There wasn't much left of Berkeley, California.
To both men, it looked as if an earthquake had leveled a quarter of the city. Small fires danced about, licking the toppled bricks walls and undersides of flipped cars still sizzling in defeat. To their flanks trickled livewire; sparks of yellow and blue crackled and popped with what little life remained within them. Ahead laid glass shards, blood, and broken frames in the street, scorching alive in the blazing heat of the desert. Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances were everywhere, trying their hardest to repel the damages. And it worked to some extent. But, even from the safety of their pickup truck, what their four eyes told them was far from the real truth.
"Fifteen found dead and over a hundred still injured after what observers say to be a clash between two massive creatures, ended with disaster in the sleepy town of Berkeley, California," a static voiceover called through their radio. "The public are still looking for answers as to what caused this, but all fingers still point to the aftermath of the Lockwood incident two years prior-"
"Jesus," Jameson gasped as Click snapped the radio off. "It's like hell written all over. Do you think-"
"No," Click muttered, turning his vehicle to the untouched side of Berkley's damages to park. "This has INGEN written all over it. Predators don't just snap like this, and I should know. Come on."
Click went to leave the truck, slamming the door shut to go gather his things. But Jameson stayed put, his eyes drifting down to the burner phone hidden between his legs. He had been using it for the time away from Click, and only now did he get a response from his boss, courtesy of a little buzz. And, so, his thumb flicked the top frame up to see what had come.
~~ Where are you.
Jameson looked up, noticing Click not paying attention to him, and typed back.
~ Tommy Peters picked me up from the hospital.
~~ Active-Military. Indoraptor Trainer. Two Daughters. Deceased Wife. Employee of INGEN.
~ Yes.
~~ ...
"Hey!" Click called. "Whatcha doing?" Jameson swallowed quietly, nibbling at his fingers and looking upon the coming response.
~~ Where are you.
"Jesus-"
~ Berkeley.
"Jameson!" Click tapped on the door. "Any day now!"
"Okay! Okay," he growled, slowly pushing the door open, eyes still fixed to the screen. All he saw were three dots of a typing anonymous source behind the pixelated darkness.
~~ ...
He awaited an answer from the phone, but, just as Click rounded the passenger side of the truck, Jameson clicked off the device, and drew it away. Click frowned, pausing short of his friend in his most hesitant state.
"Texting?"
"Just, um... checking to see if my sister's okay," Jameson muttered, lifting his phone. "You know she, um... lives around here."
"Oh." Click blinked. "Okay? Didn't know you had one."
"Well, I don't like sharing my private life with people," he huffed, stepping from the truck and tucking his phone away to his back pocket. "If it's not connected to work, I won't disclose it."
"Right."
Jameson looked to him for a brief second, then tapped a finger upon his shoulder before brushing by to wander to the destruction. All Click could do was snort off his intuitions, tighten his denim jacket to the brim of his plaid t-shirt, and hurry after him.
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Neither male said a word when they began eyeballing the destruction and chaos around them, as if it were a masterpiece that couldn't be turned away from. Seeing the town like this (and their people) only drew more guilt into their abdomen, feasting on their courage and drenching their hearts of dread. Every so often they'd come across something jaw-dropping -- a truck halfway into a building, a leaning line of electrical lines, even a massive gash pressed into the side of their tallest apartment -- only for it to turn when reality came into play. He knew Seven had no part in this, but even a dinosaur wouldn't be so cruel to decimate everything over the sake of something else.
Click's eyes caught something ivory sticking out of a wooden plank. And his heart froze.
Unless that something else was a threat bigger than the both of them.
Stepping away from Jameson's wanders, Click motioned toward the hidden jewel in the ashes. He knocked away a few timbers and glass frames before three of his fingers could fasten upon the object. And, with one tug, it came to him.
And it didn't take long to realize what it was.
The tooth felt odd -- not as rounded as a normal carnivore, and not as dull as an aged one. Molded with the blood and damages from a fight, it felt more or less fake than real. It even smelled wrong. And, even when every urge within him said otherwise, he couldn't tie this to any living creature.
Only another that was dead. But that was impossi-
"Isn't that something?"
"Hm?"
Click's head turned, noticing a male crouching a few feet away from him. He, too, also had a fallen tooth in his hands, a different kind of sorts, and leveled it with the incision of the torn building before them. The male sighed again, his brown hair flickering in the wind as he exhaled.
