Fight or Flight » JW / Avengers

chapter two

[ chapter two ; ]

"We also have a special guest. Mr. Masrani felt you should be informed . . ."

Owen gave Claire a studious look. First he was supposed to come check out the paddock of some whackadoo hybrid dinosaur, and now he was being informed of a 'special guest'? "Why should I care?" he asked, not bothering to disguise his confusion and slight annoyance. "I'm not exactly part of your people-program."

"Human relations," Claire corrected with a quiet sigh. "And no, you're not, but-- well, we have an Avenger on the island," she said, shrugging so nonchalantly it took Owen an extra couple seconds to process what she'd said. "Mr. Masrani wanted you to be aware in case you felt we needed further consultation."

He was already more than positive that they'd need 'further consultation' -- they'd made brand-new dinosaur, after all -- but instead of voicing that opinion then and there, he just shook his head and climbed the steps of his bungalow. "Look, Claire-- you told me to change, I'm going to change. We can talk about our new Avenger friend in the car, right?"

When he looked over his shoulder he saw her roll her eyes, right before getting back into her car. It was enough to cause him to smirk, but he kept any further comments to himself.

He did have to change his shirt. Look nice for the new murder-saur, or whatever.

>>>

Wanda was a bit perturbed by the fact that she had seen the Mitchell brothers a handful of other times since their initial landing. Every time she did, they were with the PA-turned-babysitter. The eldest, Zach, seemed entirely unamused by the entire park, while the youngest, Gray, was entirely enthralled.

Wanda found Gray to be adorable, from observation. Zach reminded her of a sulkier version of Pietro . . .

She shook her head and cleared her thoughts, tearing her gaze away from the Mitchell's. She figured she might as well find something else to do. Maybe see a dinosaur that wasn't going to be eating other living creatures. Triceratops actually sounded nice, she'd always liked those the most as a kid . . .

She made her way to the triceratops paddock, ducking in and out of the crowds as she went along. She was more excited about seeing a giant herbivore than she was about seeing any more carnivores. She'd had enough blood shed in her life for a while.

>>>

"So, let me get this straight," Owen said, facing Claire as much as he could in her car, "Masrani gave Tony Stark a ticket here, hoping he'd come give his professional opinion as a superhero--"

"As a businessman," Claire corrected.

"--whatever." Owen continued, "Except instead of Tony Stark coming, he sent the Scarlet Witch, the one from Sokovia who can do the weird mind things."

Claire shot him a highly unimpressed look. "Your explanation is horrible, but yes. That is . . . about right."

Owen hummed quietly, and didn't say anything else after that. Scarlet Witch, the Avenger, was at the park. He wasn't sure how she'd be of help with the dinosaurs (a guy with a suit of armor seemed a little more helpful) but he figured, maybe, if worst came to worst . . . having an Avenger around wasn't a terrible plan.

He knew he needed to see the dinosaur first.

"We call it the Indominus Rex."

Owen scoffed, following Claire up the steps. Thus far, his observations were that it was a generic paddock -- huge, but generic. Bigger than the raptor one, but there was no surprise there. "Indominus Rex? Really?"

"You should hear a four year old try to say archaeornithomimnus," Claire retorted.

Owen shook his head. "You should hear you say it." He followed her inside, glancing over at the man in front of the main control panel, before striding across the area. He immediately took notice of the cracks in the glass, but after that, his gaze was on what was beyond.

And he couldn't see anything.

"You sure she's in there?" he asked, unimpressed. "What, is she hiding in the basement? Bathroom? Rec room?"

"It was just here," Claire frowned, looking over to the security man. "We were just here. Try dropping a slab."

Owen watched as a side of meat was lowered with a crane. He turned to Claire. "That's how you're feeding her?"

"She tried to take off one of our workers arms once she figured out the feeding pattern," Claire retorted.

Owen shook his head slowly, stepping away from her, toward the edge of the windows. "Raised in captivity . . . no interaction . . . the only positive relationship it has is with that crane."

"So what, we should get it a friend? Schedule play dates?"

"Probably not a good idea."

"Where is she?" Claire almost groaned then, whirling toward the man. "Do a thermal check."

Owen wasn't watching as the screens each began to flash red. His gaze was on the claw markings on the side of the paddock.

"That's--not possible--"

"Uh, were those always there?" he asked, right before witnessing Claire go into full on panic mode.

"I can track it-- there's a tracker-- I just need to get to the control room--"

And she was gone, leaving Owen with the other man, whom looked somewhat pale but mostly disturbed. "You wanna let me in there so I can have a look around?" Owen asked conversationally.

The look the man gave him practically screamed "are you nuts?" but he slowly nodded. "Yeah, I mean . . . sure."

>>>

They were telling guests they had shut down attractions north of the park, due to 'complications.'

Wanda didn't think that sounded good, but any worker she encountered knew little more than that they were doing what they were told. She wasn't a big fan of taking blind orders, though . . . so she took her own brand of action.

She stuck around the triceratops paddock, manipulating some workers into completely missing her presence. At first she figured she'd just hover around the animals, and see what happened, but then they all began to move south. It was an evident move, too, almost all at once.

The only reasoning she could find in their heads was that their instincts were screaming 'predator.'

That was when Wanda knew something was very, very wrong.