Tedium

Author's Note:

This is a request from dracologistmaster. He provided a story prompt, and I am answering it. Okay, let me set up the story: Henry Wu has been creating dinosaurs for years and he got bored. So he started making hybrids, his first successful hybrid being the Indominus Rex. The I-Rex escapes her paddock, but is brought down by ACU not far from the cage (as in the scene by the brook, ACU decided to be competent and actually prepare). It has been three years since then. Wu had been busying himself with making more hybrids (the I-Rex is still highly popular, but her popularity has been waning), a Stegoceratops, an Ankylodocus, and several others. But Henry Wu has grown predictably bored once again. So he has set out to bring back the massive Spinosaurus from Isla Sorna. But for some reason this new challenge hasn't peaked his excitement in the slightest bit… he's become more interested in the man who is helping him, Owen Grady.

XXX

Prologue:

Why did I decide to actually come with them? Henry Wu thought. He and thirty of Jurassic World's finest ACU members and twenty of InGen's soldiers were trekking through the marshes of Isla Sorna. Plus one Owen Grady, Raptor tamer extraordinaire. Not that his raptors could even be considered tame. He had elected to go along because there could be Raptors on the island, and if anyone could talk them down, it would be Owen.

Ah, I remember, I was bored, Wu realized. After the immense success of his first hybrid, the Indominus Rex, he had been ordered to continue his research. It was difficult to find dinosaurs that were compatible to fuse, but he had found several. Mostly herbivores, but he hoped to change that soon. The Indominus was a massive animal, now fifty feet head to tail. But its intelligence had begun to unnerve people. He would never tell people that he used his own DNA to stabilize the beast, which was why she was so intelligent.

Henry hoped to make a hybrid even larger than the Indominus, and there was only really one carnivore larger than the T-Rex that Wu could think of. A Spinosaurus. The idea was to fuse a Spino with a T-Rex, but first he would have to get a DNA sample. Hence why he had brought a literal army to Isla Sorna, it was home to the only Spinosaurus sample on the planet. Jurassic World could use a Spinosaurus to display and it would further Wu's research, but the tricky part was capturing the beast.

The Spino in question is forty-five feet long and has an explosive temper. It has been known to hunt down poachers for revenge. The idea was that they would tranquilize the Spino, radio for their truck, and then load it on the boat to Jurassic World. But Wu wasn't so sure that they could keep the Spino asleep for that long. And Wu was putting his own life on the line, the beast needed to stay down for as long as possible.

Suddenly, there was a loud ROAR! The Spinosaurus burst from the thick, brackish lake. The soldiers opened fire on the beast while Wu stood in awe of its size and ferocity. Sure, when the Indominus had escaped, everyone was certain that the park was doomed. After it killed commander Hamada and most of the troops sent to contain it, Wu was sure that it was unstoppable. But he wasn't there. And she was eventually contained. The Spinosaurus was giving him the same feeling, only multiplied by a thousand because he was standing witness to the entire fight.

InGen soldiers were sent flying by its tail, Owen only barely manage to escape its nightmarish, crocodile jaws, and ACU crumpled before its almighty claws. The soldiers fired specially made shotguns that shot tranquilizer darts, specially designed for the Spinosaurus. But the Spino was just brushing off the fire as if mosquitoes were picking at its tough scales. Wu could say that the Indominus was more frightening because she was cruel, calculating, and intentionally sadistic.

The Spinosaurus was none of those things. It was almost merciful, giving each soldier a quick warrior's death. It did not think, it only charged into the fight, teeth bared and claws splayed. Those who had the misfortune of being caught in its massive jaws were quickly crunched up and swallowed, unlike the security guard that the Indominus swallowed whole. They were both terrifying forces to be reckoned with, but Wu would have to give a slight edge to his creation in the terrifying factor.

The Spino has been stuck multiple times with the tranquilizers, but it refused to go down. Both the InGen commander and the ACU commander had been caught by its claws, but Owen seemed to have taken command. He was yelling out orders as the few remaining troops backed away in retreat. Owen darted underneath the Spino to hit its sensitive underbelly. Finally, the Spino started to teeter, its eyes became glazed, and it toppled over. It had fallen asleep.

