THUD!
An Atrociraptor went flying backward, crashing straight into the metal wall of a shipping container!
Before it could shake off the dizzying impact, it opened its eyes to see a terrifying dark shadow reflected in its yellow pupils. Its blurred vision relayed the danger to its brain, and without a second to think, it followed instinct and leapt!
THUD...
The sound of metal being struck echoed through the underground black market once more. Echo missed her pounce and slammed directly into the container!
Though the Atrociraptor hadn't fully recovered, it immediately realized this was a golden opportunity. It sprang up from the ground, ready to give Echo a hug that would rip her heart and lungs out.
Low chirps.
But Echo just shook her head, fully clearing her senses. In almost another zero-frame start, she leapt before the Atrociraptor could, colliding with it in mid-air!
Wait... is this... is this right?
Not until the Atrociraptor was sent flying backward again did it realize what kind of monster it was actually dealing with.
Echo: What have you killed?
Atrociraptor: Humans. Many humans.
Echo: I helped take down two ultimate artificial weapons.
Yes, the bulletproof kind.
The Atrociraptor's strength against humans was overwhelming, of course, but against Jurassic World Velociraptors? It was no different from water, no matter how you opened it, it was still useless.
"Aunnng-roar!"
Echo watched the Atrociraptor crash into a market stall and turned her head toward the sound of another commotion.
An indescribably joyful chirp.
Delta's leg strength had been slightly hampered by an old injury, so she utilized the environment to her advantage, kicking one of the naive Atrociraptors right onto a grill.
As she watched it roll off the flames, its magnificent feathers catching fire and searing, leaving charred marks on its body, Delta let out a joyful, mocking cackle.
Good thing I only ever broke a bone, never fell onto a grill and roasted to death... Wait? Why am I thinking about that?
Sound of shattering glass.
Clatter...
Transparent shards scattered across the floor as a third Atrociraptor appeared. It flew out of a shop along with the glass debris, scrambling and crawling as it fled the scene.
"Aok!"
Blue jumped onto a shattered window frame, not in any rush, and let out a high-pitched cry to summon her pack.
This pack of Atrociraptors seemed surprisingly durable in one-on-one combat, so Blue decided to use the pressure of teamwork to finish them off.
Wait... three-on-three? Where did the fourth one go?
"Remember how we got the Velociraptor into the truck?"
Owen and Barry crouched low, adopting Owen's family-taught raptor-taming hand signals. Their other teammates had already pulled back to pursue Santos.
After all... with Velociraptors and Atrociraptors tangled together, it was too easy to have friendly fire.
Low growls.
One Atrociraptor lowered its body, hissing as it slowly crept toward the two men. It was clear, however, that it had locked onto Barry, not Owen.
Behind the two men was a cage that had been opened by an Atrociraptor, and their intent was unspoken but obvious.
"I remember."
"Good... it's all yours?"
"No way."
Both men kept their eyes fixed on the Atrociraptor. Barry was far more frantic, stealing glimpses at Owen every few seconds.
"Roll at the last second. They can't change their path once they launch."
"But this is just a feint!"
"Velociraptors do that too. Don't be afraid."
Low growls.
The Atrociraptor's body lowered further, its pace slowing.
Barry stood in front of the open crate. Owen kept retreating, keeping himself parallel to the iron door.
"Now?"
"Almost... almost..."
Tiny beads of sweat broke out on their foreheads. Owen's voice began to tremble. Barry raised his body slightly, looking down at the Atrociraptor to bait an attack.
"Now?!"
"Not yet... NOW!"
Owen watched the angle of the Atrociraptor's legs. The previous attempt hadn't been enough, that rise had been a feint, but this time it was!
The moment Barry heard the command, he performed a side-flip, successfully causing the Atrociraptor to miss its pounce!
Unable to change its trajectory, it crashed into the dark iron cage. Owen slammed the button, locking the door shut!
THUD! THUD!
The sound of the impact echoed, but the cage didn't budge.
"Woo-hoo!" x2
…
"We've got a problem."
"What problem?"
"The girl's parents... Grady (Owen) and Dearing (Claire) are here."
Santos ducked into a dim alleyway to avoid the search team, communicating with Dodgson while peering outside.
Slightly heavy breathing.
Dodgson pinched the bridge of his nose. At this moment, he was no different from Masrani facing the collapse of the park. And outside, there was still a Giganotosaurus closing in...
Luckily, the girl has already been sent over. According to Dr. Wu, she can decipher the Giga's genome and then replicate one on the spot?
Hiss... why does that sound like total nonsense? Dr. Wu isn't lying to me, is he?
Dr. Wu had spun a reason even he didn't believe, but Dodgson believed it. Based on Dr. Wu's reputation and the current predicament of being besieged on all sides, he had no choice but to believe.
"Can you handle them?"
Problems had to be handled one by one. Dodgson's plan was to solve the easy ones first, then the difficult ones.
"I want more… uh!"
Sound of the phone hanging up.
"Hello? Hello?!"
…
"You... you're using something made for dinosaurs on a person?!"
Santos had thought the crisis was averted. The moment she stepped out of the alley, she was instantly floored by Claire with a stun gun!
"Where is my daughter?!"
She held a photo in one hand and pointed the stun gun at Santos with the other. Honestly, the way she questioned her was cut from the exact same cloth as Owen.
"She's not your—"
Sound of electricity.
"BioSyn... she was taken to BioSyn. You've already missed her. She's gone."
Claire's mind wandered for a second. Santos seized the opportunity to point a laser pointer at Claire. With a faint warning beep, Claire was instantly locked on.
"Aunnng-roar!"
The sound of an Atrociraptor came from the distance, and Santos smiled slightly... but she seemed to have forgotten she was in a passive position.
The moment Claire realized what was happening, she immediately jammed the stun gun into the woman!
"Argh... this isn't for…! Argh argh argh argh argh argh..."
She's dead (confirmed).
Claire didn't care about anything else and scrambled to flee!
"Eeng..."
An Atrociraptor was being held down by Blue with one foot, instinctively letting out a plea for help.
"Roar!"
Echo helped Blue pin the creature down, while Delta stood in front of the other two Atrociraptors.
"Roar?"
Suddenly, the three Atrociraptors received a signal. The two free ones looked at their companion, then at the horizon.
Without even three seconds of hesitation, they abandoned their pack mate and sprinted toward their objective!
This left the three Velociraptors stunned. They just... left their buddy behind like that?!
However, this was exactly what the humans had hoped for.
"Damn it, why is it slamming so hard all of a sudden? It's going to kill itself at this rate!"
The Atrociraptor captured by Owen and Barry had begun to slam itself against the cage without warning. A dull "thud-thud" sound echoed continuously inside the iron crate.
"Static... static... Owen! She was taken to BioSyn! There's an airfield on the north side of the island! Go!"
Claire's anxious comms came through, though there seemed to be a lot of background noise on her end.
Barry signaled to Owen. The latter nodded and quickly mounted the motorcycle parked on the side, revving the engine and charging out of the dinosaur black market!
Beep—
Suddenly, the cage behind Barry opened! The Atrociraptor, its head slightly bloodied, burst out once more, bypassing Barry and sprinting toward the exit.
"Oh! Man! I finally got it right just once!"
The truck driver who had originally been transporting the Atrociraptors hid in the cab, his face turning pale.
Crap. Why didn't the Atrociraptor eat that guy? There's no escaping the death penalty now.
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over here ——— pa-tre-on.c-om/AlexandrusTL [remove the hyphen for normal access]