The Mighty Ducks and all related characters are the property of Disney. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is being made. Jurassic Park is the property of Michael Chrichton. No copyright infringement is intended. This story is the property of the author. See Part One for further Disclaimers. For Celyna, who's finally home. ________ Terms of Survival Part 2 of 3 The rain was pounding down against the windows of the control room with a fury. Dark clouds obscured the trees below in darkness, broken only by the occasional flash of lightening. Even through the thick walls of the control room and the hubbub of frantic conversation, Wildwing could hear the thunder. The power had failed. The fences were down. The knowledge hit Wildwing like a blow. The computer engineer - some fat guy named Nedry - had programmed a trap into the computer system so he could break into the cryogenics lab where the dinosaur DNA and unborn embryos were stored and steal them. Industrial espionage, was Hammond's opinion. His competitors at InGen. He was bemoaning the loss of millions of dollars worth of research and development. Wildwing could care less about the money Hammond was loosing. What he cared about was the nine people out in that park. Two in particular. If the power had gone down any number of other problems could arise. And although Muldoon had assured him - unconvincingly - that the dinosaurs were so used to the fences being electrified that they wouldn't approach them, and would never know the fences were down, Wildwing had little faith in the masterminds behind Jurassic Park. He hoped Dive and Duke had made to somewhere safe before the fences went out. He hoped they were approaching the control center even as they spoke. He feared that the storm had delayed them and one of the animals had gotten to them. He listened as Hammond shouted into a radio, trying to communicate to someone named Harding that they needed his jeep. Muldoon was going to take the jeep and go out after the people in the park. So far Harding and Hammond didn't seem to be communicating all that well. Wildwing sighed. He couldn't believe they had only three cars. One Duke and Dive had taken, the second, Harding had, and the third had been taken when Nedry took off. Hammond finally slammed his fist down on the table but he looked satisfied. "Harding's heading back. Then you can take the jeep and get my grandchildren back here, Robert." Wildwing and Mallory exchanged disbelieving looks. His *grandchildren?* This guy had brought children into a place like this? The potential danger was enough that Wildwing would have hesitating before bringing in the Fourth Armored Division, and this guy had brought kids?! Unbelievable. Hammond stood still for a whole ten seconds - Wildwing counted - staring out the window at the lightening slashed darkness, breathing too heavily for a man who'd done nothing more strenuous than talk over a radio, his eyes darting across the canopy of trees and plants, the cloud-filled sky, hands clenching and unclenching. He was lost. He knew he was losing control and he wasn't sure what to do about it. Finally, more out of panic than any clear train of thought, he turned on Arnold. The engineer bore Hammond's shouting and cursing, then quite calmly told him to shut up and go away. Wildwing wanted to applaud, but didn't quite dare. Hammond didn't seem the type to take contradiction well. Arnold glowered after his boss once Hammond had left the room. "You know something about computers?" he asked sharply, turning to look at Tanya. "Yes," she replied quickly. "Tell me what you need and I'll do whatever I can." "Good," Arnold said. "Because we need to get this place up and running *now.* Before anything else goes wrong." *** Nosedive desperately wanted to be unconscious again. He gulped down a great breath of fresh air, stilling the spinning in his head and the pressure in his chest. Once he was sure he could move without passing out, he slowly got to his feet, holding himself carefully still until the dizziness had passed. It wasn't until he had surveyed his surroundings that he realized he was no longer in the jeep. He felt the pounding in his head and felt the multitude of bruises covering his body. He was fine now, but by tomorrow he'd be living on Tylenol. He must have been thrown from the jeep when the t-rex rolled it- The rex! Was it still around? Dive held still, not quite daring to move. He remembered how the rex had left that man alone when he stood still. Maybe there was something too that... In any event, the rex didn't seem to be around, and Dive didn't know how it would be possible to miss something that was bigger than the building he lived in. He risked a few cautious steps and when nothing tried to eat him, figured he was safe. For the moment anyway. He glanced around, but couldn't spot Duke, or the jeep. He refused to call out. If the rex had gotten loose than any of the other animals could have as well. He remembered what Tanya had told him about velociraptors. He did *not* want to run into one of those things. He winced as a pang of pain ran through his shoulder. He wasn't too anxious to go another round with that t-rex either. It only took a moment to spot the red and grey paint of the jeep, overturned against the base of a tree more than five hundred feet away. He forced his aching legs into a slow jog and hurried over toward the crumpled heap of metal. He fought back a rising sense of dread as he saw the battered condition of the jeep. If Duke had been trapped in there... Maybe he was lucky. He could have been thrown free like Dive was. And maybe brontosaurs will fly. Dive knelt beside the driver's side door, bracing one hand on the top - no the bottom - of the jeep as he peered through the shattered driver's side window. He ran a hand over his face, wiping the rain away from his eyes, wishing for a flashlight or something to help him see a little better. As if in answer the sky was lit in a sudden brilliant display of lightening. He rolled his eyes, but took advantage of the storm to peer into the jeep and search for his teammate. He spotted Duke in pretty much the same position he had been when the rex sent the jeep rolling, only upside down. Duke wasn't moving though. For a long moment Dive debated whether to risk moving his teammate. If Duke had suffered internal or spinal injuries, moving him would only make things worse. A sudden ear-splitting roar which could only have come from a t-rex reverberated through the air, followed immediately by a high-pitched man's scream. Dive flinched at the sound. "Risk internal injury, or sit around waiting to get eaten," he muttered. "Lemme see..." The door was stuck, the metal bent and twisted. There was no way he was getting that open. "All right then," he