Shouldering his shotgun, Owen marched over to Wu and shook him vigorously. "Hey? Are you still alive? You need to call for the truck," Owen ordered. Owen had thought that Wu coming along was insane. Wu was not a fighter, and he was too valuable to be lost doing something stupid.

"How many have we lost?" Wu asked. He couldn't tear his gaze from the Spino, it was so big. He had never been this close to any other large carnivore except Rexy, the Jurassic World T-Rex.

"More than half," Owen responded. He surveyed the field of corpses and tried to think of the best way to get them all out of here. Before the Raptors smelled the carnage.

Wu grimaced, but quickly composed himself, "At least we got it." He pulled out his radio and ordered the truck to come to them. Thankfully, they weren't far from the port, this was an in and out job.

"Him," Owen mumbled softly. The Spino was definitely a male. Wu made a mental note, but pretended not to hear him.

"They'll be here in five minutes." The truck that they had gotten was a semi pulling a huge open top trailer. Hopefully the truck wouldn't get stuck in the marshy ground. Wu watched as the remaining soldiers piled the deceased. It was decided that they would burn the carcasses. It might scare off the raptors if they think that there is a forest fire.

The truck arrived. The flatbed that the semi towed was a custom design. It had a conveyer belt to assist in loading the dinosaur. All they had to do was jam the ramp under him and turn on the belt. Of course the remaining men had to help by pulling the Spino up onto the bed with ropes, but it was surprisingly easy to do so. Before the soldiers knew it, the Spino was packed onto the truck and tied down. The pile of deceased men had been burning for a few minutes and there were no signs of any raptors.

The truck was loaded onto the boat and they set sail to Jurassic World. Guards had been assigned to the Spino to make sure that he stayed asleep. He did. Wu was surprised that everything was going so well. Besides losing over thirty men, the Spino was safely stowed away in the belly of the ship and they were half-way to Jurassic World already. Wu had already begun taking blood samples of the Spino. He didn't know what would be compatible with the massive Spino, but he hoped that it would be a T-Rex.

XXX

Dr. Wu was in his lab studying the DNA samples he had taken. He was alone, except for his assistant. All of the other geneticists had gone home for the night. A small ping sounded. The DNA analysis was finished. "Ah, I hoped as much," Wu mused. The Spino was compatible with a T-Rex… but only a T-Rex. Nothing else would fuse with the massive carnivore.

"T-Rex?" his assistant questioned. Wu only nodded his head. "Shall I begin the fusing process?" Again, Wu only nodded. The fusing process was quite complex. Basically, the two (or more) blood samples were put into a machine that isolated certain dominant traits. It would then begin to form a strand of DNA that would be copied billions of times. The DNA would be combined in a special liquid that would be injected into a makeshift embryo. The embryo would then be injected into the egg that it would eventually hatch from.

Wu leaned back with a sigh, bored once again. He had hoped that his little expedition to Isla Sorna would be the solution to his problem, but it hadn't done a thing. "I had hoped that the Spinosaurus would be compatible with other things," Wu groaned.

"Well the Spinosaurus is pretty unique, I'm not really surprised that nothing else can combine with it," his assistant said. The fusing process has begun, now they had to wait until it was ready to be injected into the egg.

"I suppose so," Wu said angrily. He had forgotten that there was no hope when dealing with science. "Do you ever think that you have learned all that you can?" Wu asked.

"Not really, the world is so big and I doubt that we can learn all that there is to know," his assistant said.

"That's not what I'm asking. I asked if you ever thought that you have learned all that you can, not if you have learned everything."

"Oh… well, I guess I think that I have learned all that I can about certain things, but not everything that I want to learn."

"I can agree with that. After I had successfully cloned that Suchomimus, I believed that I had learned all that I could about dinosaurs, so I moved on to hybrids. But now I'm beginning to believe that I have learned all that there is here too. So now I ask, what's next?"

