Raptor

Chapter 14

Raptor ran towards them Sigma and Omega already getting ahead of her as they tried to prevent the ambush. Wanda wasn't anywhere in sight, there were more sentries than ever, and Raptor could feel herself slowing down, she wasn't designed to run fast for this long and was pushing herself past her limits. Her heart was too fast, she couldn't breathe, but still she kept going, as the two heroes still hadn't seen the danger. She saw Hawkeye reach the little boy, who wrapped his blood and soot covered arms around the archer, and the sentries raised their guns as the trap was triggered, Quicksilver hesitated in his run, looked at her with a shake of his head, before running even faster. Raptor growled; he saw the attack yet he was still going to go right into the line of fire.

Omega, Sigma, take out aerial opponents. Raptor ordered as she went for a ground sentry.

The two leapt into the air just as the sentries began firing, pain flared in her head as bullets went through their brains and torsos, their connections turned to static for a moment, then the connections went blank completely as their bodies dropped to the ground with dull thuds. Raptor steadied herself and ripped out the sentry she'd reached, trying to ignore the blood pooling out of her dead pack members, before looking over to where Quicksilver was limping but otherwise mostly uninjured as he continued to guard Hawkeye on the way to a floating boat-plane from S.H.I.E.L.D. She saw him give her a grateful look, but it turned to one of horror and Raptor moved too slowly as Ultron jumped her in his metal Utahraptor suit, his newest body completely destroyed.

"You still believe you can stop all of this." Ultron's voice mocked as he looked down at her.

Raptor winced as vibranium nine-inch claws sank into her back and began splintering her bones; she growled and tried to buck him off. He jumped off her thrashing form and she got to her feet shakily as she snarled a challenge. He allowed her to attack him; her teeth and claws barely leave a dent in his body, before closing his jaws around her throat and shaking his head violently. She shrieked hoarsely before her head smacked into the side of a destroyed building and she was released to collapse to the ground while blood welled on the ground around her head like a halo. Ultron stared down at her and Raptor glared back weakly as she once again tried to get up, this time failing.

"I'm killing you too fast." Ultron sighed but still knocked her back down as she struggled to her feet again. "Pity about the other two... I could've used them, turned them on you."

Raptor felt the warm blood running down her head and could taste its familiar taste in her mouth as she blinked the dizziness from her eyes. Ultron got distracted for a moment as Iron Man, Thor, and Vision appeared from around the corner along with another man in a suit like Iron Man's. All of them had their weapons ready to strike him down.

"Son, how many times does your old man have to tell you to not ruin lives?" Stark shouted sarcastically. "What will happen to Silverraptor? You'll ruin it!"

They all gave him a strange look and she took her chance and used her remaining strength to shove into his side. The force only managing to push him back a few inches before Ultron retaliated by sending a hefty blow to her throat and feeling blood pour down like a waterfall, some spraying Ultron's metal body, staining the shiny metal crimson. She gave a gargled hiss and backed off to allow the others to close in and finish Ultron but the psycho robot followed her step for step, determined to kill her. Lightning from Thor's hammer and Stark's pulsar blasts hit him, even melted part of his body, but still he came. Raptor shifted into human form and tried to duck into a small space he couldn't follow but he rammed her hard enough to send her to Sokovia's crumbling edge. She wildly lashed out to grab hold and looked down at the ground far below her once she'd stopped sliding back.

"When this falls... you'll be buried once more. Not much of a funeral but a grave is a grave and yours will be one of many caused by this meteor's landing." Ultron turned away from her and faced the others who were luring him farther away from her.

She felt the earth slipping and fragmenting under her weak grip and tried to pull herself up only to loosen more dirt and making her situation worse. She flinched as someone grabbed her arms as her grip fell away and dragged her back over the edge to safer ground, looking up she saw Cap and Quicksilver looking down at her with concern in their gaze. Raptor couldn't find the strength to assure them she'd be fine, the pain was now agony and she couldn't even breathe without blood bubbling up.

"Can S.H.I.E.L.D. save her?" Raptor could hear Quicksilver talking with a desperate tone, probably yelling over the rushing wind as the chunk of Sokovia suddenly started falling, but to her it sounded like a mere whisper.

"They will do everything they can." The Avenger replied grimly as she closed her eyes. "Help me get her to the boats."

"She can't die now... not now." He responded with a determined yet pleading tone, as if that would help save her.

Raptor heard Captain America reply but she couldn't make it out as she let the world slip out of focus. Beside her she could feel Quicksilver shake her as he yell-whispered something to her. Raptor didn't respond. Captain America scooped her up in his arms; her form limp in his grasp as he ran towards the boat before the chunk of land they were falling on was destroyed. Still she didn't hint at pain or awareness of her surroundings. Raptor didn't even twitch an eyelid as they flew towards the safety of the helicarrier as the other Avengers flew away as Sokovia was destroyed mid-air behind them.