Nerima Park
Ch.2
Carrot sat in awe as the two battling figures chased each other off into
the city leaving the group standing alone. "What is this?"
Kon smiled and turned to face the group. "This is not Tokyo, in fact
it's not even Japan," he waved his arms around dramatically. "This is my
dream, a vision of unreality, a place where dreams become reality!"
"What where those things? Are they some kind of robots?" asked Dr. Jones
as she walked over to the spot where the pair had been fighting and
inspected the damage.
"Why no doctor, there are absolutely no animatronics here on my island,"
replied the man cheerfully. "Each of the characters on this island are
living, breathing, and sentient creatures."
Dr. West shook his head and turned away. "What have you done you old
fool?"
"Come now, we have much to discus, dinner awaits us in the visitors
center," said the old man as he ushered them back to the car.
They found themselves in what looked like thirteenth century Japan
fifteen minutes later. The large building at the center of the area
looked like an ancient temple that rose high into the sky. Upon closer
inspection the front doors gave away the illusion. Two automatic sliding
glass doors parted revealing an office like reception area, various
booths sat unmanned waiting to accept guests into the park.
"Any minute now two sappy little kids are gonna show up I just know it,"
muttered West as he walked by angrily. Carrot smiled at the comment, but
was also very aware of the tenseness in his voice.
"I certainly hope this goes better than a Crighton book," he commented
as he followed a little behind the main group.
They found themselves in the back corner of a large restaurant area; the
group sat at a large table with Kon sitting at the head. An expensive
looking fish dinner sat in front of them and they ate quietly for the
most part. Once finished the real conversation began.
"What are your questions?" said the old man as he clasped his hands
together and leaned into the table patiently awaiting their opinions.
"How did you do this?" asked Jackson in shock. "I mean, those two
couldn't have been human."
"You are quite right doctor, these are not human beings," replied the
old man calmly. "They are creations of my own design. We used genetics to
create them; they have a basic human construct, but are anything but men.
In fact, most of their bodies are synthetic in nature. It helps us to
control them."
"Control?" asked West calmly.
"Yes, the attractions of this park are mostly human in nature, but there
are marked differences; for example. They don't age." He turned and gave
Carrot a small smile before looking back towards the scientists. "There
are other differences, some much more obvious than others, but for the
most part these beings are totally under our control."
"How so?" asked the woman as she brushed her hair back over her shoulder
lazily.
"We control their base personalities for one, what they think, the way
they think is all carefully controlled to create the illusion we desire
here," said the old man calmly.
"I think it's disgusting, communism at it's worst level," replied West
curtly.
"We give them the run of the island mostly," replied the old man with a
shrug. "We also try to keep them happy as well, we aren't sadists Dr.
West."
Carrot chose to speak up. "You realize that this will cause problems,
especially their human like nature. Human rights activists, even animal
rights activists will probably be breathing down your neck within a few
days of opening a place like this."
The old man narrowed his eyes slightly and smiled. "I didn't expect such
an intelligent insight Carrot, you are quite right about that.
Unfortunately for them, these beings are not animals or people. They are
synthetic in nature and therefore my property."
West coughed into his hand and frowned again. "I hate to play doubting
Malcolm here, but have you ever actually read Jurassic Park, or did you
just get halfway through it and decide to base your little park on the
idea?"
Kon smiled at this, "Dr. West, I am quite aware of that interesting
piece of fiction, to be perfectly honest we considered creating a real
live Jurassic Park for a time. The idea was quite sound, it was a mixture
of circumstance, betrayal, and poorly thought out preparation that caused
that mishap on the fictitious island. We are quite safe here. Besides,
these are not mere animals we have here, they are very close to human
nature and intelligence levels."
"That's what worries me," replied the psychiatrist carefully as he
picked at the remains of his dinner casually.
"I'm inclined to agree with him at this point," said Carrot with a small
frown on his face. "I realize that Jurassic Park was just a work of
fiction, but the similarity to the premise is a little unsettling to me.
I mean you'll understand I'm a little uncomfortable right now because of
it."
"I quite agree, we are planing a market strategy to change the
similarities between ourselves and that book. It might drive away
customers after all. We will probably change the name of the park long
before it opens, and many of the parks are not yet finished," answered
Kon as calmly as ever.
