“Okay, and here… we… go,” muttered a tall raven-haired man, checking his outfit in the mirror for the fourth time since he got in the elevator and swiping imaginary dust from his shoulder. The doors opened and Tao plastered a smile on his face, greeting the lady and two men from Verison Wireless; as an important executive of Jurassic World, Tao took it upon himself to lead the potential investors on a tour. He led them through the glass doors of the Genetics Lab into a long corridor packed with tourists. Here the visitors could witness the park’s scientists at work.

“No one’s impressed by dinosaurs anymore,” said Tao, smiling. “Twenty years ago, de-extinction was right up there with magic. These days, kids look at a Stegosaurus like an elephant at the city zoo.”

Inside the lab, dinosaur eggs were scattered across incubators. Children pressed their faces against the glass wall of the corridor, staring as a baby Apatosaurus broke through its shell. Despite Tao’s words, the children seemed fascinated enough by the newborn dinosaur.

“That doesn’t mean Asset Development is falling behind,” continued Tao as he lead the three visitors down the corridor, seemingly as fascinated as the children (though better at hiding it). “Our DNA excavators discover new species every year. But consumers want them bigger, louder. More Teeth.”

Tao had never understood people’s need to be terrified. Ghosts weren’t real, and he couldn’t stand even the thought of them. The fascination with the T-Rex feeding was the worst, he thought. He had nearly vomited the first time he had watched her eat, and made a habit of avoiding Paddock 9 if he could. He led the trio into the Genetics Lab. The scientists were drilling into amber to extract the ancient DNA, injecting fertilized eggs, and loading stacks of frozen embryos into freezers. “The good news,” he said, “is that our advances in gene splicing have opened up a new frontier. We’ve learned more from genetics in the past decade than in a century of digging up dinosaur bones.”

Stopping before a 3-D display of a DNA strand, he asked the business people, “when you say you want to sponsor a new attraction, what do you have in mind?”

The three exchanged glances before one of the men smiled. “We want to be thrilled.”

Tao smiled back. “Don’t we all.”

He swiped the touchscreen glass of the display case, and the DNA strand spun. “We think you’ll be more than thrilled by our first genetically modified dinosaur, built from scratch.”

“And not just built, designed,” said a nearby voice.

The group turned and found Dr. Henry Wu, the head geneticist at Jurassic World, and Jurassic Park before it. He had been there from the beginning. “She’ll be fifty feet when fully grown,” Dr. Wu continued. “Bigger than the T-Rex.”

The three potential corporate sponsors looked intrigued, but were not entirely sold. They looked nervous, and Tao didn’t blame them. It was crazy.

“Every time we’ve unveiled a new asset, attendance at the park has spiked. We’ve gotten global news coverage. Celebrity visitors. Eyes of the world,” said Tao, nodding at the faces pressed against the glass. He knew that was the sort of thing corporate sponsors loved to hear.

“When will she be ready?” asked the woman in the group.

Tao’s smile was positively predatory. “She already is.”

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

Tao brushed his black hair out of his face, sighing as he entered the park’s control room. Giant monitors covered the walls as various diagnostics ran and cameras watched everything happening at the park, from the old men guzzling margaritas to children laughing as they sat on the back of a baby triceratops. Various colored dots crowded a map of the park, marking the placement of each of the park’s assets. A couple dozen employees watched the screens, and man with puffy cheeks waved when he noticed Tao entering the room.

“Did you close the deal?” asked the man, Minseok, the communications operator who had known about the potential sponsors.

“Of course,” replied Tao, and Minseok chuckled at his confidence. One of the engineers (whom Tao not-so-secretly thought looked just like the dinosaurs that roamed the park) scoffed and shook his head in disapproval. 

“Problem Jongdae?” asked Tao absently, pulling out his phone. The text read “BOSS COMING,” and Tao had to restrain himself from swearing.

“Why stop there? Might as well let the corporations name the dinosaurs. Just like ballparks!”

“Yixing said he’s got your brother in law and his friend,” said Minseok, the both of them ignoring Jongdae’s ranting that was picking up steam (“Pepsisaurus… Tostitodon…”).

“Tell him I’ll be there at noon, I have to meet with Mr. Choi,” sighed Tao.

“Wait, you’re related to people? Actual human beings?” asked Jongdae, forgetting for a moment his dinosaur-activism.

“Funny Jongdae,” deadpanned Tao, scowling at the mess that was the engineer’s desk. “And will you clean this up? It’s very… chaotic.”

