Chapter Four: Family Vacation

            In a past regeneration, Neas once visited an amusement park unlike any found in the multiverse. It was called “Jurassic Park,” and it showcased living, breathing dinosaurs as its main attraction.

            Located on the island of Isla Nublar, Jurassic Park was intended to be the next Disneyland; unfortunately, a deadly incident that occurred in 1993 brought about its cancellation, and the park never came to its complete fruition.

            Ten years later, one company dared to resurrect John Hammond’s dream.

            As a result, “Jurassic World” was born.

            Now, in his teenaged twentieth regeneration self-named “Bradlee,” Neas returned to Isla Nublar in 2015. It was the spot he picked for a family vacation with his companions, Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems.

            “This place is unbelievable,” a starry-eyed Steven exclaimed with genuine awe. “Real, live dinosaurs!”

            “They’re fake, Steven,” the logical Pearl was quick to debunk. “Any simpleton can see they’re mere animatronics. There is no way anyone – no matter what dimension they’re in – can replicate living dinosaurs.”

            “But these people actually have,” Bradlee told Pearl. “The science behind it all is pretty intriguing. Scientists extracted the dinosaurs’ DNA from blood cells in prehistoric mosquitoes that were trapped and preserved in amber. Since the DNA was so old, it had to be repaired. So, they used that from other species to fill in the gaps.”

            “Whoa,” Steven uttered in wonder. “That’s amazing.”

            “Welllll…not really.”

            A trench-coated Englishman in a dark brown suit with blue pinstripes butted into their conversation, drawing the eyes of Bradlee and his companions towards him. He munched on a bag of popcorn while discrediting Bradlee’s facts:

            “The DNA found in the amber would degrade over several million years, or at least be intertwined with insect DNA. By all purposes, this place shouldn’t even exist.”

            As he discovered in the time of living in this regeneration, Bradlee absolutely hated to be proven wrong. He considered it a challenge to his Time Lord intellect, and this nosy stranger of tall, slim posture delivered one to him.

            It didn’t help much to hear Pearl agree with the man either.

            “Precisely my point,” she said. “This place shouldn’t exist.”

            “Yes…thanks for clearing that up, sir,” Bradlee sarcastically said.

            “Sure, no problem,” the man returned, failing to detect Bradlee’s cynicism as he walked off, continuing to munch on his popcorn.

            After a while, Bradlee just couldn’t shake off this feeling.

            Not about being shown up by the man, but about the man himself.

            “I’ll be right back,” he told his companions.

            “Where are ya goin’, Brad?” Amethyst asked.

            “Just checking up on something. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been in this dimension. I just wanna see what all has changed.” He reached into his jeans pocket to retrieve a wad of dollar bills and coins. “Here, grab some lunch from that Dave & Buster’s on Main Street.”

            There was still confusion on their faces over his sudden exit.

            He would just have to explain it in more detail later when he caught up with them.

            The tall, trench-coated man was already a good distance ahead, and Bradlee had to catch up with him.

            Things turned suspicious as he followed the man into server maintenance.

            Bradlee discovered him fiddling with the park’s mainframe.

            Gripped in his hands was a device awfully similar to a sonic screwdriver.

            “Stop what you’re doing, right now,” Bradlee forcibly directed, using his sonic screwdriver in a threatening manner.

            The trench-coated man turned and saw him with his alien tool.

            His large, dark brown eyes sparked with immense interest.

            “That’s a trans-temporal sonic screwdriver,” he identified Bradlee’s weapon of choice. “It’s extremely rare!”

            Bradlee’s face crinkled quizzically. “How do you know what this is?”

            “Because I’ve kept such a sonic screwdriver as a backup aboard my T.A.R.D.I.S. for the longest time,” the man told him.

            It was then Bradlee’s sense of realization kicked in.

            The identity of this stranger now apparent to him.

            “Doctor?”

            The man’s countenance flared at Bradlee’s utterance of his name – the name only a select few would know him as.

            Noting the reaction, Bradlee’s paranoia ceased – replaced by delight.

            “It is you,” he cheered. “You’re here! You’re really here!”

            “Yes…I am,” the guarded Doctor said. “And who are you?”

            “It’s me – Neas!”