said to himself. "Let's do this the hard way, huh? The easy way wouldn't be any fun at all, would it? Not that I'd know, of course. Nooooo. I've never done anything the easy way. Why should this be any different?" He moved to the front of the jeep and knelt in the mud. He grimaced as the cool muck worked its way through the tears in his uniform. "I'm gonna find Tanya," he vowed as he removed the shattered glass and squirmed his way through the windshield. "I'm gonna find her, and I'm gonna remind her that this was *her* idea." He reached Duke and managed to work his left arm around Duke's chest. Using his right arm he carefully and slowly began to edge his way out, trying not to jostle Duke too much. "Then I'm gonna leave her here." He grinned darkly as he finally pulled Duke out into the open. "She thought she had a phobia before." He paused for a moment and caught his breath while he got his bearings. They were pretty far from the main road. Even further from any sort of shelter. The visitor's lodge and the command center were both at least a fifteen minute drive away and their jeep was definitely not going anywhere. For an instant Dive remembered the second car back on the main road, the one the tyrannosaur hadn't trashed. But no, those were controlled from the command center. The most it could offer was shelter from the rain. Dive cast his teammate a worried glance. Maybe that was the best bet. If Duke was hurt, sitting in the rain and the mud couldn't be helping him any. An owl hooted from the trees behind him. 'Bad omen,' Dive thought wearily. Dive stood and shifted his stance a bit, supporting Duke's weight against his side. At the very least they'd get out of the rain. And whatever minimal security the car could provide would be better than sitting out in the open. He had covered less than half the distance back to the main road, slowed by the darkness and the necessity of supporting Duke's full weight, when Dive realized that it wasn't an owl. *** "Harding's back," Muldoon announced. He turned away from the window and headed for the door. "I'm going down to meet him. Then I'm going out into the park. I'll bring back anyone I can find." "I'll go with you," Gennaro offered. Mallory watched them go with a sense of frustration. Here in the control room she was safe - or as safe as it was possible to be on this science experiment from hell - while two members of her team were stars knew where facing stars knew what. She would like nothing more than to go out there with Muldoon to bring them back. She didn't want to be safe. On sudden impulse she turned to Wildwing. "Permission to accompany them, Wildwing." She expected him to refuse but instead he nodded sharply. "Hurry, before they leave without you." Mallory took off immediately, racing down to the motor pool. A man and a woman were asking questions and wearing identical expressions of confusion and concern as Muldoon shepherded them out of the jeep and pushed them toward the door to the visitor's center. Harding, she supposed. And the woman must be Ellie Sattler. That wasn't important though. Muldoon looked up as she joined them. "Listen, kid-" Mallory ignored him and climbed into the back of the jeep. "I've fought dinosaurs before," she said calmly. "I'm a trained member of the Puckworld military and the resistance. I know how to track and I know first aid. I'd say I'm qualified for a rescue operation, wouldn't you?" Muldoon hesitated for about a half-second. "Fine. Gennaro, get in the damned car if you're coming. We're leaving *now.*" Gennaro frowned as he climbed in. "She's just a kid, Robert." "She's better qualified than you are," Muldoon replied testily. He put the jeep in gear and hit the gas, sending the car speeding forward so suddenly that Mallory almost slammed into the seat before her. "We'll be there in about ten minutes. Hold on." *** Owls just don't belong in jungles. It was as simple as that. And they certainly weren't around during the time of dinosaurs. Two very good reasons to believe that whatever it was he had just heard, it wasn't an owl. 'What else would it be?' Dive asked himself, exasperated. 'Would a dinosaur hoot like an owl?' Apparently so. The hooting came again. "That's definitely not an owl," Dive murmured. "C'mon, Duke, wake up. We need to make time here and I can't drag your sorry butt all through the park." There was movement before him, near the main road. Dive stopped as a dinosaur stepped out of the trees along the roadside. It was tall - from this far away he'd say about ten feet. It was yellowish with black spots and its head was framed by a pair of red crests. It uttered another hooting cry and took a couple of steps closer to them. "Stars," Dive breathed. He recognized it from the descriptions Muldoon had given them. It was a dilophosaur. Meat-eating and poisonous. *Great.* Duke stirred slightly and Dive stifled a curse. He backed away slowly, taking Duke with him and never taking his gaze from the creature before him. The dilophosaur followed them a step or two at a time, giving them an odd look that was almost comical. Dive knew the chances of outrunning any serious threat were nonexistent, but he was hoping that the dilo would loose interest if they stalled it long enough. Maybe they could find some place to hole up. A supply shed or something. A tree. What he didn't let himself think about was how he was going to do anything while dragging Duke. And he definitely wasn't going to think about how injured Duke was - or how injured he himself was quite likely going to be by the time this was over. Then the dilo lunged for them. *** 'I swear if I live through this the first thing I'll do is admit that I was the one who burned down the tree house, not Canard.' Dive froze for an instant when the dilo lunged but common sense returned a second before the dilo reached them. In the time before the dinosaur would have had them, he did the only thing he could have. He ducked. He dropped to the ground at the last possible second, sheltering Duke's still form as best he could. The dilo passed *over* him, landing on the ground a few feet away. It didn't so much as stumble as it swung around to face the two Puckworlders. But instead of attacking it just stood there and looked at him. Dive watched it warily as he regained his feet. There was a burning along the side of his neck and part of his back. He fidgeted slightly, thinking maybe the dilo had caught him with its claws. But something Muldoon had told him... Venom. The dilophosaur secretes venom from its mouth. In other words, it had spit poison at him. The poison had reached his skin through the tears in his uniform and was now burning like acid. It hurt like hell. Dive remembered that Muldoon had said it could cause paralysis if enough of it got into your system. 