“I like to see it as a living system,” said Jongdae simply, reaching over to fiddle with the numerous dinosaur figures that lined the top of his monitor. Tao could see his elbow jerking closer and closer to the giant cup of soda that sat on the edge of his desk, and, sighing again, nudged a small trash container under the cup with his foot. “Just enough stability to keep it from falling into total anarchy.” Sure enough, he hit the cup and it tumbled into the waste basket.

“Clean it up!” called Tao over his shoulder as he left the control room, and Minseok rolled his eyes as Jongdae resumed his grumbling.

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

On the park’s helipad, a helicoptor labeled “Jurassic One” landed. His hair whipped by the wind from the chopper’s blades, Tao ran up to the door and climbed in. Tao was surprised to see the CEO’s son, Suho Choi, sitting in the seat next to him and looking a bit harried. The handsome boy sent him a small smile and greeted him. He and Suho had been friends since college, and the now twenty-six year old was responsible for Tao getting his foot in the door at Jurassic World.

At the controls sat Siwon Choi, the CEO of InGen and one of Jurassic World’s largest investors. Next to him was a weary flight instructor.

“Tao!” shouted Siwon, greeting over the noise of the helicoptor.

“Mr. Choi!” Tao shouted back. “You’re flying?”

“I got my license!” Mr. Choi announced, grinning. Both Suho and the flight instructor shook their heads. 

“He has to pass two more tests, don’t let him fool you!” said Suho loudly, and Tao gripped the rail above as the helicopter began to rise very unsteadily. “Got it! Got!” shouted Mr. Choi, and Tao said a small prayer to himself. They soared over the valley, the slopes of jungle and mountains surrounding them as they took off, Mr. Choi happily shooting questions about the park at Tao. Tao wasn’t sure how they were supposed to measure the happiness of the dinosaurs… but at least the consumers were happy (according to their reports and ratings, anyways). Tao opened a notebook to a drawing of the new asset’s enclosure, a steel paddock in the jungle. “So the marketing department thought we could offset costs by selling naming rights to the new padck. I just closed the deal this morning—“

Enough about costs!” Mr. Choi interrupted. “Don’t forget why we built this place, Tao. Jurassic World exists to remind us how very small we are. How new. You can’t put a price on that. Now, please! We’re flying. Breathe!” Tao could find no way to do so, Mr. Choi making a sharp turn and making his heart jump. Suho shared a self-suffering sigh next to him, well acquainted with his father’s disregard for the logistics of running a theme park. And what theme park this had turned out to be.

Mr. Choi landed the helicopter next to a massive, open-roofed paddock still under construction. Tao followed Mr. Choi and Suho off the helicopter, a hand instinctively held over his head as the blades began to slow. The instructor—  Mr. Kim, immediately ran to the bushes nearby and collapsed to his knees. Retching could be heard from the frazzled man, and Tao worriedly glanced back at the man as they approached the trail. 

“Are you okay?” he finally called out.

“He’s just being dramatic!” said Mr. Choi loudly, waving the man off. “Are you still building?”

“Yes,” answered Tao, leading the two men down the short trail and approaching the paddock. The concrete and steel enclosure stood menacingly in the middle of the clearing, cranes pulling materials to the tops of the walls. “We planned to open in May, but Asset Containment insisted that we build the walls up higher. It’s bigger than we expected.”

Tao lead the men up to the viewing deck, trees the only sight behind the thick glass. Sunlight fell across the foliage in thick streams, the air still. “We hit a few speed bumps early on as it began to anticipate where the food would come from,” said Tao, approaching a touch pad near the glass. Mr. Choi and Suho followed, both looking out into the enclosure. “One of the handlers nearly lost an arm, and the others threatened to quit if I couldn’t guarantee their safety.”

“So she’s intelligent then?” asked Suho, finally speaking up and looking at Tao in interest.

“For a dinosaur, yes,” said Tao, trying to sound flippant.

“And that?” asked Mr. Choi, pointing to the scratched glass farther down, spidery cracks marring the barrier.

“It tried to break the glass,” said Tao with a tight smile.

“I like her spirit,” said Mr. Choi, grinning and nodding as the trees began to rustle. A loud footstep echoes through the paddock. He squinted, peering into the foliage. “It’s white, you never told me it was white.” He pointed out the faint shape that could be made out in the distance, the Indominus Rex’s body lowered and staring at the three of them.

Think it’ll scare the kids?” asked Tao, biting his lip in thought.