"How close to the fictitious counterparts are these things anyway?"
asked Jackson calmly. "Is it difficult to take them down if they get out
of hand?"
"Quite difficult, that is why you are here Dr. Jackson. Some of these
creatures are quite hard to put down if the need arises; however, they
are not invincible and hardly bulletproof. We would like you to help us
find ways of catching them without killing them," said the old man
calmly.
West smiled knowingly. "It sounds like you've had problems with this
before."
"No, we have not, but it is always best to be sure. We don't want a
lawsuit if one of the Saiyans gets loose and starts attacking the
guests," replied the old man with a taut voice.
Carrot raised his eyebrow with his hair standing on end; just the
familiarity with the situation he found himself in was enough to make his
blood run cold. "You made Saiyans?"
Kon shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Yes, they are the reason Dr.
West is here. We would like his opinions on them."
"What's your field Dr. West?" asked Jones uncomfortably.
"Criminal Psychology, murderers, insanity, the darker side of our
minds," replied the man ominously.
"Where are they?" asked Carrot as he stood from his chair with a hard
look on his face.
They stood before what looked like a jungle behind a glass wall. "Don't
get to close, the energy field that contains them is quite strong,"
warned Hugo as he stood beside them.
"Where are they?" asked Dr. Jones in confusion.
"Up," replied Carrot without looking himself.
The three scientists gazed upwards and gasped as they noticed the
humanoid figures floating in the air behind the barrier. The saiyans
sneered at them and darted around excitedly running into the walls
creating a shower of sparks that rained down on the group.
The Hugo and the three scientists rushed away from the spray and backed
from the shield. "Why do they do that? Doesn't it hurt them?" asked
Jackson angrily as he brushed at a smoking part of his shirt putting out
the sparks.
Hugo frowned and nodded his head. "It hurts them a lot, they do it
because they know we don't like it."
"Fascinating," said West as he stepped forward again and peered up at
the creatures. "They have tails?"
This caught Hugo off slightly and he shuddered. "Boy do they ever."
Carrot stood motionless inches away from the shield as he watched in a
sort of morbid fascination. The sparks rained down on him and he ignored
them completely staring into the jungle as a figure emerged from the
foliage. It was chillingly familiar yet strangely unnerving to see it. He
felt the word escape his lips and watched in awe. "Goku."
The saiyan turned slowly and looked him in the eyes for a moment smiling
to himself. Carrot could see the overly brash personality and bravado
there. There was something else as well, a savagery that could not be
described and was dangerously out of place. The thing slowly turned to
face him moving out into the open staring him down with the smile never
leaving his face.
In an instant his face changed into a mask of anger and rage as he
charged. Carrot found himself unable to move as the beast charged
forward, a glow surrounded his body as he went flaring with a golden
light as his hair stood up straight and took on a golden sheen just as he
hit the wall.
He found himself staring straight into the monster's deep blue eyes as
it struggled against the wall of energy fighting to reach him. After a
moment the Saiyan froze and backed away slowly, the strange human had not
flinched once and simply stared him down with a dazed look in his eyes
never tearing his eyes away from him. The Saiyan smiled again and
vanished into the foliage again.
Carrot merely stood, it was all he could do. "No, Kakkarotto." He
identified the Saiyan and was brought back to reality by the screams of
his companions as they pulled him away from the wall and shook him
violently.
"Hey boy! Come on back! What the hell happened?" called Jackson as he
slapped Carrot across the face.
The man slowly turned towards Hugo and frowned. "If you want my advice,
you'll kill every one of those things as soon as you can."
"I'm inclined to agree with him," said West calmly as he kept watch on
the creatures ignoring the others almost completely. "Tell me, can they
speak?"
Hugo sighed heavily and nodded his head. "They've got their own
language, and we can't figure it out at all. It's clear enough that they
understand human speech though."
"Have you considered putting them down?" asked Jackson.
"We did for a time, but a Dragon ball exhibit would be important to a
park like this, we couldn't afford to," replied the man calmly as he
brushed his comb over again.
Carrot picked his hat off of the ground and placed it back on his head
after dusting it off, it had come off when Jackson shook him back into
reality. "I'm kind of wondering about that man now."
West nodded and turned away, "There is definitely something sinister
about those creatures, and I don't mean just their nature."
