Third person view
Blue groaned as she got to her feet and tried to stand up only to lightly hit her head on the roof of a smaller cage so she had to stay down on all fours.
However the cage kept lightly rocking and bouncing every now and then plus she could hear the steady hum of an engine.
Beside her just waking up from their own sleeps, were her sisters. Blue smacked her lips a few times before she sighed in annoyance. The taste of the weird meat was still fresh on her lips.
"Alpha gave us sleepy meat again" she said. Echo immediately jumped up from her dazed state, now very much awake.
"Oh no, we're going to the Prick Woman again" she said scared as her sisters all shared a small laugh. Even though they all hated the Prick Woman, Echo had the biggest fear of him and her sisters got a good laugh out of it.
Every now and then Alpha would give them sleepy meat and they would wake up in a strange place where a female human would give them pricks with sharp things.
Blue heard Alpha call Prick Woman by her name a few times, Vet. But Alpha always insisted that it was good for them.
"Relax Echo. Remember Alpha said it was for our own good Delta said still lightly chuckling. Echo looked at her with still a scared look.
"Then how come I've never seen Alpha get prick in his leg? Or worse" she said making sure her backside was pressed against the wall furthest from the door.
Suddenly the bouncing and engine came to a stop as they heard a slam. Echo hid behind her oldest sister while saying 'she was here.' Blue laughed but stood tall for her younger sister.
The first door opened which were two swinging solid metal doors. They revealed Owen standing there but he was still behind a set of bars. Immediately all the Raptors came to the bars asking him what was going on.
However to Owen all they were doing were chirping and barking. He held up the clicker and let off four clicks that meant 'listen up.' Immediately all of the Raptors went silent as more men came and stood behind Owen. One of them holding a blanket that was used in the Raptor's enclosure in the genetics lab.
"Alright listen up girls. Today we're going to play hide and seek" Owen said as the Raptors perked up. It had been a long time since he had played that game with them.
"But there is already someone hiding. Another Raptor" he said as all the girls started to talk amongst their selves. Each one having a different reaction.
"A rogue near our Territory?" Blue asked defensively.
"Another Swift Hunter?" Delta said shocked.
"She might be friendly" Echo said hopeful.
"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. A new friend" Charlie said jumping up and down excited. Four clicks drew their attention back to Owen.
"Listen, I need you girls to find him and hold him there until I arrive" he said grabbing the blanket.
"This is his scent" he said holding up the blanket as all the Raptors got a good sniff of it. They all barked in agreement as he nodded and left to do final preparations with ACU.
Meanwhile the girls talked amongst themselves again.
"Did Alpha say him?" Delta asked. Blue nodded.
"He did, but you know Alpha sometimes uses words that don't make sense. Remember when he dropped heavy thing on foot?" Blue said remembering the words that Alpha used. She still didn't know how someone could breed with themselves.
"Besides all other hunters and are female like us" Echo chimed in.
"There's only one way to find out. We find them and we keep them there until Alpha arrives to confront him" Blue commanded as everyone again chirped in agreement.
"Okay, everyone make sure you tranqs are loaded now and ready to go. A misfire out there means you ain't going home again!" Owen shouted as he once again got in front of the cage. He looked at Hamada, who nodded hesitantly before he then commanded everyone inside the trucks.
They got inside but kept their windows down enough to get their tranquilizer guns pointed outside just in case this plan didn't work.
Owen looked up at Barry was above the cage with an M16 with lethal rounds and a remote. He nodded and placed his thumb against the button, but didn't press down. Owen then looked inside at the girls and sent off one final pray.
'Please don't eat me' he thought before he clicked the clicker sequence that meant 'ready?' All the Raptors got into crouched positions and Blue barked back ready. Even though he couldn't understand them, he knew what some of the different barks mean... Kinda.
Owen then turned and pointed in the direction of the meadow that the Raptor was last seen at. He closed his eyes before giving the thumbs up to Barry.
Barry quickly prayed in French before he press down on the button, unlocking the doors and letting them open slightly.
Immediately all the Raptors bursted out of the cage and past Owen, who still had his welded eyes shut. They entered the jungle, noses flaring and Blue leading the charge, Delta behind her with Charlie and Echo side by side bringing up the rear.
Owen smiled as he turned around and ran to the ACU pursuit truck. Barry smiled and jumped off joining him as a few others closed the doors.
"Let's go, these girls can hit forty-five at least and I'd hate to see what that guy can do if he gets a whiff of us. So we need to stay behind them and down wind if possible. Get to him quick and take them all down even quicker" Owen commanded as the driver stepped on the gas with the transport vehicle behind him. While he did that Owen got on the walkie talkie.