"Two dinosaurs began fighting one another here at around 1 am. Left a mark in the town, for sure, but not one themselves. Nothing vanishes that easily."
"You think they snapped?
"Well, if you're aggravated enough," he stood upright, brushing off his pants. "You get bullied by a dummy for a few days, eventually you're going to swing. You get triggered by an enemy, then you aim to kill. A fight for dominion turns into vengeance.... And then all that self-care goes straight out the window."
Click puffed out a breath, rubbing his fingers across the tooth in his hand for a moment, and sighed. "What do you mean by 'vanished'?"
"All predators leave a sign," said the man before his head began to bow. "And, as much as I want to believe that they wandered off after they had their fun, this is too unusual to call normal. No body, no trail, no blood, no anything-"
"As if they cleaned up after themselves."
"Only one creature on Earth is that smart," he huffed, gazing at Click while pointing a dirty finger to himself. "All the more reason why I need to see about this before something else goes haywire."
Click nodded uneasily, his fingers gripping tight to the tooth for a moment before he tucked it away into his jeans. The man from his right looked away for a time, doing the same for himself before motioning to him.
"You're military?"
"Active." Click's eyes raised. "You?"
"Ex." The man's hands tucked to his pockets. "Left ten years ago."
"Army?"
"Navy, actually."
"Hmph, The Marine Corps is better."
"Tangerine Corps?"
"That's a better name for it."
The male then laughed. "You're a ray of sunshine, then."
"Oh, yeah," muttered Click with a smile. "And I eat crayons in my spare time."
Still chuckling through a grin, the male hobbled over the debris to the side of Click, extending a hand to lift him back to full height.
Ahead of it all, Jameson was still wandering aimlessly about when he finally turned to see his friend, too far distant from his side. But, once he noticed the male beside him, Jameson's entire face flushed white, adrenaline bursting through his heart faster than his brain could process anything.
"Owen," the male said to Click. And he raised a brow.
"Owen from the Navy?"
"Owen from the Navy," he echoed. And, with a soft mewl, Click grasped his hand back, raising to his feet; Jameson slipped behind a building, rushing to his phone as fast as he could.
"Tom... from the Tangerine Corps." Click beamed all the while. 'Good to see another like me trying to tie this craziness all together."
"Hmph, investigations aren't my strongest suit though," Owen sighed. "Left that life when the Isla Nublar went up in flames."
Click's face suddenly went cold. "You worked at Jurassic World?"
"Ex-Jurassic World. Raptor trainer for a while until INGEN tried to, y'know, do what they always do."
"Is... is that why you're here?"
"I'm actually looking for someone. And, seeing what happened here, it's tempting my suspicions a bit, especially given their history." He let go of Click's hand for a moment, noticing a change in tone in the indoraptor trainer, and tilted his head. "What about you? I mean, I know you're still military, but with this COVID thing going around, I wouldn't expect you to be-"
"Out here? Yeah, um..." Click felt his tongue toss INGEN's name to the back of his throat. "Paperwork. In an office. Yeah, I... I couldn't really see myself doing anything else when I had shore duty on my tail. They don't send me out much because all the wars kind of died out-"
"I heard," Owen smirked. "Sucks they left you out to dry, I'd be pissed, too!"
Jameson, still far enough from the sight of both men, lifted his fingers to the keypad of his phone, only to stop short when the earlier message he didn't see popped into view.
~~ Stay with him. Keep Locations active on the phone. Let us know when he has the asset. Return to Clearlake, CA if possible.
He lifted his eyes, peeking across at the destruction of Berkley, hoping nobody was looking, and typed back.
~ Owen Grady is here.
There was a pause in the response, a few ons and offs redacting off the other user's phone. Jameson's breath hitched, only then did the message come in.
~~ Keep him out. He'll kill the asset.
~ How?
~~ Get rid of him.
~ And then what?
~~...
"Then why are you here?" Owen asked curiously, blinking Click back into focus. "Don't get me wrong, I love a good military guy coming in to help, but usually active military aren't by themselves unless on leave." Forced into desperation, Click thought back to Jameson's earlier words, and spluttered.
"My sister," he lied quickly. "She... lived near here. And, after hearing about what happened, I had to come. Family's an importance to me, I had to make sure."
"And she's okay?"
Click nodded. "She's living with someone else in San Francisco. Just to stay for a while until everything boils over. But, now that I'm here, and, after seeing what happened, I'm on that investigative path too. Knowing that it endangered my family, I should help."