His assistant was quiet for she did not know the answer. She could claim that Wu was going through a mid-life crisis and he shouldn't be worrying about these things. Hybrids were still a promising field, there are still many different combinations that can be made. She didn't think that she has learned all that there is to know… but then again, she isn't Wu. She could only smile at the troubled man, she knew that her opinion wouldn't be appreciated.

There was a knock on the door. "Yes come in," Wu said. He picked up his clipboard and a pen and pretended to write. It was a little trick that he had picked up: look like you're busy and people will leave you alone. It is especially effective against people he doesn't like.

A tall, portly man walked through the door. "Hey Dr. Wu. I heard that you managed to get the Spinosaurus back here," it was Hoskins. He marched right over to Wu's desk and sat down opposite of him. Wu's assistant excused herself from the room. "I heard this from ACU, none of my men reported back to me."

"That would be because they are all dead," Wu said, no hints of sympathy in his voice. Although the loss of life was troubling, he didn't particularly like Hoskins or any of his mercenaries.

"Well at least they don't expect to be paid," Hoskins chuckled. Wu only forced a smile. "Anyways, I came to see if you were finally getting around to making us that hybrid. You know, the one that we requested three years ago?"

"Something hyper-intelligent and about as large as a Raptor? I'm sorry, but what I am working on right now is not going to fulfill that order," Wu personally thought that the "weaponized dinosaurs" scheme was one of the worst ideas on the planet. When InGen decided that the Raptors weren't making sufficient progress, they ordered Wu to make them a hybrid that would be more willing to follow orders.

"I'll save my spiel because you've heard it about a million times, but you know that we'd pay good money for our hybrid. And if it performs to standard, then we'd order a dozen more. That means more money. We would have used the Indominus, but she is too big to be useful in most situations," Hoskins ranted. Wu didn't understand why the dinosaur had to be the size of a Raptor, something about searching tunnels and caves. Wouldn't they rather have something that could go toe-to-toe with a tank?

"It's not about the money, Hoskins. I can only combine certain dinosaurs in certain ways. If you want them to be the size of a Raptor, then the hybrid needs to have Raptor DNA. Not a lot of things are compatible with Raptor DNA. The Indominus, yes, but she is made up of so many different things that it is difficult to tell where one DNA signature begins and another ends. And the only reason she isn't the size of a Raptor is because if there was any more or any less Rex DNA in her, she would be too unstable to use," Wu explained.

Hoskins sighed angrily and stood from his seat. "Henry… can I call you Henry?"

"No," was Wu's answer.

"That's fine. Look, I want to show you something," Hoskins beckoned Wu to follow him. Wu trailed behind Hoskins as they left the labs. Wu was cautious, staying behind Hoskins the entire time. They got into a truck and Hoskins drove them to the Raptor paddock. They stepped out of the truck and Hoskins asked, "Do you know where we are?"

"The Raptor enclosure," Wu responded. Hoskins nodded and led Wu over to the paddock. Despite it being nearly ten o'clock, Owen and his assistants were working with the Raptors. Currently Owen was up on the walkway giving commands to the little beasties while Barry and the others watched.

Wu had no idea what kind of training the Raptors were going through, he just knew that it has been well over three years since the program started and no visible progress has been made. Wu flinched when the large blue Raptor snapped at her sister and tossed her to the ground. Owen tried to regain control, but the Raptors ran off on him. "You see, Wu? These Raptors just don't listen. They are intelligent and ferocious and they can take orders, but they refuse to follow commands. That's why we want a hybrid, something that is more intelligent, something that can be reasoned with and can obey. We thought the Indominus was the one… but she refuses to follow orders. You need to work with us, Wu," Hoskins explained.

Wu raised an eyebrow, "Work with you? I think that you need to understand that I just can't give these animals the will to obey. I can't zap sixty-five million years of instinct out of them." He crossed his arms as Hoskins approached him. Wu backed into the cage as Hoskins kept coming closer.

