DESTRUCTION | Zach Mitchell

Chapter Two • Visitor

"Incoming!"

Adira groaned from her place in bed and rolled over to see the sun shining in. She flinched at the bright light and tried to ignore her brothers yelling. She pulled the blankets over her head and was ready to fall back asleep until she heard a car pull up.

She sighed in annoyance and pulled herself out of bed. She walked over to the window and peaked out to see what her brother had been yelling about and noticed a white car pull up. They barely every got visitors out at their bungalow unless it was important or someone close to them, like Barry.

She was half way rolling her eyes until she noticed who walked out of the car, Claire. She jumped in surprise and ran over to her cupboard to pull on a white tank top and her favourite black denim shorts, she had to dress good for her boss. She swore as she hopped to pull on her black boots while trying to check the time, all while she made her way to the door. She didn't get a good look at the clock but she knew it was definitely earlier than midday.

"Ms Grady" Claire greeted her when she finally got out, she looked to be extremely glad to see her so she knew she had interrupted on Owen's terrible flirting.

"Hey Claire" she waved. She liked Claire but she was very... pristine? Controlling? nevertheless she was nice and Adira aspired to do as well as her. "Something wrong?" she asked a little nervously. She made her way to Owen's side at the top of the steps. She wasn't sure what Claire wanted but she really hoped it didn't have anything to do with her exams, she had worked hard to pass them or they would take her away from Owen and her Raptors.

"I'm here concerning the new asset, we were hoping you and your brother would come to evaluate the paddock for vulnerabilities" she told her while she tugged on her very white jacket that covered her very white blouse and skirt.

"Asset?..." she trailed off waiting for an answer, she looked at Owen and waited for an explanation.

"They made a new species" he explained. She placed her hands on her hips and looked at Claire with raised eyebrows.

"You just went and made a new dinosaur?" she asked annoyed, she was trying not to yell since Claire was her boss but she was a little pissed.

"That's what I said" Owen chimed in with a smirk. She sent him a small glare to get him to shut up.

"As I told your brother, it's kind of what we do here" she clarified with a sigh.

"Why us?" she asked. She looked at Owen but he only shrugged, it seemed she had just walked out when he had asked that question.

"I guess Mr Masrani thinks since you're both able to control the raptors.." she began before Owen cut her off. Adira had nodded at the mention of Mr Masrani, he was one of the few people that agreed that she was fit to train the Raptors. Others believed she was too young, irresponsible to do such a job. Claire made her way up the steps out of the dirt. She cringed at the sight of her white heels stained by it.

"It's all about control with you. We don't control the Raptors, it's a relationship" he told her a little annoyed that she had come to them. Adira nodded in agreement. "It's about mutual respect... it's why you and I never had a second date"

Adira sighed in annoyance, she had a feeling the conversation was heading this way. Owen always found a way to annoy her.

"Excuse me? I never wanted a second date" Claire forced out. She looked over to Adira as if wanting to prove a point, unknown to her, she had heard to story many times from a complaining Owen. She knew they had something though. He walked down to work on his bike again, Adira cringed as she watched him trying to fix something that she definitely broke. She had begged him to teach her how to drive the bike since she was a natural at driving cars, but apparently they work differently.

"Sorry Claire, you did print out an itinerary for your night out" Adira shrugged trying to distract herself from her embarrassing memory at trying driving the bike.

"I'm an organised person plus he showed up board shorts!" she defended exasperated.

"She's got you there" Adira nodded. Claire smiled a little proudly before realising they were gone way off topic.

"Can we please just focus on the asset" she sighed. Owen got up from his seat with a serious look on his face so Adira knew she had struck a nerve.

"The asset?" he asked "Look I get it, you're a busy woman and it's easier to pretend their numbers on a spreadsheet but they're not" he told her. Adira saw where he was going and agreed with his point.

"They're alive" she pointed out a small nod to Owen. They weren't pets, although Enzo was cute enough to be one, she understood that they were wild animals that weren't made to be domesticated. Building a new dinosaur is playing a very dangerous game.

"I'm fully aware that they're alive" she stuttered at the statement.

"You might have made them in a test tube, but they don't know that. They gotta' eat, they gotta' hunt, they gotta'..." he told her while making suggestive hand gestures. Adira rolled her eyes annoyed at how he was making his point, even if she agreed with him. "You relate to at least, one of them"

Adira groaned and went back inside to get her black leather jacket as they finished up their weird flirting game. When she came back out she noticed Claire was sitting in the car, so she made her way over to Owen.

"You ready to go?" she asked. She pulled on her jacket and noticed the look on his face.

"You're not coming" he told her seriously. She rolled her eyes annoyed.

"They want both of us Owen. Mr Masrani trusts me as much as he trusts you. Plus, it's in a cage and I play with Raptors for fun, what's the worst that could happen" she tried to prove her point. She noticed him looking at the car longingly and a light bulb seemed to turn on in her mind. "Oh... you don't want me there because you wanna' be alone with Claire" she said while making the same suggestive hand gestures he had done previously.

"No, It's dangerous-" he tried to tell her until she cut him off.

"Nah, I've got your back brother, I've been rooting for you and Claire for two years" she told him with a sly smirk. "It's okay, I'll just go explore the park for the hundredth time"

She heard him scoff but ignored it by jumping into the front seat of the car with Claire. Before she shut the door she turned to look at him.

"It's costing you the front seat though!"

AN

I'm just changing the timeline a bit, so when Zach and Gray arrived they waited until the next day to go exploring.