'Oh, great. Like I'm not at a big enough disadvantage already.' The dilophosaur continued to watch him. But as soon as Dive took a step the dilo followed immediately. It didn't try to overtake him, merely kept pace. 'Waiting for the venom to take effect,' Dive thought gloomily. 'Stars, do I wish I had my puck launcher.' He blinked. 'My puck launcher... Nosedive, you are an idiot.' His puck launcher was exactly where it had always been. Dive slowly lowered Duke to the ground, keeping one wary eye on the dinosaur as he did. He stood just as slowly and drew his puck launcher. The dilo apparently didn't recognize the weapon as a threat for it made no move to attack before he could. Dive wondered if he could risk just scaring the thing off. He cast a quick glance at his fallen teammate. 'Can't afford it. This thing knows I'm injured and it'll just stick around, following far enough back that maybe I won't even know it's there until it's too late and the venom gets to me and it attacks.' Regretful, but knowing he had to, Dive gave the dilo an apologetic look as he took aim. "Sorry, buddy," he said dryly, "but *you* started it." Maybe the dilo sensed he was up to something. Maybe it knew what guns were and just hadn't thought it a threat until Dive aimed at it. Maybe it was just getting tired of waiting for him to collapse. Whatever the reason, it struck out again. Dive stood his ground, ignoring the burning that had now spread throughout his back and shoulders. He wanted to fire but he waited. 'Have to hit it the first time, no way I'm getting a second chance here...' The dilo was almost on top of them, just a few feet away, any second now... Dive fired. The dilo screamed, the hooting cry twisted in anger and pain. It twisted in mid-step, like a marionette on strings, and slammed into the ground with a heavy thud. It was still alive and Dive doubted the shot would kill it, but he didn't fire again. It would be down for a while. Right now, he just wanted to get out of there. He crouched down and lifted Duke once more, slinging his unconscious teammate over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, using his free hand to keep his puck launcher at the ready. He had a feeling that there were a lot more dilos and stars knew what else standing between them and the control room. He started to head toward the road once more, but a flurry of movement halted him in his tracks. The air was filled with the same hooting cries as the ones he had just heard, and two or three dilos suddenly bolted down the road at full speed. Dive wondered what could have upset them so when he received his reply: a thundering and all too familiar roar that drowned out the cries of the dilos. The ground shook as something *big* came closer. "Good ol, Rexy," Dive muttered. "Well, if he's over there, I guess we're gonna have to go someplace else." He turned away from the road. "I hope I can find someplce safe before the venom sets in," he said out loud, only to hear a real voice instead of roars and cries. "Otherwise we're lizard food. And Duke, my friend, any time you want to wake up and start walking for yourself, it would be just fine with me." *** The rain had almost let up completely by the time Muldoon slammed on the brakes and brought them to a halt beside an abandoned green and yellow car. Mallory was out of the car before it had come to a complete stop. "Weren't there two cars?" she asked. "Yeah," Muldoon replied. "It's over there." Mallory saw where he was pointing and blanched. "Stars. What happened to it?" "The rex threw it," Muldoon said flatly. Gennaro and Muldoon both headed for the wrecked car while Mallory surveyed their surroundings. 'The rex came out of the paddock here,' she thought, seeing the broken area of fence, 'then he attacked the first car, right about here. Then he skipped the second car. The doors are open, maybe the people ran and the tyrannosaur went after them instead. It went further down the road, here, where...' Mallory frowned at the tracks in the muddy road. 'Another car? A jeep like the one we came in. And it was here during the attack.' She looked around. 'Well, it's not here anymore. And that *had* to have been the jeep Duke and Nosedive took. Where did they go?' She walked to the edge of the road, carefully checking everything she passed. 'It threw one car, it could have thrown another.' The beam from the flashlight Muldoon had given her struck something and Mallory cursed. It was pretty far away, but it was definitely the remains of a jeep. From the tracks in the mud, Mallory pieced together what must have happened. "Stars," she said. "I hope they survived that." She picked up her pace to a slow jog and headed toward the jeep, sweeping the flashlight back and forth before her as she went. She was about halfway to the jeep when she saw the injured dilophosaur. She stayed back, knowing they were dangerous, but it wasn't difficult at all for her to recognize the type of wound. "A puck launcher," she said. "Probably Nosedive. Duke always uses the sabre." She played the light around on the ground around the dilo. "Looks like one person," she muttered, "but too heavy to be Duke or Dive. Unless one of them's injured and the other one is carrying them. Damn. Looks like Duke's the one down then." She sighed and raised her gaze. "So why didn't Dive head back to the main road? He had to have known we'd come looking for him. Unless something happened and he couldn't. Maybe the t- rex came back." "Mallory!" Muldoon was shouting her name, waving his flashlight to catch her attention. Mallory cast one regretful look at the forest behind her. She wanted to keep looking, but she realized the futility of it. If Dive and Duke had been nearby they would have seen the lights of the jeep and the flashlights and they would hear Muldoon shouting. No, they were probably as far from here as they could get. She hoped they were somewhere safe. She headed back to the road. "I found what happened to my teammates," she told Muldoon. "But it looks like they split." "Don't blame them," Muldoon said sourly. "The rex is probably still around here somewhere. We found Malcolm. He's hurt, we're taking him back to the visitor's center. Let's go." Mallory nodded and followed him back to the jeep. At least she'd have some good news for Wildwing and the others. At least Dive and Duke had survived the t-rex. Maybe they'd manage to survive the rest of it too. 'Stay alive,' Mallory thought fiercly. 