𝔽𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕙 𝕠𝕗 𝔸𝕢𝕦𝕒𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕖 ~ 𝔹𝕖𝕟 ℙ𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕦𝕤 𝕩 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣

🦕ྀི (𝕍𝕀)

"But that's kind of my whole deal." Brooklyn protests. "You see, I have my own web channel--"

"And that's germane because...?"

Brooklyn sighs, seemingly apologetic, but I see a small glint of mischief in her eye. "I just wanted my followers to meet the genius who brought dinosaurs back to life. I mean, without you, there is no Jurassic World."

Wow, Brooklyn is pretty clever, in a manipulative way.

"But hey, if you wanna toil in the shadows while Masrani and John Hammond get all the credit, I respect that." Brooklyn says matter-of-factly.

Dr. Wu hesitates before turning back to the pink-haired girl, and saying, "How many people watch this web show of yours?"

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"Okay, Dr Wu. You're on." Brooklyn says, holding up the camera.

The doctor clears his throat and formally adjusts his tie before saying, "Hello. I'm Dr. Henry Wu, PhD. Welcome to one of our satellite Jurassic World genetics labs. I like to say that crating a dinosaur takes TIME--
T. technology: I. ingenuity; and M-E, me." His ego is practically flying sky high by now.

"Woah, eyeball! Whoo!" Sammy exclaims looking at an eyeball, indeed.

I shudder, and Brooklyn snaps a picture of me. Y/N sighs and tells her to delete it. Brooklyn shrugs and follows Y/N.

Sammy runs up to a screen of spiraling DNA. "Doctor Wu! What's that?!"

"Tree frog DNA. Unfortunately, I--"

Sammy gasps, her attention now on some grimy bones. "What's that?!"

"Siberian mammoth remains, extracted for--"

Sammy runs up to a glass enclosing a dark room, pressing her cheek against it. "Ooh! What's down that hall?"

"My private office." Dr. Wu says irritably "It's restricted."

This somehow takes the attention of Brooklyn, who's head snaps to the direction of the glass.

I wonder what she's gonna do.

Completely overcome with boredom, I sigh and walk to Dave, about to ask him when we can go back to camp so I can restock my sanitizer, but then he is staring at some eggs.

"Oh, I think one of these eggs is about to hatch." he smiles, and the other campers group together, with me directly in front of the cracking egg. "You guys look!"

"That's not possible." Doctor Wu frowns and walks over to us, also watching the egg slowly crick open. "That Ankylosaurus has only been incubating for ten weeks."

What does it matter? I think. I'm pretty excited. I just hope it won't be icky.

The egg finally cracks, spraying some type of goo all over my clothes, and I cry out in disgust. "Ew! Get it off me!"

The whole dinosaur is out now, except for its head, which is covered by a large piece of eggshell. The baby tries to take it off, but instead rolls to the ground. Thankfully, I catch it in time.

I hold it gently while taking of the piece of shell, and it smiles at me.

"Aw." I chuckle.

"Sweet!" Y/N beams at it, slowly stroking its armored head.

"One of its head bumps is bigger than the other." Brooklyn notes, taking a quick picture of it.

"Asymmetry? In my lab?" Dr. Wu says disbelievingly.

"She's so... tiny." Y/N mumbles. "I think we should call her Bumpy, for her head bumps."

I smile. "Bumpy it is. Welcome to the world, girl."

She squeals happily at both of us and we exchange pleased smiles.

"But she won't stay tiny for long, right?" Roxie says.

"That's the idea." Dr. Wu says dryly. "All dinosaurs go through an accelerated growth cycle. They're supposed to incubate for 13 weeks with no noticeable defects, but apparently this one slipped through."

I frown and mutter to Y/N, "I don't think she's defective. I think Bumpy's perfect the way she is."

Y/N smiles softly at me, and I feel a bit of heat rising to my face at her expression.

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Bumpy wriggles around on the incubatory table, and I pick her up and coo at her. Y/N does too, and Bumpy gives her a small lick on the nose.

"Well, that's it Ben, and Y/N. Looks like you both live here now." Roxie chuckles

"Time for you all to leave." Dr Wu snaps, coming out of nowhere and dragging Brooklyn by the cuff of her pink jacket. "Clearly, this group has no respect for my lab."

"But what about Bumpy?" I ask with reproachful eyes.

"Aw, Bumpy! You gave her a name! That's precious!" Dave beams.

Dr. Wu grabs the baby Ankylosaurus from Y/N's hands, but I notice that his touch is a bit gentle.

"The asset will soon be released into a herd of Ankylosaurus. Then she'll be their problem." Dr. Wu frowns deeply. "Just like you all will cease to be my problem when you leave."

I feel a bit of bile rise up my throat, and tears threaten to fall from being spoken to that way.

"All right! Bup-bup-bup-bup! Hit the road. We are not wanted here." Dave tries to break the tense air, leading us to the lab door.

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On the way back to camp, Y/N gives me a tight hug for reassurance, and she mumbles to my ear, "It'll be fine. Bumpy will be fine too, because herds protect their young."

I nod and fight back a sniffle.

I must've still looked sad, though, because Y/N frowns worriedly, staring at me all the way back to camp.

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Darius and Kenji greet us with heavy breathing and loud pants, holding their shovels.

It looks like they'd been doing a lot of work, but then the amount of dino dung hasn't changed.

"Why are you two so out of breath?" Roxie asks them suspiciously.

"Just doing the job we're told. How was the field trip?" Darius says.

"Oh, well, um, you know, Ben and Y/N fell in love with a dinosaur, and Superstar here got us booted from the lab." Yasmina replies bitterly.

"That is not what happened--!"

Sammy cuts Brooklyn off. "How'd the poop patrol go?"

Kenji proudly points to himself. "You all should've seen how I owned--"

"This valuable experience!" Darius quickly finishes. "Um, we learned a lot about ourselves, and, uh... Yep!"

"Oh! Well, then hit the showers." Roxie says.

"And maybe stay in there a while?"
Y/N suggests, holding her nose like I am doing.

"Use soap!" I call out. "Lots of soap!"

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What do you think is going on with our Doc Wu-wu?

Anyhow, I hope you liked the chapter!

Love,
-Spikey