"Nature didn't have anything to do with that," replied Jackson angrily.
"No self respecting zoo would keep animals that dangerous and aggressive,
why is this place any different?"
Hugo sighed heavily. "That's where Dr. Jones comes in, she is a leading
authority on primates. These creatures are more closely related to our
more primitive relatives than us."
"I'm more than a little interested in how you're doing this, I don't see
how you can engineer chi attacks and magic powers," said Carrot calmly as
he shook off the after effects of his daze.
Kon waited for them in a large laboratory inside the building. "I'm not
going to bore you by explaining how we engineer these creatures in
detail. Suffice to say I think most of you have at least a basic idea on
how cloning works." All present nodded calmly including Carrot.
"Can they reproduce?" asked Carrot calmly.
Kon raised his eyebrow and smiled. "Why? Worried about that little book
again?"
"Not really, I've seen the saiyans and I know it's only a matter of time
before we're running for our lives and screaming a lot. I'm just
wondering really." He leaned against a table and waited patiently until
Kon finished his good-natured chuckle.
"Why of course not! This island isn't equipped to handle a large
population of permanent residents. There completely unable to reproduce,
we remove the scrotum from the males and the ovaries from the females
whey they near maturity. After all, this isn't a population of animals we
don't know our way around. Besides, some of the more financially stable
guests may want to...enjoy some of our more popular female attractions."
Dr. Jones felt a surge of anger inside of her, but remained silent. Kon
noticed and continued. "We are an entirely self sufficient island, laws
about such things are non existent here."
"I wouldn't recommend it from a purely psychological standing," replied
West calmly.
Carrot kept his face unreadable. "You're treading on dangerous political
waters already with this place Kon. I may not be much of a scientist or a
lawyer, but this place is already dangerously close to an island of
slaves. You may see these things as your personal property, but the
governments of the world might not agree with you."
The Chinese man turned and looked at him. "What do you think though?"
"I haven't seen enough to form a definitive opinion yet, and even when I
do it won't matter that much in the end," he replied simply.
"Still afraid the big bad dinosaurs are going to kill us all?" asked the
old man with an amused tone.
"I haven't seen any reason to believe you can stop them if they try,"
replied Jackson simply.
"Come with me," said Kon calmly as he motioned for them to follow.
"This is the armory," said the aged man as he opened the doors to the
large garage sized room that was lined with walls of guns and ammunition.
Several automatic assault rifles caught Carrot's attention and he frowned
as he looked at the large numbers of handguns. He brushed his hands along
the handles and rubbed his fingers together before turning towards the
old man.
"These will kill anything in the park?" he asked calmly.
"Most anything yes," answered Hugo calmly.
"I don't like the sound of that," replied Jackson as he pulled his
attention away from a hunting rifle on the wall.
"A Saiyan?" pressed Carrot impatiently.
"Most definitely, they are very strong and fast, but hardly the
invincible creatures that you know from Dragon ball," replied Kon with a
smile.
"You have no idea how comforting I find that," replied Carrot as he
inspected a nine-millimeter handgun closely before setting it down on the
rack again.
"Come we have much to accomplish. Mr. Genson is expecting us in the
control room shortly, and you've still got to take the tour," the old man
led them out of the room and smiled as Carrot stuck the hand gun down the
back of his pants with two clips of ammunition stuck into his pockets.
Hugo whispered into his ear with an alarmed sound to his voice. "Sir..."
"Relax, if he feels more secure let him have it, he is certainly no
assassin sent for me. Besides, once he is finished with the tour we will
ask him to return it. I doubt very seriously that he will take pot shots
at the attractions, and even if he does, how long do you think he'll last
with only a hand gun?"
Hugo nodded and looked back at the man. "I'm keeping an eye on him
though."
"Do what you feel you must Hugo."
TBC...
Got an amazing response on this one. Mostly "Continue or I shall kill
you!" So here's part two, hope you enjoy it. I'm not sure exactly how
long this fic will be and it isn't going to be a copy of Jurassic Park
word for word either. I've got a pretty good plan set up and you'll just
have to see what happens. It shouldn't be exessively long though, I can
probably do everything I want to in about ten or eleven chapters, but you
know how these things can run away with you...
Next time: The control room, and the start of the tour.
C&C to: Carrotglace@juno.com
URL: Http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/fountain/3203