Raptor

Chapter 5

Raptor heard Ultron's call coming from out back and quickly ran out to join him and the twins as they stood outside in the early dawn light. "What is it?"

Ultron stood importantly as he mentally criticized all of them before speaking. "I want you to train against each other. If you are to fight together you first must know each other's strengths and weaknesses."

"Who goes first?" Pietro questioned in his thick accent, his blue gaze set on Raptor.

"Everyone for themselves." Ultron's robotic voice sounded colder than normal.

Raptor shifted, feeling her size, senses, and natural weaponry grow until she was taller than the three figures in front of her once more. A growl ripped from her throat and she bared her teeth at Pietro and Wanda as they backed away to prepare their own attacks. She made sure Ultron was out of her way first before darting forward and leaping at Pietro only to have him quickly sidestep. She snarled and snapped at him but missed again as he dashed around to her other side and punched her in the ribs.

"Ahh..." He shook his as blood from where her scales cut him ran down his hand.

Not wanting to be left out Wanda made a whirlwind of fallen leaves and red glowing energy around them until they couldn't see where they were going. Raptor closed her eyes to avoid the sharp edges; Pietro however didn't have thick scales to protect him and started running in the opposite direction to destroy the vortex. Raptor took aim at Wanda next once the leaves cleared enough for her to see and easily pinned her onto her back, careful not to apply her full weight in this form. A blur went by her and Pietro slammed into her side at his full running force causing her to stagger and crash to the ground, crushing some graves that were behind the church.

"Faster Pietro, Wanda, get more attacks in there!" Ultron ordered as he observed each of them. "Raptor, more agility!"

Raptor flipped herself back onto her feet and stumbled for a few moments before locking her gaze on where Wanda and Pietro were sparring. She slinked off to the edge of the trees until she was close enough to lunge forward and rammed both of them to the ground before dodging Wanda, who made a red energy blast in her direction.

How long do I have to keep up this dodging? I might be genetically altered but I still don't have much stamina. Raptor complained.

"Just focus on defeating them." Her human thought replied.

She watched as Pietro quickly got back to his feet, multiple cuts on his body from taking hits, and she had to marvel at his determination to keep fighting. Wanda got up slower but still had a furious expression before raising both her hands up and releasing a large wave of energy that knocked everyone but her to the ground. Raptor began to scramble to her feet only screech in pain as she felt a rib near the top of her spine shift. Ultron walked over to her and stared down at her with his glowing red eyes, taking in the rib that had been popped out of its socket.

"Get up." He commanded. "Or do you think you should've stayed extinct?"

Ouch, that hurt. Raptor mentally flinched at his comment.

Despite the pain she obeyed him, aware of the other two watching as she struggled back onto her feet. She kept her head lowered and was still crouched on all fours to help balance herself on one side to ease the pain. Ultron grabbed the base of her neck with one hand and shoved her between a tree and him before using his second hand to pop the bone back into place. Raptor gave a hiss of pain and thrashed around until he released her and allowed her to sink back to the ground.

Ultron looked away from her with a thoughtful look before turning to the other two. "Training is over. Tomorrow we go on your first task, we will gather vibranium, something very useful in taking down Tony Stark and the Avengers."

Wanda's eyes lit up at the sound of something that would help them defeat Stark. "Just tell us the time and get us to the place... I hope we get to fight Stark there too."

"Knowing the Avengers... you will be able to." Ultron promised before leaving to think over his new idea for Raptor.

Raptor herself hesitantly switched to her human form, wincing in pain from the recently fixed wound, before noticing Pietro walking over to her. "What do you want?"

He raised an eyebrow at her reproachful tone before responding a bit awkwardly. "To know if you are... okay."

"Fine." She replied a bit coldly, a bit confused as to why he was worried.

Pietro nodded. "Right... of course you are. You are a resilient opponent."

"You should put some pressure on some of your cuts." Raptor suggested as she noticed blood still oozing from deeper ones. "Ultron won't be happy if you can't go on the mission tomorrow."

"I'm stronger than you give me credit for." He retorted good-humouredly. "I might not be made of metal or thick scales but I can still last in a fight."

Wanda walked back from the doorway, impatience in her gaze from waiting on her brother. "Let's go inside, we should make a plan of attack for tomorrow if Stark and his friends do show up."

Raptor didn't like how Pietro's powerful sister was suddenly giving suggestions, or in her opinion orders, and decided to speak up again. "Ultron already has the plan figured out. I can go over it if you want to know now instead of later."

"Okay." Pietro agreed before turning back to his sister. "Who wants to race to the sanctuary?"

Wanda scolded lightly. "You always win."

Raptor had to give a small smile at their sibling bickering, it was a strange thing to witness as the last and closest thing she'd had to it was when her and the other experiments fought each other... occasionally killing the weaker one. Plain humans were odd creatures. The ones without powers were weak yet they could cause powered in-humans to fear them and their arrogance. But Raptor knew better. One swipe of her claws or bite of her jaws and arrogant humans were gone. The human side of her occasionally felt guilty for it, especially now as she watched these two and how close they were. She missed her siblings, knowing she was the last of her kind made her feel empty, but the Utahraptor part of her tried to block out human emotion as much as possible until it was instinctual... still it couldn't replace everything.