'We're coming back for you.' *** Nosedive was loosing pace rapidly. Every minute he spent trekking through the forest, lugging Duke, constantly on the watch for an attack, he lost more and more of his strength. He knew that if he didn't find somewhere safe to stash Duke soon, he'd collapse under the effect of the venom and they'd both end up as a meal for some scavengers. He had stopped at the jeep, after the confrontation with the dilo, and rummaged through it quickly. There wasn't much he could use, other than pair of nightvision goggles. Not even a first aid kit. He'd take the goggles and was currently using them to navigate through the forest. He did have a route, at least. He was following the motion sensors, each mounted on a tree about four feet off the ground. Each sensor was listed with an identification code. From the numbering on the sensors Dive could tell that they were heading north, toward the visitor's center. If he could hold on for a couple of hours, he'd be able to walk back. If... Bad word. Duke was stirring occasionally, but he showed no sign of regaining consciousness just yet. Dive wasn't willing to admit just how much he wanted the older man to come to his senses. Out here in the woods, hearing the distant calls of creatures which were the stuff of nightmares and horror stories for his people, he felt as alone as he'd ever been in his life. Well, almost. But none of that was anything worth thinking about now. What was worth thinking about was the glint of light reflecting off a smooth surface not more than a hundred feet away. 'Glass?' he thought, hope rising through him and giving him an extra burst of strength. He plunged throught the waist high plants as silently as he could, sparing a moment to wish he'd had more time to train with Duke lately. This was one place where he couldn't risk making a lot of noise. He slowed as he approached his destination, carefully taking in his surroundings. What he had seen was indeed glass - glass from a window of a small wooden building. A storage shed of some sort. Dive couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. He settled for picking up his pace. He heard nothing and saw nothing as he reached the shed, but he still scanned the area around him before he holstered his puck launcher and set Duke down on the ground. The door was padlocked. It was a cheap one, obviously intended to keep out tourists, not determined thieves. A good thing too, because Dive had a long way to go before he could get around anything good. But a lock like this would be child's play. Duke had taught him to pick tougher locks the first week he'd started training. Of course, Dive hadn't thought to bring any lock picks with him. But he was willing to bet Duke had. 'After all,' Dive thought absurdly, 'one doesn't become the most accomplished thief on the planet - even if it isn't *this* planet - without being prepared.' A quick search of Duke's pockets revealed that he had indeed brought the picks with him. Dive made short work of the padlock, offering a quick thanks to whoever was in charge. He threw the door open and scanned the interior, not really expecting to find anything, then turned back for Duke. Once Duke was settled as comfortably as was possible under the circumstances Dive returned the lock picks and barricaded the door from the inside. There was a phone on the wall, one of those direct-line jobs; it would probably get him a maintenance man in the visitor's center, but that was better than nothing at this point. Dive tried it, but there was no connection. The phones were down, too. Dive sighed. He'd try again in the morning. If he could. The burning along his back was worse now, the pain was gone, replaced by a total, burning, numbness. Dive sighed and lowered himself to the ground, bracing himself against the wall. Wildwing and the others would come looking for them, and once the storm cleared up they'd be able to use the trackers on their comms. He and Duke would just have to make it until morning. Dive felt himself falling into the warmth of exhaution and sleep and managed to keep enough presence of mind to hope that the venom wasn't fatal. *** Mallory didn't look like she had good news. Grin watched his teammate approach. Muldoon and Gennaro had come through ahead of her, carrying the wounded Mr. Ian Malcolm and calling for Dr. Harding. Grin had allowed himself to hope that his two mising teammates may have been found along with Malcolm - hopefully in better shape - but it appeared that Mallory was alone. "No luck?" he asked as she approached. Mallory shook her head. "Come on," he said. "Wildwing wants to know what you saw out there. Is it as bad as we think it is?" "Worse," Mallory said heavily. "Much worse." *** Mallory had filled them in on what she had seen with Muldoon; told them of the two destroyed cars, of the wounded dilophosaur and of the fact that it seemed both had survived the attack. Wildwing didn't look particularly reassured, Grin noticed, but then none of them were particularly thrilled with the situation. And it *was* his brother lost out there. That was a position Grin was glad he wasn't in. Arnold didn't seem to think Mallory's concern was necessary. "We'll have the park up and running again in no time," he assured them. "Now that we've gotten the power back it's just a matter of time until we get the fences repaired and everything is back to normal." Hammond's take on the situation was rather less calm. "They injured one of the dilos?" he cried. "Do you have any idea how much those animals cost? If that animal is in any way-" "The animal?" Wildwing demanded. "There are *people* out there, Mr. Hammond. People *you* brought here. Your *grandchildren.*" His voice lowered dangerously. "My *brother.* Malcolm was injured. There's no telling what may have happened or what may yet happen to the others. And your concern is for the animals?" Hammond was taken aback only momentarily. Before he could respond in kind, Muldoon stepped in. "That's not the issue here. We have to concentrate on getting the fences back up and repaired and getting the rest of our people out of the park before there are any further incidents." Arnold's voice broke through the conversation. "It isn't going to happen unless you all shut up and let me do my job. There's nothing you can do here besides distract me. Go sleep. Get something to eat. Whatever. I'll let you know if I come up with anything." Reluctantly the others agreed, only Gennaro and Tanya remaining behind with the engineer. Muldoon told the three Puckworlders how to get to the small cafeteria on the first floor and then allowed himself to be dragged off by Hammond. The food was great, even if the milk was starting to get warm. They helped themselves to a quick dinner, eating mostly in silence. It wasn't long before Wildwing and Mallory began to drift off. Grin watched over the still forms of his teammates, even as he watched the distancing flashes of light through the windows of the cafeteria. It had been such a long day. Some time later, Grin wasn't sure when, he suddenly felt warmth on his skin, and felt light