“The kids?” said Mr. Choi with a scoff. “This will give the parents nightmares.” Suho continued to stare into the enclosure unblinkingly, his gaze focused on the red eyes trained in their direction.

“Is that… good?” Tao asked hesitiantly.

“It’s fantastic,” breathed Mr. Choi, smiling excitedly.

“Can she see us?” asked Suho, eyes not leaving the enclosure.

“They say she can sense thermal radiation like snakes,” replied Tao.

“I thought there were two of them,” said Mr. Choi with a frown, and Tao nodded. “There was a sibling in case this one didn’t survive infancy.”

“Where’s the sibling?” asked Suho, and Tao gulped.

“She ate her,” replied Tao, scoffing a bit to calm himself. The Indominus Rex, while a monumental feat for science, still terrified Tao, and he hated coming to check on the progress of this particular asset. The red eyes, too intelligent for an animal and certainly alarming from a predator, often gave him chills and nightmares.

Mr. Choi nodded along as a he inspected the enclosure. “And this paddock is quite safe then?”

“We have the best structural engineers in the world working on it,” assured Tao.

“Yeah, so did Hammond,” replied Mr. Choi, turning away from the enclosure to face Tao. “Bring in Dr. Wu’s kid, Kris. He works up in the lab and is showing promise. There’s also a Special Ops man here… Park. Part of a research program one of my companies is running. His animals often try to escape.

“They are smart,” said Mr. Choi grimly. “And he needs to be smarter. I want you to bring them in and let them inspect the paddock… Maybe they’ll see something we can’t.”

Tao nodded. “Yes sir.”

The three glanced again out into the enclosure. The Indominus Rex was gone, and Tao felt a chill run down his spine.

Thank goodness it was nearly lunch time.

The three quickly finished discussing plans for the Indonimus Rex’s release and marketing before Mr. Choi flew off with this nervous instructor, the helicopter disappearing over the tree line. “You got a car here?” asked Suho, sighing and relaxing his shoulders.

“Yeah, down here,” said Tao, leading him over to the SUV parked close by. “Guess I’ll be making a visit to the mad scientist.” Suho laughed at that.

“Still trying to woo you?” asked Suho in amusement, and Tao slapped his shoulder at the terrible pun. Kris Wu, one of the top geneticists at Jurassic World, was the son of Dr. Henry Wu. Dr. Wu had been with InGen since Jurassic Park had been dreamed up by John Hammond, and Kris had naturally followed in his father’s footsteps, entering Jurassic World’s program upon his graduation and completion of his master’s degree in genetics studies. The man, for all of his brains and quick thinking, was incredibly dim-witted when it came to flirting. Tao was unfortunate enough to be his main target.

“Trying is the key word there,” said Tao dryly, rolling his eyes as he started down the matenience road towards the park. More work for him. Just thinking about it was making his head hurt.

“And my brother-in-law’s brother and friend are here on top of it,” groaned Tao, hitting his head into the steering wheel. “Thank god for Yixing.”

“How is he doing?” asked Suho, glancing at him. Tao suppressed a smirk, keeping his eyes on the road.

“He bought a new pair of pants… leather, I hear, on a dare,” said Tao nonchalantly, nearly laughing at the flush that spread across Suho’s face at the news. Yixing swore up and down he would never even open the box they had come in, but Suho didn’t need to know that. Suho’s infatuation with Yixing was a bit of a joke among their friends, the CEO’s son having pined after the assistant for a good year and a half. Yixing was clueless, and it was almost painful to watch the two circle each other as they did. “I asked him to take care of Baekhyun and his friend, Kyungsoo. They’re taking my brother-in-law’s place for the week here.”

“And it’s almost time to meet them like I said I would,” he continued, looking at Suho out of the corner of his eyes. “Want to come?”

“Sure, why not?” said Suho nonchalantly, but Tao didn’t miss the way his ears turned pink.

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

“Ahhh, that was good,” groaned Baekhyun, patting his stomach. Kyungsoo continued to eat his spaghetti quietly, and Yixing glanced at his phone as it vibrated with a text.

“Tao’s on his way,” he said, typing in a response. “And the CEO’s son is with him.” 

“Cool, more people to meet,” said Baekhyun, stretching and standing. Kyungsoo wiped his mouth and stood as well, the both waiting for Yixing to gather his things and lead them back to the hotel. People were crowded on all sides as they reentered Main Street, laughing loudly and chattering as they consulted maps and pointed out shops. Baekhyun found it strange that so many chain shops like Pandora and Nike were scattered across Main Street, but Baekhyun supposed they needed to bring in as much money as possible.