"Well, you could help me if you'd like," Owen grinned proudly. "Because, if I'm right about what I've found, then this has INGEN written all over it."
"How do you mean?"
"Here-" He led Click toward the taller building in Berkeley where an unnatural dent had formed in the central plane of its facade. Stepping over a few broken wires and glass shards, Owen sought a police backpack lying upon the ground with a bunch of cameras hidden inside. Click frowned.
"Cameras?"
"The side of the building was caved in by blunt force," Owen muttered, motioning his head to the damages above him. "That's the first indication that it's two theropods. And, while earthquakes are common around here, nothing just takes out a quarter of a whole city. That would be unlucky."
"What about the cameras?"
"CCTV," Owen said, drawing up an iPad from within its confines, still attached to a swarm of wires. "Most were wiped. Police have half of it. But only one captured everything."
"Then, why point to INGEN?"
"Just look."
Blinking once, Click flipped to a few days earlier, tapped on the nearest outside camera set, and pressed play.
For the first few minutes, nothing happened. All that was given and all that he could see was the black-tarred road beneath the building, and the idle city lights glistening under an empty moon.
Until a flash of white suddenly crashed into view.
The camera shook, cars flipping and lights snapping like twigs beneath the weight of the falling creature. It looked too fuzzy to call it anything at first, the motions captured were too fast to distinguish. But, as soon as the opposing force snagged the creature and threw it into the building, Click pressed the pause button.
And instantly realized what it was.
One was a Rex. And the other...
Click's heart began to race. He didn't need a word to tell himself what it was, his memories already began to fluctuate. And, now trapped in a helpless state, it began burning a hole in his heart.
"I left Janet..." he heard himself tell Jameson not long ago. "I left her to protect the girls when the impossible happened. Moved them into a building far enough away from the chaos of the park."
He could see the cloud of pterosaurs diving in, screeching a blood-curdling scream as they tackled their prey. He could see himself, too, running with two little girls at his side, his black INGEN soldier outfit poking out like a mole in the sand.
"I figured she'd be okay -- she's strong enough to handle herself."
Drawing away from the Starbucks store, he fumbled across a limp white shoe sitting idle on the ground. A shoe he knew well. The tears began to fall long before he could urge her name.
"But, all that was left of her was a bloody shoe... and a ring. Just like that I... I knew what happened. Five years later, I still live with that choice... -- like a dark fog that won't go away, it's just... always there-"
"You okay?" Owen suddenly asked. Click shuddered, looking back down at the white hybrid on the iPad, and nodded.
"Y-Yep." He gritted his teeth, pushing the iPad to Owen's chest. "I'm good."
"You know what it is?"
"I've... heard from other people," he lied again, his gaze growing unfocused in a haze of distress, "about what it is."
"INGEN made it."
Click's eyes raised, heart now beating faster.
"A bunch of rich killers." Owen growled through his teeth. "All they want is a plaque on the wall with their name on it and a pat on the back. That, and monsters."
Click twitched when he hissed the last word, holding his own just briefly to gaze over at the frustrated male.
"Why do you think so?"
"Control, mostly," he sighed, tapping his fingers. "They were going to put the indoraptor in the military. They'd send it out to do what we would've done years before, but without the repercussions. Because an animal gouging out the eyes of a human being, or sticking its talon through a little kid's throat is legitimate under UCMJ whereas it's a crime for us. So they could throw anything under the bus, nobody would know. And if it turns..." He shook his head again. "It's a good thing it's dead, a lot of people would've gotten hurt."
"Y-Yeah I just..." He noticed Jameson hiding at the corner of the building, and huffed. "I need a second... t-to call someone."
"Oh." Owen nodded, lowering the iPad. "Okay. Well, come back when you can, I'll be-"
Click rushed off. And Owen sighed, gazing back at the iPad.
"Yeah, I'll be here. Just... looking for Blue, still..."
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"Woah, woah! Easy on the jacket-"
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Tell you what?"
"Why'd he make ANOTHER one?!"
Jameson's heart skipped a beat. "What-?"
"I swear, if you're lying to me-!" Click eased up as a few police officers and firemen wandered by, easing his grip on Jameson's jacket. His friend tensed up, back still tight to the wall, breathing heavy before the angry male. But Click could only hold it for so long before his intuitions got the better of him, shifting from the wall and looking away shamefully. Neither said a word for the minute they held in silence. Not until the daunting noise grew upon them, both.