Hoskins opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off by Owen, who was descending the stairs to the walkway. "Hoskins, the Indominus doesn't obey because you didn't raise it right. I've been saying this for three years: you've abused that animal and now all it wants to do is destroy."

Hoskins whirled around to face Owen. Wu took a deep breath, though Hoskins didn't seem like an intimidating man, he was much larger and stronger than Wu. And Wu had no doubt that Hoskins was willing to use his strength to threaten him. "The Indominus was dangerous the moment she came out of that egg!" Hoskins practically screamed at Owen. They've clearly had this argument before.

"She was only a hatchling, she didn't know any better. She was trying to explore and learn about the world and you locked her up because you misunderstood her motives. You didn't even try to discipline her or teach her about the world, no, you immediately stuck her in a paddock with only her sister for company!" The two were practically touching foreheads. Although Hoskins was slightly taller than Owen, it was a minor difference, and Owen was definitely stronger and more muscular than Hoskins. Owen would win in a fight, then toss Hoskins into the raptor paddock to show him just how dangerous the Raptors really are.

"She ate her sister when she was only three months old!"

"Because you weren't feeding her properly," Owen argued. Then in was silent. Wu held his breath, it was like the calm before the storm. "I don't know why you didn't give them to a professional. You didn't even exert yourself as the dominant one in the relationship. You have no qualifications to be taming dinosaurs, Hoskins."

Hoskins only fumed and stomped off. He climbed into his truck and drove off, ignoring Wu's plea to wait. Now he was stuck with no ride, he would have to walk back to his labs. Owen rubbed his tired eyes, "When will he get this into his fat little head?"

"Having some trouble with your Raptors?" Wu asked innocently. Although warfare dinosaurs was a stupid idea, trained Raptors was very intriguing. Although it didn't look as if Owen has actually asserted himself as the alpha of this pack.

"Sometimes they follow orders and sometimes they don't. For some reason, Hoskins doesn't seem to understand this," Owen sighed. He began to walk around the paddock with Wu following. Most of his assistants have dispersed, only Barry remained.

"Well Hoskins isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed," Barry said. He had a slight French accent as he spoke. Owen broke out into laughter.

"Hell would freeze over before Hoskins would understand these Raptors. I'd probably have to feed him to them," Owen said. He turned to Wu, "What are you doing here?"

"Hoskins brought me here."

"What does he want from you?"

Wu paused, technically InGen's business was supposed to be classified information. But then again, Wu didn't really care what InGen wanted. "He wants me to make him a… more agreeable Raptor hybrid."

Owen made an 'oh' sound, "And are you?" he asked.

"I'm not sure if it is even possible."

"Even if it was possible, they'd probably treat it just like they did the Indominus… which did not end well for them." Owen paused and seemed to think. "Actually, it would be nice if I could understand them, might make it easier to determine exactly how to approach them."

A lightbulb went off in Wu's head. A new challenge! He had made the Indominus with human DNA, but that was only a small amount. What if he could make a human with dinosaur DNA? Theories and ideas flooded his brilliant mind, it was possible. He was so distracted that he almost missed Owen saying, "That would fix the communication problem."

"Actually, Mr. Grady, I think that I may be able to help you." Owen raised his eyebrows higher than he ever had before and Barry looked at Wu like he had grown a second head. "If you would only give me a lift back to my lab, perhaps I can see what I can do." Owen looked at Barry, silently asking if this was a good idea. Barry only shrugged.

"Sure, what the hell," Owen said as he lead Wu to his motorcycle. Wu had never driven on a motorcycle before, so he was reasonably terrified.

"Oh, I have to see this," Barry mumbled before starting his ATV and following Owen and Wu.

XXX

So, what do you think? It's a good start, I think. I am now working on several things at once, but don't you all worry about that. I am more than capable of multi-tasking. Right now, this has consumed me, so I will likely begin writing the next chapter immediately. Stay tuned for the next one, oh and thank you dracologistmaster for the wonderful idea. For those of you who are wondering exactly what the prompt is, you can go and find it under his stories. For the ones who would rather be kept in the dark, keep reading.