"Mother Hen to base. We are in pursuit of the asset. Raptor release went as planned. Over" Owen said as Claire, Simon and Dr Wu all watched the red trackers move through the valley.
Dr Wu didn't put a tracking implant on the Experimented animal because for one, no one would go into the cage with it, even when it was knocked out. Second reason was that he was convinced that the animal wouldn't escape his lab and therefore would just be wasting his research money.
"Do you think this will work?" Claire asked Masrani. He was silent for a few seconds before he shrugged.
"Hopefully, if not it just became the Gallimimus and Raptor valley" he joked before going silent and watching the red dots run cut through the forest with two blue dots behind them.
Meanwhile the lone Raptor laid in the sunlight just inside the jungle. Beside him was the partly eaten carcass of a Gallimimus from yesterday. It would last him for tonight and then he'd have to find something else tomorrow. Maybe track the Fast Runner herd again while he looked for any other herds that had young, sick or old prey
The Raptor let out a loud yawn before shaking his head. He had woken up early in the morning to get a head start on marking his territory so he was a little tired.
He gave one final sniff of the area, making sure there wasn't any other hunters around before he laid his head down. He was about to doze off for an afternoon nap when he heard the excited roar of another Swift Hunter.
His head shot up as he listened intently. Did he cross over into another pack's territory when he was marking? Was a pack launching an attack into his? Those thoughts left his mind when he heard a slight humming sound.
'Hmm never heard that kind of dinosaur before' he thought before his mind flashed back to the strange creature in the valley carrying humans.
"Humans" he muttered before he stood back up and stretched his legs making them crack. He then took off in the opposite way of the approaching humans.
Blue and her sisters ran as fast as they could as the scent of the other Swift Hunter getting closer. He was nearby.
The forest came to an end for a second as they found themselves in a clearing in the jungle with a carcass of a Fast Runner. Beside it was a circular patch of flattened grass.
They quickly sniffed the spot and determined that the other Swift Hunter was just here. Blue looked in the direction that the scent went, the hum of the engine let her know that her Alpha was still behind them
"In a line don't let him flank us!" Blue commanded as they started running in a line with about five feet in between them.
A few hundred yards ahead, the male Raptor started to panic. He heard the humans getting closer yet he was running at top speed. It had been a while since he'd actually run through a forest as dense as this one, so he was a little out of practice.
'Need to think weaknesses for the thing' he thought before remembering the thing he saw in the valley.
Okay, it had no visible defenses like horns or spikes, but it could've had armor like Clubtails. No teeth, nor mouth for that matter, and it had small round legs. Not really good for anything like running or jumping. But the thing behind him was keeping pace. Maybe jumping was it's weakness then.
He then seen a large creek that had a fast moving current. Anything other than a Swift Hunter would either have to cross it in a shallow spot or around it until they found something to get across it.
He leapt across it and rolled on the other side. He dug his claws on his arms into the dirt, got his bearings and immediately got up and kept running, not knowing if his theory was right.
Not ten seconds later, Blue and her sisters lept across as well. Blue and Delta landed perfectly while Charlie and Echo had trouble on the landing, but still ran after her sisters after getting up.
"Shit" Owen said as the trucks came to a stop. The Raptor knew to jump where the river was too deep to cross.
"Smart animal" Barry said as Owen started commanding again. If the animal was this smart, it could catch on to what they were doing now and then next time they attempt this, he'll know to avoid both Raptors and humans
"Spread out find a shallow spot to cross. Unless you wanna try and drag over a thousand pounds of Raptor before the tranquilizers wear off!" Owen said as everyone went different directions along the river looking for a spot to cross.
The lone Raptor was happy now that he didn't hear the strange creature anymore. Actually... Maybe he should circle back just in case the humans were the same as before. He still did have a score to settle with them.
However before he could think anymore on that idea, Delta and Blue popped out in front of him and screeched at him causing him to skid to a halt. And as he did just that however, Echo and Charlie came from behind him. They now had him completely boxed in.
The male showed his teeth and hissed at the girls, trying to show them that he was the stronger one in hopes to scare them off. However with him being out numbered, there was little chance of that happening.
Blue, being the Beta, came forwards low to the ground with hopes he wouldn't attack. The male did the same thing crouching onto his arms and walking on all fours towards the Beta. Blue came up beside him and the two began sniffing each other and circling. Suddenly Blue stood up a look of shock on her face.
"You are a male" Blue said shocked. The male nodded before standing back up onto two legs.
"Yes... Have you never seen one before?" he asked. Blue shook her head.
"All other hunters and prey here are female" she stated.
"Well I am not from this area, so that might explain it" the male said before his head snapped up again. The humming was back and it was getting closer.