through his eyelids. He opened his eyes to be greeted with the sunlight streaming through the small window. He had fallen asleep. He stood, a little self-consciously, but it seemed Mallory and Wildwing were both still asleep. He straightened his shirt and took a quick look around. That was when he noticed the *other* light. The rows of flourescent lighting covering the ceiling was glowing steadily. "The power must be working again," he muttered. "So they probably got the fences back up." Reluctantly - they looked so peaceful - Grin reached out and carefully shook his two teammates back into wakefulness. *** Duke groaned as light suddenly slammed against his face, painfully bright, even with his eyes closed. He rolled over, bringing one arm up to block the light from his face. He opened his eyes slowly, blinking until his eyes adjusted. He frowned as his surroundings came into focus. At first all he saw was wooden walls and piles of - hay? What the-? He sat up abruptly, immediately regretting it when several parts of his body began to voice complaints. He moaned and pressed one hand to his head. His right arm he held pressed tightly against his side. He felt as if someone had beaten him with a sledge hammer. What had happened? Where was he? Slowly this time, Duke once again began to look around, holding his head as still as possible and trying not to move anything. A manintenance shed. That's the only thing this place could be. He sighed. Great. *That* certainly cleared a lot up. A soft moan reached his ears and he looked over carefully. There, in the shadowed part of the shed, where the lights didn't reach lay a still form. Duke squinted, trying to keep his head from spinning and his vision from blurring long enough to identify his companion. "Nosedive?" Concern for his apprentice overrode any of his own physical pains - and a good deal of his common sense, too. Somehow he found the strength to make it to his feet and across the few feet to where the boy lay, sprawled on the ground. Duke practically fell to a sitting position beside him, leaning heavily against the wall as he reached out to check for a pulse, holding his breath until he found it, strong and steady aganst his fingers. "Thank the stars." He allowed his head to drop back against the wall as he once again took in their surroundings. Something must have happened for them to be here, and if the way he felt was any indication, it hadn't been anything good. Duke closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated. The last thing he remembered was the storm. They were going to check the security measures in the park, but Wildwing had called them back; something about a storm. Yeah, it had been raining pretty hard by then, and the lightening was getting fierce. They had made it to the main road, right? But what... Duke's eyes widened and he automatically checked around him, even though he knew they were alone. The T-rex. How could he have forgotten? One would think that was the sort of thing that would stick with you forever. Okay. So they must have lived through the attack - either that or heaven had a very strange interior decorator. Duke was willing to consider the alternative that he had gone in the other direction; stars knew he'd done enough horrible things in his life; but he doubted Dive would be there with him. Okay, so they were alive. And they got here how? Duke glanced down at his apprentice. Dive must have brought them. That explained why he was so out of it. It looked like he'd taken a pounding too, there were cuts along his back and face, and Duke could make out some pretty bad bruises along his arm. There was probably more he couldn't see. That combined with having to carry Duke around until he found shelter must have wore the kid out. 'I'll have to remember to thank him. And tell Wildwing. Kid deserves some congratulations for this one.' For now there was nothing to do but wait for Dive to come around, and hope that they weren't too seriously injured to find their way back to the command center. Wildwing must be frantic by now - the watch on Duke's comm unit told him it had been more than eleven hours since they had last reported in. Hopefully that had been enough time for them to get the park back under control and round up anything that had gotten loose. Like the t-rex. Duke really wasn't feeling up to a rematch. First things first, though. Dive hit the transmit button on his communit. "Wildwing, are you there? Come in, Wildwing." He waited but there was no reply. He tried again. "Wilding, it's Duke, please respond." Still nothing. Okay, so the communit wasn't working. There was a phone on the wall across the room that he could use. Duke glared at it. Bizarrely he blamed the phone for not being close enough to reach. He must have hit his head harder than he thought. He took a deep, bracing breath and held on to the wall for support as he pushed himself to his feet. Stepping over and around the items littering the floor he made his way to the phone. He lifted it gratefully, but his relief was cut short when all he heard was a hissing static. "Phones are still down," he muttered, dropping the receiver back into the cradle. "Fantastic." With nothing better left to do he made his way back to Nosedive's side, the movement becoming easier and easier as his tired muscles gradually loosened up and worked out the kinks and stiffness. He tried his comm unit one more time, but still nothing. Dive's might have worked better, but to get at it, Duke would have had to roll the boy over on his back, and he really didn't want to disturb his younger teammate's much deserved rest. Well, there was no rush. They were fine. They'd just contact the others later, once Dive woke up. And with that decision, Duke felt himself slipping back into the dark comfort of unconsciousness. *** Wildwing had had better days. At the moment he was tired, groggy, stiff and desperately worried. But none of that could override the extreme disgust he felt for the creator of Jurassic Park. Hammond was still asleep when Arnold finally got the computers up and running just after dawn. By the time he was dragged out of bed and into the control room, Wildwing was convinced the man had no conscience whatsoever. Not once did the old man mention his two young grandchildren, lost somewhere in the prehistoric jungle of Jurassic Park and he showed no sign of regretting anything that had happened. Wildwing seriously hated the man. It was his personal opinion, true. And he was perfectly willing to admit that his concern for Dive and Duke was influencing his feelings toward Hammond. But the man was still a creep. As all this ran through his head in the time it took a heart to beat once, Arnold had finally managed to get the computers back up and running and was manually