiet night, ebbing and flowing as they let their warnings be heard.
Everyone's hands went for their ears, the cacophony rattling through their very cores. Through watery eyes, Maisie saw fear on the faces of these strange kids she had never seen before.
"Kenji, you said it wasn't supposed to be tonight!" Yaz screamed to the Asian American teen over the din.
"It wasn't!" Kenji screamed back. "Kash or Dad must have started it up when he saw we were here!"
Maisie looked out to the street, half expecting people to be out in the streets, investigating the sirens. Maybe she could escape while these weird kids were distracted. But the road was bare, with the exception of a flicker on top of a building across the way that caught her eye.
It looked like a bird but it was bigger. Too big to be a bird. She could see it crouched on the edge of the cineplex, like some large gargoyle.
Watching.
Waiting.
"-Back to the school!" Darius shouted, breaking Maisie's gaze. "Let's go."
They all rushed out of the door. Maisie stood frozen behind the counter. She looks back at the cineplex.
The shape was gone.
And so was her chance of getting away.
On the bright side, something new had finally happened. And it would change her life for better or worse.
The sirens continued their cries as the seven of them set off down Main Street, keeping to the shadows, and into the cold, dark forest-the quickest way to the school.
Darius led the way with Kenji and Ben, Brooklynn stayed at the back with Yaz and Sammy was at Maisie's side, each of them with their weapons, each of them on edge.
Maisie walked nervously, unsure of herself for having gone with these armed strange kids without so much as a fight. But when she saw any of their gazes, something in her gut said that this was right, that these kids could be trusted.
Still, Maisie needed answers.
"Is any one of you going to tell me what this is all about?" she asked just as the sirens cut out.
Everyone stopped. They kept their eyes on the trees and bushes.
"We're getting you out of here," Brooklynn said in a whisper. "It's not safe."
"Wait, over there," Darius said, pointing to the direction of movement in the trees and branches. Maisie saw everyone else tensed.
Just then whatever was coming towards them stepped into the moonlight.
Maisie loves dinosaurs, has books and movies about them so her first thought was Holy shit, it's a dinosaur! But then she saw that it didn't look like any dinosaur she knew.
Its head was that of a Triceratops, yet its body was that of a Stegosaurus and that made Maisie think along the lines of What the bloody Hell is that?!
"It's Ferdinad!" Sammy exclaimed and she jogged over to the Stegoceratops hybrid. "Hey, buddy."
"Hey, kids!" Ferdinad greeted the kids with a friendly grumble.
"Huh, you'd think Kash and Dad would keep him out of this biome," Kenji said to Darius. Maisie looked at the Asian American teen with confusion and glanced at Sammy and Ben who were both petting the dinosaur. The two teens were petting the dinosaur like it was their horse or something!
"Maybe. . . he's hoping to distract us with Ferdinad," Brooklynn mutters.
"What? What are you talking about?" Maisie asked. Before the Superstar of the group could answer, the ground began to shake rhythmetically like large heavy footsteps.
BOOM!. . . BOOM!. . . BOOM!
"Oh no," Brooklynn muttered in fear.
Ferdinad stepped forward with a shake of his head. "Children, stand behind me."
"Please not Freddy Kruegar," Ben muttered to himself as he and the others turn to the sound of something moving towards them in the shadows. "Please not Freddy Kruegar. Please don't be Freddy Kruegar."
Maisie gives the dirty blonde boy a weird look. What is he talking about now?
A hybrid that a certain punk teenager from California would laugh at the sight of and one that would not survive in the wild.
"Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum," growled a purple skinned Tyrannosaurus Rex that was the size of a Giganotosaurus, perhaps five times bigger actually, with a row of orange spines running down his back with blood orange veins. "I smell the blood of seven human children." His red eyes land on Maisie. "Oh . . . you."
For some reason, Maisie felt like she should know the dinosaur. Not like she should know its species, but in the sense that she should know the dinosaur personally. And that made no logical sense. She should not know a dinosaur, much less be seeing it because dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years!
"Oh it's worse," Ben said out loud. "It's Thanos Rex."
Omega 09 or as Ben named him, Thanos Rex let out a loud roar at the Nublar Six and Maisie. "RUN!"
"Run!" Darius shouted and he turned around and pushed both Maisie and Brooklynn into running with the others. The purple hybrid Tyrannosaurus stomped after them.
"RUN" he roared with a sadistic laugh. "HAHAHAHAHA! RUN!"
The Stegoceratops ran in between the running children and the hybrid. "Stay away from them, Thanos Rex!" Ferdinad bellowed before swinging his tail at the large predator.