"We must leave, humans are coming" the male said going to continue running only to have Delta block his path.
"We have orders to hold you here until our Alpha comes" Blue said standing back with her sister. The humming sound was now closer than the male's liking.
"Fine, I'll fight your Alpha. But right, now we need to get away from the humans" he all but pleaded with the females.
"Our Alpha is human" Charlie said as the male tensed up.
"You Alpha is human? You trying to capture me again! I won't go back!" he yelled before he did a 180 straight at Echo. His stance meant he was going to attack, so Delta ran and jumped at his back in order to save her sister.
However at the last second, the male jumped up to go over Echo. Echo seeing this, tried to jump up and bite his tail. However he was too far over her and she and Delta collided so the male was able to land perfectly and then run to the right away from both Raptors and humans.
Immediately Charlie and Blue ran after him while Delta and Echo got off of each other.
"Oh shit" Claire said as she seen the four red dots started heading east. Fast.
"Owen, the Raptors are now heading east" she said into the walkie
"Ah, he probably heard us coming. I told you we should've walked from here. Roger that base, Mother Hen in pursuit" he said from the other side.
The male Raptor ran at full speed once again. He knew now that he had to avoid both other Swift Hunters and humans. He looked to his left and seen Delta was now beside him, having recovered from her failed attack.
He looked back ahead and seen something that the female didn't seem to notice. He grinned slightly as a plan began forming in his head.
He quickly turned his head and snapped at Delta's feet making her jump up in the air. He then turned and ran off to the right again.
Now what was supposed to happen was Delta would land on the ground and take off after him. She landed on the ground okay but when she went to turn, her feet slipped on a muddy patch that she didn't see. She fell onto her side and slid into a log with a small thud stunning her for a second.
The male smiled before he continued running. Looking back however, his smile faded as he seen Echo and Charlie were now behind him. Charlie was in front while Echo was behind her sister. It was kinda strange, he expected the Beta to be next to confront him. But no time to worry about that now.
The two lower class members of the pack got closer to the male. Now all Charlie could see was his back legs and tail. Suddenly he jumped to the left and now all Charlie could see was the side of a sleeping Spiketail.
She stopped running and dug all of her claws into the dirt, but again the male used a patch of mud that she didn't see. She skidded and slid until she finally came to a halt, feet from the undisturbed animal as it snored slightly. She breathed a sigh of relief until her sister slammed into her back and the two hit the side of the animal.
The Stegosaurus let out a surprise roar before it got up and, upon seeing the two predators, she swung her tail down at them. The two Raptors barely got out of the way as the spikes dug into the dirt.
They recovered and now stared down the animal with anger. Delta, who was tracking the male's scent looking to get even for getting the jump on her, seen what was happening and joined in growling and barking at the animal. However none of them knew what to do as they've never had prey this big. They've only handled the small Pink Squealers.
The male smiled once again as he heard the surprise roar from the Spiketail. It should be no problem for a pack of Swift Hunters to at least scare it off but if they wanted to take it down for a meal then that was their problem.
Suddenly the male was tackled from the side and brought to the ground as he stared at the blue stripe of the Beta Raptor.
Blue pinned his arms, legs and head down while she waited for her sisters. However she didn't hear anyone following him which was weird because they were doing just that when she had split off to surprise him.
She barked a few times but the only response she got were distress roars from her sisters followed by a loud thud and the angry roars from a Spiketail.
"What did you do?!" she asked angry looking down. The male was confused as to why he was hearing distress roars.
"What? I just led them into a Spiketail... Has your pack never hunted them before?!" He asked suddenly coming to a realization.
Blue didn't answer but instead jumped off him and ran back towards her sisters. The male got up and was about to run for it. But something stopped him.
He felt... Compelled to help the group of females. And well he did technically lead them into a Spiketail without taking into consideration that they weren't full blooded hunters.
He sighed before he started to run back.
Meanwhile Blue arrived only to see her sisters barley avoid a swing from the Spiketail's tail. She growled before she ran and jumped at the animal, landing on it's side. She dug her claws into the prey and began biting at her. However the animal shook back and fourth, shaking the predator off in no time.
Now all the Raptor squad stood together and snarled at the animal. The Spiketail readied itself and raised it's tail high in the air. However it let out a pained roar before it could bring it's tail down.
She turned to the side and Blue seen that the male Raptor had jumped onto the Spiketail's back in between the disks.
'He came back' she thought to herself as she watched him fight against the prey.
The Spiketail shook side to side but because of the disks the Raptor didn't fall off, but he did jump off and stood in front of the girls.