resetting the systems. Tanya supervised, looking even more beat than Wildwing felt. She had to have gotten even less sleep than he had, having stayed up until well into the early hours of the morning trying to repair the damage Nedry had done to the computers. "How much damage is there?" Wildwing asked wearily. "And don't give me any line about everything being 'under control.' " Arnold glared at him but replied without any effort at obscuring the truth. "We shut down the computers and restarted them, wiping out the commands Nedry used to shut us down. No that we're clean again, we've restarted everything and have begun repairs. There are a few shorted areas of fence. Some of the animals have goten out of their paddocks into another. And the t-rex has gotten into the sauropods. Muldoon's heading out there now to deal with it. John, you said you wanted to oversee the repairs?" Hammond nodded. "Most definitely." "Well, you'd better hurry. He's getting ready to leave." Hammond hurried out of the control room. No one was particularly sorry to see him go. "Are the phones back up yet?" Wildwing asked. "Actually, they are," Arnold replied. "And the radios are back up too if you want to try contacting your friends." "I'll do you one better," Wildwing said. "Tanya, are you up for a little search and rescue?" "Say the word," Tanya replied. "Good. Grin... Would you go with her?" There was a noticeable pause in his words, and a strain in his voice that probably wasn't at all hard for his teammates to understand. He saw the reassuring glance Mallory gave him and was unresonably grateful. By the stars, he wanted to be the one to go out there and see for himself that his little brother was still alive. But he knew that of them all, Tanya and Grin were the ones to go. Tanya would know what to do if anyone was injured and Grin - - well, if there was anyone who could take down a t-rex with their bare hands, it was Grin. "There are no jeeps left for you to take," Arnold objected. "No here at any rate. You'd either have to foot it or drive over to the maintenance building." Grin smiled. It was the same smile he used when Phil started one of his publicity spiels. A very scary expression to see on a seven foot warrior. "We'll walk." Arnold swallowed. "Right. Okay. Um, there's a first aid kit in the office down the hall." Tanya acknowledged him with a nod. Wildwing turned to them. "Be careful. Don't take any chances. Keep your puck launchers ready at all times." He met Tanya's gaze with a steadiness he wasn't even close to feeling. "We can't afford to loose anyone else." She nodded sadly. Wildwing closed his eyes against his fears and didn't watch them leave. When the last of Grin's footsteps faded away down the hall, he gathered himself and turned to Mallory. "I want you to keep trying to contact Duke and Dive on the communits. Keep an eye on the phones too. Arnold, if those motion sensors of yours turn up anything that even remotely looks like a duck, tell me immediately. I'm going to have a little chat with our 'damned mathematician.' " *** Wildwing passed Gennaro in the hall, offering the man a curt nod as he hurried past. He was a little curious to hear what the lawyer wanted to say to Arnold, but he was mroe anxious to hear what Ian Malcolm had to tell him. According to the files Gennaro had given them, Malcolm had been convinced from the beginning that Jurassic Park was inherantly dangerous. Wildwing wanted to know why Malcolm had been so convinced. And he wanted to know if what had happened already was the worst of it, or if they should be ready for more. He sincerely hoped it was over. He just wanted to find his brother and take his team the hell out of this place. Malolm had been taken to the visitor's center, a few minutes walk from the control center. Wildwing followed his own advice and kept his puck launcher ready for the few minutes it took him to jog over to the visitor's lodge. The young woman, Ellie Sattler, opened the door. She must have seen him coming, because she only stood back and allowed him to enter, quickly closing and locking the door behind him. She didn't seem too surprised to see a hockey playing duck in the middle of this prehistoric nightmare. But after the events of the last day, he doubted Dragaunus himself would have shaken this woman. "Dr. Sattler?" "Ellie," she replied automatically. "What's wrong?" "Nothing," he told her, hoping it didn't make him a liar. "I've come to speak with Mr. Malcolm, if he's able." "He's able," she said dryly. "We can't shut him up. It's rather refreshing actually, since none of the rest of us have any idea what to say." "I know someone like that myself," Wildwing said. "Can you show me where he is?" Ian Malcolm was a tall man, dark in complexion and style. His dark jeans had been cut up the side so that Harding and Sattler could get at his injured leg, and his black shirt and coat were open, revealing a thick layer of bandages covering most of his upper body. He looked up as Wildwing came in. Introductions were handled quickly and efficiently and wildwing got right to the point. "I've been told you opposed this project from the beginning. Can you tell me why?" Malcolm eyed him appraisingly. "I'd enjoy it." *** Duke was awakened by the movement beside him. His subconscious mind wasn't alarmed, and he came out of the healing sleep slowly. He shifted slightly, to face his young friend. Dive appeared to be coming to his senses. The boy moved abruptly, rolling over onto his back, and blinking into the light. "Duke?" His voice was harsh from exhaustion and probably from pain as well, if the bruises Duke had seen were any indication. "Hey, kid," Duke greeted him warmly. "Back from the dead?" Dive groaned, but whether it was at the bad joke or the pain, Duke couldn't tell. "m'fine. You?" "I'll live." Duke watched as Dive managed to work himself into a sitting position. "What happened? The t-rex catch you? You look worse than I feel." "Not the t-rex," Dive muttered. "The dilo." "Dilo?" Duke dug through his memory for a moment. "The poisonous ones?" he asked alarmed. "Did it get you with the venom?" Dive grimaced. "Yeah." He saw Duke's concerned look. "Not in the eyes or anything," he hurried to assure the older man. "Just enough to get to me." Duke wasn't at all reassured. "We have to get you to a doctor," he said. "See if there's any side effects from this stuff. Are you up to walking out of here?" "ugh. I'd rather take on Dragaunus with my bare hands." "Somehow," Duke said wryly, "I think you'd find a way to come out of that in one piece. Just like you're gonna get out of this." "Yeah, yeah, yeah," Dive rolled his eyes. "Pep talk taken, sir. Now gimme a hand." He held out his right hand demandingly. "Come on," Duke groaned. "I haven't even managed to get myself up