"Wu said Seven... would be the last of them, he... swore on it!" Click roared.
"Tom-"
"Was someone paying him?"
"I don't think that's why-"
"Then why?!" he whirled around.
"I don't know!"
"James-?!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Jameson shouted, narrowing his eyes at Click. "I don't know."
Cursing hard, Click shoved off Jameson's chest, raising his hands to the brim of his forehead, and groaned. He started wandering around in growing circles, struggling to shake off the growing anger in his chest. He didn't want to believe this, nor could he couldn't.
"Tom..." Jameson took a cautious step away from the brick wall. "Just breathe-"
"That's why this is happening," Click shuddered, shaking his head. "He's making more hybrids."
"I don't think-"
"He's making more hybrids -- the black one, the white one -- there's more, isn't there?"
Jameson fell quiet, tucking his phone to the sleeve of his denim pocket. Click shook his head, inhaling sharp, and exhaling slowly.
"I shouldn't have gotten that Giga DNA in the desert," he shook his head. "I should've known better."
Redirecting his eyes to Owen, still fiddling with the iPad in the distance, his jaws gutted out and his stomach rolled over itself. Jameson followed his eyes to Owen, and grunted.
"Did Owen tell you that?"
Click tilted his head. "You know him, too?"
"Everybody does. Strange to see you don't."
Click parted his lips, looking over at Jameson for a couple seconds, another round of bewilderment crossing his face.
"Why do you know him, and I don't?"
"I-" Jameson slapped his hands against his hips. "He... he's there when things go south. More often than not he's connected to every mess that has ever happened. Him, Dearing, Lockwood-"
"It's still INGEN's fault for making a hybrid they can't control." Click argued.
"But it's his fault for instigating it."
"He didn't start what happened at Isla Nublar-"
"You're right," Jameson growled. "But, if he gets involved with us finding Seven, we'll be in deep sh-"
"He's a raptor trainer who's just looking for someone, James. Why are you so concerned for him all of a sudden?"
"Why aren't you?"
Click's eyes returned to Owen, watching the prior raptor trainer wandering around the destruction and chaos of the town, his eyes studying every mark and crevice made into the buildings around them. For a moment he felt hesitant to ignore Jameson -- he thought his words were out of fear over something he didn't know. Breaking away to return to Jameson's stare, Click groaned.
"I still need to find out where she is. I don't want a tail."
"Then let's get out of here-"
"No," Click shook his head. "Berkeley is part of this, too, it has to be connected to what happened at INGEN earlier this week."
Jameson's eyes flashed. "You can't be serious, we can't just-"
"We could find her from here, there's always a way. I can't keep driving around, there's answers here."
"Tom, that's insane," Jameson huffed, watching Click spiral around to think to himself. "This place is beyond broken, there's nothing here. And, finding Seven with Owen around? How do you suppose we do that?"
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"Jake Moffrey," the bearded red-head shook Click's hand. "I'm just your average deer hunter."
"How many deer?"
"It's not how many, it's about weight," the bearded man chirped with glee, holding out his hands as if carrying a bowl of sand. "Had myself a 186 pound one, once-" his hands lifted higher, just a few inches above his abdomen. "-this size I think. Wish it was bigger, could've outweighed me if it fattened up."
Jameson grimaced under his breath, unaware that Click heard him clear as day. Of course two dinosaur lovers would be at odds with someone who enjoys taking animal life for sheer pleasure. But, still, he went on to ask:
"And it's just you?"
"Oh, no, me and the boys, actually." Jake motioned to the pickup truck where many men were loading in guns. "We go out often. There's ten of us and three dogs. A few joined in after all of this happened. Knocked my damn house down in the middle of the night."
"Dogs, eh?" Click bobbled his head. "Then, you're going after it?"
"No," sighed Jake, much to his annoyance. "I don't know where it is, what it is, or where it has gone. And, as much as I want to put Pandora back in the box, it's not worth the risk." He gritted his teeth to withhold his growl. "After that Lockwood girl let them loose, the whole world's gone to crap. All I have left is what these two hands can carry."
"And what we find out there, too!" Another hunter called from a distance. "Those buck horns won't sell themselves!"
"Buck horns-" Jameson's spun to Click. "Wait-"
"Stay here, I'll be right back," said his friend, drawing away to head back to the truck. Jameson's jaws flexed outward; the growing fear in his eyes were beginning to show, more than his own aggravation. Not knowing Click's plan was heavy enough, but this?