"Spread out. Don't group together, you're easier to hit" he quickly ordered. Blue looked at her sisters before looking back at the male with a look of unsure. She didn't want to trust the male after what he had done. But it was obvious he did have more experience with hunting then any of them did. And he did come back to help them.
She nodded at them as they all spread out around the Spiketail. It roared and kept spinning while it readied it's tail, looking for a single target. She finally set her sights on the male. The male snarled and kept jumping back and forth, not giving the Spiketail an easy shot.
However the Spiketail looked up and let out a surprise roar before she turned around and ran back towards her herd. The male was confused until he felt three pricks in his leg.
He turned around and seen humans standing behind those strange creatures. He looked at his leg and seen three of those things that the humans used when he was first caught. The ones that made him sleepy not the ones that hurt him.
He looked over and seen all the girls had fallen down and were already, or on the verge of, sleeping. He growled and stepped forwards at them despite feeling sleepy himself.
"Uh he ain't going down" one of the ACU men said fearful as they all got ready to run or get their lethal. Owen shot another dart into his chest, however he only growled even more before jumping into a run with the last of his strength.
He ran until he was a few feet from the men before one of them shot a net at him. He struggled for a few seconds before he collapsed and slowly went into a sleepy daze before finally he fell asleep due to the exhaustion and the drugs.
Owen and ACU approached with caution. Each one of them except for Hamada and Owen, not taking their guns off him for a minute. Owen poked him with his rifle. Nothing.
He then lowered his foot until it was a few inches from his snout, enough so he could smell and bite it. Still nothing.
"Okay, let's get them inside the box" Owen said as the truck turned around and backed up. It only had one box in the bed of the truck but it was separated giving the girls three quarters of the box while the male only had one. It would be enough until they got back to the paddock.
'Let's just hope the male lasts that long' Owen thought as the girls were loaded up first and then the male as the team wanted to avoid touching him for as long as they could.
One hour later
Back in the Raptor Paddock, the Raptor squad were all back in their enclosure sleeping off the rest tranquilizers while the male was in the holding part of the paddock. Claire wanted to do a big reveal with an announcement and everything when they release him.
Owen looked over the edge of the catwalk and seen that the girls were starting to stir and kick their legs.
"Alright, let's move. Another half an hour and the male should wake up!" he shouted as the ACU members around the paddock got their stun guns on full power and ready to fire.
"Ugh" Blue said as she got to her feet and shook off the last of her sleepiness. She looked around and seen that she and her sisters were home again. But something... Something felt different. However she couldn't place her talon on it.
She looked up and seen her Alpha was busy telling other humans what to do. But that wasn't what was different. That was normal.
She walked around, patrolling their territory and sniffing at the ground as she did. There had been humans in their home. But judging by the strength of the scent it was earlier, back when they were chasing the male.
'The male' Blue thought as she turned to a closed door that was giving her a feeling. She slowly approached it and sniffed at the door before reeling back in shock.
The male was behind that door.
That was the room they would stay in whenever Skywater gets too bad and brings banging sounds.
Blue immediately ran back towards her sisters to tell them the news, unaware of the small noises that had just came from the room.
When she returned she found her sisters were just starting to wake up from their sleeps. She always did have an ability of waking up first after Alpha gave them the sleepy meat.
"Sisters!" she said coming to them. "The male is here" she said gesturing with her head to the door, which made everyone freeze in shock. Delta was the first to snap out of it and barred her teeth in anger.
"Good. I wish to have words with him about leading sisters into Spiketail and making me slip into a log" she snarled before running towards the door. She made it about ten feet from it before Blue jumped in front of her and let out a bark which meant 'settle down' in Raptor.
"You will not. Remember he did come back and helped us until Alpha scared it away. Besides he didn't know. He thought that we knew how to hunt Spiketails" Blue said.
Delta mumbled something but Blue knew she wouldn't be letting it go anytime soon. Echo came forwards next.
"Wait so he will be new pack member?" She asked. Blue looked back at the door, which held the male and sighed.
"Maybe. If he is hostile to any of us or Alpha he will not be. But maybe he won't be" Blue said. Suddenly they heard a noise from the door.
"Ugh... What the? Oh come on!!" The yelled out before he began thrashing and hissing inside. Blue and the others listened as he yelled and made every attempt to get out of the room.
"Um, he doesn't sound happy" Charlie said standing behind Blue. Blue sighed and nodded, agreeing with her sister.
Suddenly the female human who spent a lot of time around their Alpha, started talking through the things that make her voice travel and make her seem like she was in several places as once.
She suddenly stopped talking as buzzing replaced the silence in the air. The doors containing the male Raptor then started to opened slowly, revealing hazel eyes staring from within. Hate-filled hazel eyes.