Thanos Rex jumped over the Stegoceratops with relative ease and kept on chasing after the kids.
Ferdinad looked between where the Omega 09 was before and where he had landed. "Oh."
Maisie and the Campers ran through the forest until they came face to face with another large Tyrannosaurus Rex with dark gray scales, a row of red bony spines on its back. This was Mortem Rex.
"Hello, Children." Mortem Rex growled.
The kids all skidded to a stop as Thanos Rex walked in from behind, but then Darius and Brooklynn ended up slipping and falling in between two large tree roots.
"Mortem," Thanos Rex roared upon seeing the other Rex hybrid.
"Omega!" Mortem snarled.
Both Brooklynn and Darius screamed as Mortem Rex's foot came close to stepping on them if it weren't for the large tree roots that held up the Rex's foot.
Thanos Rex roared at Mortem Rex before they both slammed each other's bulk against one another. Mortem Rex then bites down on Omega's neck.
Thanos Rex roared as he tried to pull away from his enemy's jaws but Mortem's grip was like steel and iron. The Omega 09's tail slammed into Sammy and Yaz and sent them flying for twelve feet. And then Thanos Rex stepped on Kenji.
There goes Kenji.
"Kenji!" both Brooklynn and Darius cried out from where they were stuck between the two tree logs.
Ben and Maisie raced over to them. "Hang on, guys. I got ya." They each grabbed the Dino Nerd and Superstar's by their hands and pulled them out of the tight spot they were stuck in.
Both Thanos Rex and Mortem were still battling each other nearby, knocking down trees or crushing logs.
"Get up!" Maisie said to Brooklynn and Darius as they looked to Kenji's crushed corpse.
"Come on!" called Yaz on the far side of the battlefield with Sammy. The four kids scrambled over to them and continued their path.
Suddenly, the ground shook, causing Maisie to turn around and see Mortem Rex on the ground and Thanos Rex ripping a large chunk of flesh from her neck. The large purple Tyrannosaurus Rex hybrid lifts his head up and roars after the retreating children. "RUN! HAHAHAHAHAHA! RUN!"
The kids ran as fast as they could before they reached the school and ran inside.
The sound of the slamming door echoed down the empty school halls as the six of them piled inside. Maisie pressed the back of her head against the building's cool walls, chilling her overheating body as she sat down on the bench in front of the door.
Those things, that monster. . . why did it give her a sense of familiarity after hearing it roar? Why did it look like it knew her personally with some sort of grudge?
Maisie glanced over to the other kids, they seemed to be taking a moment to grieve over their friend. Darius and Brooklynn seemed to be the most affected based on how they were shedding the most tears as they hugged one another.
"What was that thing?" Maisie asked Darius after he pulled away from Brooklynn.
"We call him Thanos Rex," Darius replied after wiping his eyes. "He's a heavily modified genetic engineered Tyrannosaurus Rex."
"Oh. . . Great," Maisie replied with heavy sarcasm. "What's he doing here?"
"Isn't that the billion dollar question," Yaz replied. "This place isn't what it looks like. This isn't a town, it's an island with different biomes and they're filled with different genetic engineered dinosaurs and animals."
"And we're here to get you out of here." Sammy spoke up.
Maisie stared at the Texan before looking to the others. She forced a chuckle. "Wait, wait, wait," you mean to tell me that this whole place is fake?" she asked them.
"Ever notice that we're the only people out and about even after the sirens went out?" Ben asked in response.
Maisie opened her mouth to retort but then she stopped and realized that he was right. Those sirens should have woke up the neighbors, someone should have stepped out of their house or the police should have been out telling people that there was a dinosaur that looked like something out of King Kong was on the prowl. And yet there wasn't any of that. Every person she sees during the day always seem to disappear indoors after 8:30.
But that meant her whole life wasn't real at all. It never was a life to begin with.
"Wow," Maisie gave a self-deprecating chuckle. "From squirting ketchup into a bottle to finding out my life's a whole God damn lie and there's dinosaurs out here. Hehehe-hahaha! Oh-oh-ho! This is just fantastic!"
"I know this is a lot to take in," Darius said, stepping forward and placing a hand on Maisie's shoulder. "But we'll explain everything fully as soon as we're somewhere safe, preferably off this island. In the meantime, I need you to trust us."
There was something in Darius's eyes and his tone that told Maisie he was telling the truth. Something told her he could be trusted.
"Okay," Maisie said with a nod of her head.
They all sprinted to a classroom halfway down the long hall, where Brooklynn and Darius ran to the thermostat on the far wall.