Baekhyun did not envy Tao one bit.

They followed Yixing to the towering visitor’s center, the glass structure harshly reflecting the sun’s rays. Kyungsoo’s eyes became impossibly wide as he took in the building. A skeleton of a T-Rex petrified in a column of amber loomed over the hall, the monorail slicing through the open space above it. In a 3-D display, children shrieked as they controlled what holograms shrieked and roared and grunted, everything from the stegosaurus to the velociraptor blinking in and out of existence. “Cool,” said Baekhyun in amazement, looking at the various displays. Most of this beyond his knowledge, but Kyungsoo happily rattled off the names of chemicals in DNA.

“Nerd,” said Baekhyun fondly, flinging an arm over Kyungsoo’s shoulder and watching him place the scientific gibberish in the correct place at a display titled “A Brief History of Neo-Paleontology.”

“Baekhyun?” asked a voice from behind them, and Baekhyun turned, finding a tall, imposing raven-haired man behind him.

“Panda!” exclaimed Baekhyun, walking up to shake hands with his brother in law. Tao’s eye twitched a bit at the nickname, but seemed pleased to see him and Kyungsoo nonetheless. Once, when Tao was thirteen and the other two eight, Mei had begged her brother to babysit the two boys in her place, Baekbeom finally working up the nerve to ask her out on a date. Baekhyun had bluntly told the older boy that he looked like a panda, and had called him that ever since.

“Nice to see you guys again,” said Tao, ruffling Kyungsoo’s hair affectionately. Another man, with brown hair neatly pulled back and a pleasant smile on his face, approached them. He looked impeccable, his suit pressed neatly and shoes shined. 

“You must be Baekhyn,” he said, and Baekhyun nodded politely, shaking his proffered hand. “Suho Choi. I hope you’re enjoying the park so far.”

“Thanks, we haven’t gotten to really see much yet,” said Baekhyun. “But Yixing has been telling us about everything we can do, so we’re excited.”

“Ah, I see,” said Suho, looking over to the assistant who watched everyone speak with a soft smile. “Hello Yixing, I hope you’ve been well?”

“Just fine, thank you Mr. Choi,” said Yixing politely, and Baekhyun didn’t miss the dusting of pink over both of their cheeks. Tao rolled his eyes and cleared his throat.

“Well,” he said, pulling out his phone and sighing for what he was sure was the millionth time that day. “I ended up getting a million things piled onto me at once today, and I can’t really show you guys around.”

“We’ll manage,” said Baekhyun, waving off his apology. “Just let us keep Yixing.” The said boy broke the awkward eye contact with Suho he had found himself stuck in, the man stuttering an assurance that he could can him Suho, at the mention of his name.

“Deal,” said Tao, nodding, and Yixing gave him a salute as Tao instructed him to show the two visitors around.

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

After exploring the visitor’s center for what seemed like hours, Yixing finally brought the two boys back to Main Street for gelato. “A good friend of mine works here,” said Yixing, leading them into the cute little shop. Dinosaur plushies were scattered around the shop, and at the counter stood a petite young man with fluffy blonde hair. “Ah, Yixing, how’re you?” called the man, his smiling brightening his face. Another boy that had been sitting at the counter turned as well, waving lazily at Yixing, his eyes not leaving the phone in his hand. “Hello Luhan,” said Yixing, smiling as Luhan lightly smacked the back of the other taller boy’s head. “Sehun.”

“Hey Yixing,”grumbled the brunette, Sehun, with a pout that looked strange on his handsome face. Luhan ignored the look. The three quickly ordered gelato and joined Sehun at the counter, chatting with the boy they learned worked for the park’s Asset Containment Unit (much to Luhan’s displeasure, if the frown on his face as Sehun described his job was anything to go by).

“Have you seen Chanyeol lately?” asked Luhan, and Yixing shook his head, finishing off the the small chocolate cone.

“I tried to get him to join Jongdae, Minseok and I for lunch the other day, burt he told me he was too busy… same with Jongin,” said Yixing. Suddenly, he brightened up and, interrupting Sehun’s story about a rogue triceritops, asked Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, “hey, do you guys want to go visit one of the paddocks? A friend of ours’ is the head of one of them.”

“What’s in the paddock?” asked Kyungoo curiously, and Yixing merely smiled at them.

God, this :p But next chapter is more people, yay!

Comments are appreciated <3 see you guys soon!