            This surprising revelation momentarily caught the Doctor off guard.

            Whatever regeneration of him this was, it was obvious to Bradlee that it had to before the old Scotsman he met and fought with in the Multiverse War against Davros and his Dalek Empire.

            That was evident from the huge, relieved smile, which manifested on the face of his mentor and greatest friend.

            “The Gladiator of Gallifrey,” he beamed. “You survive the war!”

            “Indeed, I have.”

            The Doctor was quick to change his expression back to skepticism, as he surmised, “Wait. Hang on. You’re the reason I’ve inexplicably found myself in an alternate universe – one that happens to have many Spielberg-esque properties! It’s been happening to me a lot lately, running the T.A.R.D.I.S. ragged and exhausting most of its energy.”

            His circumstance prompted Bradlee to recall the same happening to the Doctor’s future Scottish incarnation.

            With this knowledge, he insisted to his old friend, “You can piggyback your T.A.R.D.I.S. on my Type-Z. It has plenty of energy for yours to feed onto and send you back along the time vortex.”

            The Doctor was impressed from the calculated notion. “You’ve learned quite a few tricks since I last saw you.”

            Bradlee snickered. “You have no idea.”

            “Hey! What’re you two doing down here?!”

            A park security guard.

            Bradlee knew they should’ve paid better mind to their surroundings in their moment of jubilation. Craftily, he used his sonic screwdriver to malfunction one of the servers, offering himself and the Doctor the distraction they needed for escape.

            It was an act the Doctor seemed less than enthused over.

            “That might do more harm than good,” he warily noted.

            “Don’t worry,” Bradlee assured. “This park is predestined to go down in flames, just like the last one.”

            The two Time Lords ran.

            They appeared to be in the clear when they made a detour out of the building and into a jungle clearing. The Doctor used his sonic to lock the door shut behind him, keeping the guard busy for a little longer. “There,” he declared. “We should be home free now. My T.A.R.D.I.S. is somewhere on the property. We just need to—”

            Vicious snarling erupted behind the pair, disturbing the Doctor’s train of thought.

            He and Bradlee turned to see rapid movement in the shrubbery before a pack of four velociraptors emerged in the clearing and swarmed the Time Lords.

            Bradlee’s body numbed, staring into the reptilian eyes of one teal-colored raptor.

            “We were safer inside with the guard,” he fearfully muttered.

            Just when the raptors verged on pouncing upon the two Gallifreyans, another man stepped in between them and the carnivores.

            With unique hand signals and verbal commands, he tamed the pack of raptors.

            Right back in their cages they went, much to the relief of Bradlee and the Doctor.

            “Now that was amazing,” a highly impressed Doctor complimented the raptor-tamer. “You, sir, have my utmost tha—!”

            BAM!

            As he went to shake the tamer’s hand, the Doctor was knocked out cold.

            Bradlee saw the culprit to be a member of the InGen Security Division, using the butt of his taser rifle to render the Doctor unconscious. He himself was placed under arrest soon thereafter, handcuffed along with the Doctor.

            What a vacation this is turning out to be!

----------------------

            On the Main Street section of the park, Steven and the Gems just finished the lunch Bradlee treated them to at Dave & Buster’s when they started to wonder what became of their host.

            “Maybe he’s studyin’ more on the dinosaurs to ice down his bruised ego,” Amethyst teased. “That skinny guy in the trench coat totally kicked his butt with all that science-y talk.”

            “What do you think, Steven?” Garnet asked; she always respected whatever opinions he had on a situation like this.

            Steven considered for a moment. “Well…he did say he’d be right back. So why don’t we give him a little more time?”

            “What else is there to do in this ‘Dave & Buster’s’?” Pearl queried.

            “They have plenty of games,” Steven said. “I’ll go get us some tokens.”

            Jumping away from their booth, he merrily rushed to the nearest token dispenser.

            “Here. Have some on me.”

            Before Steven could feed a dollar into the dispenser, he was given a cupful of tokens by a nice lady dressed in plum-colored garb. By its Victorian style, which seemed out of place for a tourist, she reminded Steven very much of Mary Poppins.

            “Thank you, Miss,” he told her.

            “My pleasure,” she spoke in a Scottish brogue. “And it’s ‘Missy,’ if you please.”