Maisie eyed the room-there was no hint of a way out. It looked like a regular classroom with its whiteboard and wooden desks all in a row. Though, on the floor, she spotted an out of place shadow, one that traced a circle in the open space between the teacher's and the students' desks.
Brooklynn pulled a key card from her pocket and waved it in front of the thermostat. The machine beeped, then disappeared into the wall. A numerical keypad came out in its place.
"Shoot," Brooklynn muttered to Darius as she punched in a series of numbers that all resulted in the same disagreeing beep. "It's not accepting the hacked codes. Try your batch," she said to Darius.
"Don't you think it's weird that the hall is really, really dark despite there are windows?" Sammy suddenly asked as she and Yaz stood near the door.
"Now that you mentioned it," Yaz said before the sirens started once more.
It was even louder in the school-the noise blared from the overhead speakers.
Maisie looked left and right and saw the Campers all holding their ears, the desperation clearly taking hold of them. Darius and Brooklynn screamed at one another over the racket.
Brooklynn slammed her fist against the pad while Darius swung his baseball bat, sending sparks flying.
Suddenly, the floor around Maisie started to vibrate. She held her arms out to steady herself, eyes frantically searching for the source of the shaking.
Then a tube-like section of the floor rose up between the desks like an elevator. And when it stopped just clear of the ceiling, so did the sirens.
"Uh. . . Guys?" Maisie said, frozen in place and the Campers looked at the tube from where they were.
Something crawled out from the tube, disappearing into the shadows. The tube retracted back into the floor with a hiss.
Brooklynn and Darius rushed to Maisie's side with Yaz and Sammy joining them. "I think there's something-"
Before she could finish, a large reptilian and clawed hand reached out from the shadows. Maisie inhaled as if about to scream as the claws curled inward, the largest one seemed to caress her face.
A reptilian head leaned out of the shadows. It had crimson red eyes, quill-like feathers on the back, a streak of yellow on its sides and a mouthful of sharp teeth.
The Indoraptor's lips curled up in a smile. "Hello, Maisie."
Without thinking, Maisie spoke, "Ripper."
It was then that Maisie was hit with memories. Memories of nearly five years, five years of training with the Indoraptor. Training with Ripper.
"I'll flank around them on the left," Maisie told Ripper. "Flank their right."
"Okay, I'll do it, but not because you told me." the Indoraptor replied, trying to sound like he was annoyed or offended by her order.
Playing with Ripper.
Maisie held up a laser pointer and aimed at the ground and began to move the red dot left and right in front of the Indoraptor.
"What are you doing?" Ripper asked. "The ground is not a practice target, it's just the ground. Why are you pointing the laser at the-?" His question was cut off by himself as he stared at the moving red dot on the ground.
And then he pounced on the red dot, covering it with his hands. "Gotcha!" he exclaimed with a smile. But then the red dot zoomed across the floor away from him. "Huh? Hey!"
The Indoraptor chased after the red dot like a cat, causing Maisie to laugh with a smile.
Back to the present, Maisie smiled and then hugged the Indoraptor's snout with her arms while laughing.
Darius and the others looked confused and that says a lot for them.
"You know what? Not going to ask," Yaz suddenly declared. "Let's get the Hell out of this place."
And so they did get out of the biome, but they also ran into Daniel Kon. Or more accurately, his BRADs and traps.
"I'm glad to finally meet you face to face, Ms. Lockwood," Daniel said as Ripper was dragged away by two BRAD drones. "I'm Daniel Kon. Kash here has told me much of your progress."
Maisie clenched her fists. "What is this place?"
"This is my island, a United Nations Mantah Corp Military Base." Kon answered. "This is where we conduct research and test our assets."
"What kind of research?"
Kon moved within arm's reach of her, looking at the screens. "Dinosaurs." he said simply. "Genetic engineering."
A loud roar suddenly echoed out. Maisie spun toward it. Down the hall were cages.
In one cage, Ferdinad.
The other, Thanos Rex.
Both dinosaurs pace, the Stegoceratops bellowing, slamming his tail on the ground and Thanos Rex ramming his head against his cell wall, causing it to vibrate, their aggression targeting Kon.
"Your friends put up a good fight," Kon motioned to the Campers that were on the ground after being zapped by a BRAD. "But we've had you all under surveillance since they broke into your simulation. It gave the perfect opportunity to test these assets together. Though it is a shame about the Mortem Rex."
"So it was all a test," Maisie said.
"That's right, every simulation we've put you through over the years since you were five years old, you've come back stronger, smarter, faster." Kon replied, sounding proud. "You're the first of human cloning made for combat."