yet." "Tough." "You are a petulant child," Duke said flatly, but without venom. "And a lazy one." Dive grinned at him. "Tough." Duke sighed and braced himself. "You're going to make me get up first, aren't you?" "I carted your sorry butt through the jungle -- I fought a damned dinosaur! -- to make sure you didn't get eaten or stepped on or anything; the least you can do is help me stand up." He had a point. Getting up was the hard part. Once he was actually on his feet, Duke was fairly certain he'd be able to stay that way. He braced one arm against the wall, and leaned down to offer Dive the other. "Come on, kid. Let's get out of here." Dive grasped his hand, and Duke pulled the young man to his feet. Dive moaned theatrically as he worked out the stiffness in his legs. "Giant lizards are *so* not a good thing for me." Duke laughed, and just remembered to keep from slapping the boy on the back. The condition he was in, it would probably knock him flat on his face. "Try your communit, would you? Mine isn't working." Dive nodded and lifted his hand to his communit -- just as he was hailed by Mallory. "Mal?" "Dive! Thank the stars! We've been going crazy looking for you two!" Mallory's voice was audible, but there was still the background of static. "Listen, where are you? Is Duke with you?" "We're both fine," Dive assured her. "As for where, hold on a second." He glanced around the room, finally seeing something that would help. "Okay, the place we're at right now is Maintenance Shed 6. Can you work with that?" "Just a second." Mallory dissapeared from the screen for a second. "Actually I can," she told him. "Grin and Tanya are headed your way. They'll be there in about ten or fifteen minutes, okay? Just sit tight." "Count on it," Dive said. "Thanks, Mal. Is everyone else all right? Wildwing?" "He's fine. He's trying to find out what's going on around here." "Wish him luck for me," Dive muttered. "When we get back you're going to have to fill us in on just what has gone down here." "It's a short story," she sighed. "Let me know when Tanya and Grin get there, okay?" "Sure thing. Bye, Mal." Dive closed the channel on his communit. "Here that?" "Yup." Duke looked relieved as he leaned against the door. "We're almost out of here, kid." "Almost isn't done," Dive said automatically. "We're not out of this yet." "Sure," Duke groaned. "Ruin my good news." The thud against the side of the building was a sign that the news was about to be ruined further. Duke stepped away from the wall in shock as another thud slammed into the wall. The small wooded room shuddered visibly under the assault. "Get your puck launcher, Dive," he said softly. "And stay behind me." "Duke, your arm-" Great. Duke had almost forgotten about *that* little problem. "I'll be okay," he murmured. "Now get ready. This can't be good." *** Ian Malcolm was a delightfully outspoken man. After dealing with the, the *bueracrats* who ran Jurassic Park, Wildwing was relieved to find someone who actually came out and said what they meant. "This place is a disaster just waiting to happen," Malcom announced cheefully. "Or should I say, it's waiting for someone to happen *to.*" "What do you base this on?" Wildwing asked. "Common sense. Think about it. What these people are trying to do is essentially *re-creating* a form of life. A form of life that nature *selected* to die out." Malcolm shifted slightly, trying to get comfortable without moving his leg. "And it's not just any type of life. It's not some bird that died twenty years ago because of deforestation. It's a giant, ecology altering form of life that has been extinct for 65 million years! How many things have changed? The very air we breathe is alien to them. There are bacteria and viruses that didn't exist in their time. We might as well have transplanted them from another world." Wildwing grinned at that, a little. "Speaking from experience, Mr. Malcolm, it is entirely possible to survive on an alien world." Malcolm grinned back. "But you are an intelligent being, capable of reasoning, negotiating and changing to fit your new environment. These creatures can't do that. It's just not the way they are. They can't build a home with air conditioning so that the temperature is more comfortable than the one outdoors. They can't go to the grocery and have specialized foods bought for them. They have to depend on what they can find on their own. "And," he added, "they haven't the intelligence to understand what I just said. They are confused and lost and completely out of their element. And they will do whatever necessary to survive." "You're making sense so far. But I still don't see why this place was destined to fail." "Is destined," Malcolm corrected. "It's not over yet." "Fantastic." *** Dive allowed Duke to herd him back away from the wall, putting as much space between them and whatever was on the other side of the wall as possible within the small space they were confined to. "Call the others," Duke whispered. "Tell them to hurry." Dive nodded. In a low voice he explained the situation to Mallory. "Tell Grin and Tanya to hurry," he hissed. "I don't know what's out there, but it sounds like it's royally-" "*Get down!*" Duke's shout took him by surprise, but not nearly as much as the arm at his waist and Duke's full weight suddenly slamming him into the ground. The impact knocked the breath out of him and for an instant all he could think about was trying to get some air back into his lungs. Duke's weight acorss his back wasn't helping matters any. A primal roar burst the air and Dive flinched involuntary. It wasn't the t-rex, that was all he knew. Not necessarily a good thing. After all, they'd lived through the t-rex. There was a splintering crash as the wall suddenly gave way and a yellowish blur burst through, slamming against the opposite wall, momentarily stunned. Dive gaped. 'A velociraptor! Oh, by the stars, we're gonna die!' Duke was suddenly on his feet, pulling Dive with him and propelling them both across the room. Dive didn't have time to protest as he realized Duke was headed straight for the velociraptor, didn't have time to do much of anything as Duke shoved him through the damaged section of wall and followed him out. "Run," Duke gasped. "Go. Now! We need a clearing, someplace we can see it coming! *Hurry!