"Why do you look so glum there, pal?" asked the bearded man. Jameson spun around again, looking the man up and down, and snorted.
"You do realize poaching is illegal."
"Yeah?" the bearded man scoffed. "You a cop, Karen?"
"I'm just stating facts," Jameson said. "I mean, yeah, hunting is a legal act in some states to regulate the growth of game. But poaching is a felony that'll put you and your friends behind bars for two and a half years-"
"Uh huh." The male didn't turn his head, barely caring for his words. "Because when they see Barney, the purple dinosaur, their eight-year-old brain screams innocent?"
"It's still a living animal," he argued back. "Every federal jurisdiction known and unknown goes against the intentional act of killing and gutting an animal to be sold for a profit!"
"Oh, these aren't animals, Karen-"
"I'm not a Karen."
"You're acting like one," Jake growled, hopping off his truck, gun in hand. "These... are town-killing, child-eating beasts who don't give a damn what stands in their way."
"And it will stay that way for a while, won't it?" Click called, drawing up his black-stained rifle to the forefront of his body. A look of awe crossed every hunters' face once their eyes fell upon the fashioned weapon glistening in the sun. All except for Jameson, who stared down at the weapon in horror.
"You must be loaded," Jake scoffed in amazement. "Badrock Precision Rifle? Not a lot of people get guns like that, mister-"
"Tom is fine. I'm just a lucky guy, I guess."
"You don't say?"
"Yep. Here-" Click huffed, handing the gun to the man to inspect, just before Jameson could snatch it out of him. With an annoyed growl, he stepped before Click, and narrowed his eyes.
"What are you doing?"
"Going hunting."
"No, seriously, what are you doing?"
Click shrugged. "What do you think?"
"You're-" he widened his eyes. "Are you going to shoot her-?!"
"I'm not shooting Seven." His hands drew to the pocket in his jacket, drawing up the Scorpios Rex quill he took from earlier and the indominus tooth. "Nor am I using real bullets. But I am going after whatever this thing is."
Jameson's maw went slack.
"You said it attacked you, right?" he grunted. "And it was with her when it happened?"
"O-Out of my unconscious mind, y-yeah-"
"Good. I'll give the scent to one of the dogs they have out front, throw them off track."
"You're going to get them-"
"I'm taking one dog, not the whole company."
"Then you'll get yourself killed."
Collecting the rifle back from the man, Click looked Jameson up and down for a moment, and sighed. "You don't have to come with me if it too much-"
Jameson snagged Click's arm, his mind already thinking of the demand he saw on his burner phone. His tongue clicked to the roof of his maw, eyes searching the ground in mild thought before hissing softly: "We've got to be very careful about this."
"And we will."
"I'm being serious, Tom, we don't know-"
"Tangerine Corps!" Owen's voice suddenly called through the tension, alerting both men back around to face him. "Thought that was you!"
Oh no.
"You're... going hunting? Now?"
"Y-Yeah," Click forced a fake grin, Jameson following along outside Owen's perspective. "It'll... help keep my mind off of things."
"You're not wrong, it is a great stress reliever, no doubt about that." He chuckled. "You don't mind if I join you, right?"
A curse word shot through both Jameson and Click altogether, the two men exchanging worried looks to one another before nodding.
"I... I thought you were looking for-"
"No, not at all," Jameson called out, surprising his friend and rocking his soul from within. "We're just setting up."
"Sweet! I'll grab something really quick, hopefully you don't leave me so soon."
"Ah, we're not going anywhere," Jameson chuckled. Nodding with wanton approval, Owen Grady skipped off back to his own vehicle a distance ahead of the street, leaving two ghost-faced men staring from behind.
"You warn me... then you let him in?"
"We can't be suspicious."
"That alone is suspicious," Click narrowed his eyes, tucking the hybrid remains back into his pocket. "I don't know what you're doing, James... but I hope you don't screw this up for us both."
As soon as Click stepped away from Jameson's side, the male poked down to his back pocket, drawing the burner phone to the forefront of his body. Flipping the surface screen upward one last time, he read the final text.
~~ We will come when Tom has found her.
Looking back at Click, a ripple of hope surfaced to his eyes, knowing full well that everything was now set in motion. Now all he had to do was follow it.
"I won't," Jameson answered darkly.