"I'm. . . a clone?" Maisie replied.
"Yes, your creator originally based you off his deceased daughter," Kon replied. "So my sources say."
Maisie glanced over to the Nublar Campers before she heard one of the dinosaur hybrids slamming against their cage.
"You don't have to worry about them," Daniel said, if only to reassure himself. He punched some command into his clipboard and another set of doors closed in front of the two dinosaur hybrids as they wailed and roared a final cry.
Maisie heard a metallic clanging then noticed a video of them on the screens. Their cells were being moved.
"You'll see them again, likely in your final training. Either the South China Sea or somewhere else. We haven't decided yet."
"Training?"
"We place you with a human in a location from dinosaur encounters in the past," Kon replied. "The tropical jungle or an urban setting and then we let one of the dinosaurs inside. The assets are familiar with the landscape and so are you via your mental programs. The dinosaurs have their own purposes, but you and the other clones are and will be made to create a soldier capable of protecting human life from any type of threat in any environment."
Maisie took an unsteady breath. "What happens now?"
"We'll wipe your memory, especially of these kids, then we ready you for another scenario." Daniel replied, glancing at the Nublar Campers briefly, seemingly unbothered that his son wasn't among them. "Given how this trial went, we're closer to having you out in the field by the time you're eighteen."
Something clicked inside Maisie then as the Nublar Kids woke up, sending a wave of fire through her body. She was nothing more than a puppet, created only to answer someone else's calls.
But if she were nothing more than a genetic clone, then how could Kon explain how Maisie felt riding her bike, that feeling of carefree? Or how she felt playing with Ripper? How could she harbor a desire to leave Vale, to go beyond its borders, if she were programmed for nothing but war?
She was more than that. She knew she was.
In a split second, Maisie snatched the spear Ben had dropped and pointed it at Kon. Adrenaline coursed through her body-she wasn't going down without a fight.
Kon chuckled. "You can't hurt me."
"I may not be able to," Maisie said, smirking herself. "But he can."
Kon spun around just in time to see Ripper lunging at him with open jaws that clamped down on his upper body, his claws sank into his lower torso and then he ripped the man's upper body upward while pulling the other half downwards.
Ripper snorted in disgust as he tossed/spat the two halves of Daniel Kon aside. "Yuck, that guy did NOT taste good." he hissed.
"How did he. . .?" Brooklynn asked, gesturing to the Indoraptor.
"It's a trick we made up a while back," Maisie explained. "Play dead, like an opossum or act unconscious when he's zapped/tranquilized." She turned her attention to the screens and turned to them the surveillance of the cages.
She looked at Ripper before walking down a hall, the Indoraptor following after her.
Soon, she arrived in a large room filled with the dinosaurs and hybrids that were made. Trapped in their cells, unwittingly and unwillingly waiting for their next simulations.
Maisie drew in a sharp breath. They were all captives here.
Darius and the others walked in after her. She turned her head to a control panel on the wall. She looks at the Campers. "I have to. They're alive, like me."
"You've broken free," Darius said. "Help them do the same."
Maisie nodded and then reached the control pad. She unlocked the cages one by one.
The first caged hybrid to step out was a white Indoraptor with a blue strip running down its flank and lacked the quills like Ripper.
"Ah, of course she's the first one to show up," Ripper hissed to Maisie and the Nublar Kids as if they could understand him. Though, Maisie saw a glint of something in his red eyes as he looked back to the white Indoraptor. "Ma meilleure ennemie."
Then Thanos Rex stepped into view, followed by Ferdinad, Alpha 06, Freddy Kruegar/Ultimatasaurus, Spinoraptors, Carnoraptors, a Ankyloducus.
But then something else stepped out of the shadows, one that towered over all the predators. The creature had two sets of arms, two small like the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the other two were long, muscular and touching the ground like the forelimbs of a chimpanzee and its head was large, round and bulbous like a beluga whale.
"That's new," Brooklynn remarked.
Maisie looked around at the hybrids and mutants before her. "Wanna get out of here?" she asked nonchalantly as they all looked towards her.
The D-Rex snorted a growl to her question. "Let's blow this fucking dump."
Maisie smiled and typed in the final commands and the large doors in front of them all opened up.
And real sunlight shined in her face for the first time.
Whew!
That sure took a while to write.
If someone would like me (Or if they want) to extend this story line, I'm all ears.
Now the next "What If" will feature a special guest from a different dinosaur movie franchise.
Here's a hint.
"A mouthful of teeth and a bad attitude!"