*" *** Wildwing and Malcolm were interrupted by the chime of Wildwing's communit. "What is it?" he asked. "Wildwing?" Mallory's voice came through clear. "I've got good news and bad news..." "Tell me." "First: We found them. I spoke with Dive a few minutes ago-" Wildwing closed his eyes in relief for a brief instant - "and he says he and Duke are fine. They holed up in a maintenance shed for the night. I sent Tanya and Grin their location and they're going to rendez-vous." Her tone became apologetic. "I would have let you know right away but something came up that required my attention." "This is where we get the bad news, right?" "Mmm-hmm. It seems that when Mr. Arnold shut down the computers earlier, he forgot to restart the main generator. We've been running on auxilary power ever since." "Stars. How bad is that?" "Pretty. The fences are down. All of them. The animals have been running free for the last five hours." Soft cursing came from the others in the room, and Malcolm grimaced as he closed his eyes and muttered something about fence integrities. "There's more." "Yeah. Right after I got that charming bit of news, Dive contacted me again. He said he and Duke were in trouble and that I needed to tell Tanya and Grin to hurry. I was about to ask him what was going on when I heard Duke shout something. There was a crash and I lost the connection." All the relief of a minute ago suddenly fled. "How close are Tanya and Grin?" "Couple of minutes, tops." There was nothing he and Mallory could do. Nothing. He just had to remember that... "Let me know as soon as you hear from any of them." "Aye, sir." Wildwing cut the commlink. Malcolm eyed his sympathetically. "Your friends are out there, too?" "Yeah,." Wildwing sighed. "And it looks like dinos eat duck." *** Considering his condition when they had arrived - unconscious - Duke allowed Dive to take the lead, heading away from the small building that had provided them with shelter, however temporarily. Dive seemed to have a destination in mind, an area where they could square off, back to back, and see where this thing and any friends it may have were coming from. Duke didn't dare look back, he knew they wouldn't be able to outrun this thing for long. They burst through trees and brush and were suddenly in the middle of a small clearing. Not large, but enough to suit their purposes. "Back to back," Duke ordered. "If you see something, and it's not a duck - shoot it." And then the time for preparations ended as the dinosaur came through the trees and lunged straight at them. *** Wildwing spotted Mallory standing at the door, waiting for him. "What's going on?" "We're evacuating," he explained shortly. "There's no more electricity and so far no one's been able to find a way to start it up. The people who have tried - well, let's just say they never came back." "Stars." Mallory allowed Wildwing to hurry her out of the visitor's center and down the steps to the waiting jeep. It was practically full already with Henry Wu, Hammond, Ellie Sattler, Harding and Malcolm, but Ellie moved over, making room for Mallory. "Stay with them at the lodge," Wildwing ordered. "You're the only one who knows weapons. If something gets in at them, they're going to need you." "You're not coming?" Mallory asked alarmed. Wildwing shook his head. "I'm staying here. I'm going to try to get to the generator and restart main power. If I succeed I'm coming back here and getting the fences back up." "You'll need help," Mallory insisted. "Let me stay with you." "They need your help more," Wildwing told her calmly. "And two of us will just attract more attention from the local wildlife. I'll be all right. Trust me. Now go, and keep an eye on these people. If nything comes up, contact me on the communit. Understood?" "Understood." She didn't like it, wildwing could tell, but he knew her well enough to know that she saw the reason in what she was saying. "Good. Now go!" Wu nodded and hit the gas. The jeep sped away toward the visitors lodge where, hopefully, they'd find a measure of safety until the fences were restored - or until help came. Wildwing turned and headed back to the visitor's center. *** Duke's puck launcher fired the round that stopped the velociraptor. Caught in mid air, it twisted and hit the ground with painful thud. Dive left Duke to make sure the thing was really dead while he scanned the forest around them. "It's dead," Duke announced. "It's not breathing." Dive felt only a momentary regret. Killing wasn't something he enjoyed, not even animals, but he couldn't find fault here. If Duke hadn't killed the creature, odds were both he and Duke would be dead at this moment. There was a rustle of branches behind him and they both whirled, puck launchers aiming at nothing. "Just the wind," Duke said after a long moment, but there was an edge of worry in his tone. 'Just the wind,' Dive thought sarcastically. 'Don't I wish.' And then he remembered what Tanya had told him. "Duke? We have a problem." "No kidding." "According to Tanya, velociraptors hunt in packs." Dive gestured to the one dead animal. "That doesn't look like a pack." "Which means there are more out there. Waiting for us to let our guard down." "Bingo." Dive shifted his weight from one foot to the other, nervous energy making him restless despite the danger. "Which also means, that it *wasn't* the wind." *** Tanya swatted away a heavy branch before it smacked her in the face, and once again checked the readings on her omnitool. "I'm still getting the autotrackers, but they seem to be moving." Grin glanced back at her but didn't slow his quick pace through the forest. "They left wherever they were and moved south - away from us. Not far, barely enough to make a difference, but something had to have caused them to move." "Can you raise them on the communits?" Grin asked. "I've tried. Neither one is responding. Considering all they've been through, it's not surprising that their communits aren't working properly." "How far from their location are we now?" "Few minutes," Tanya told him. "Give or take. We'll be there in about ten minutes." A scream ripped through the forest around them, loud, bestial and terrifying. "Faster if we run," she added shakily. *** Mallory watched as Harding and Sattler carefully arranged Malcolm on the large bed in one of the lodge's many guest rooms. The ride over had been swift and just barely controlled. More than once she'd feared that Wu's driving was going to kill them before the dinosaurs got the chance. Muldoon dug out a radio and set it on the table by the window. "At least if Gennaro manages to get the power back up, we'll know." Mallory didn't bother to reply, nor did any one else. Muldoon was stating the obvious, without adding that he doubted Gennaro was still alive. There was a thudding sound on the roof, and instinctively, everyone looked up at the ceiling. "What was that?" Ellie asked softly. "Maybe," Mallory said, "we ought to move Mr. Malcolm away from those skylights." "The bed's too heavy," Harding said. "And if something gets in here, we're all dead anyway." Mallory was about to thank him for his encouraging words when a snarling snouted face appeared at the skylight above them. "Oh, God," Muldoon breathed. "A raptor." Continued in Part Three...