I'm sorry guys. This was supposed to be the final, epic fight and it sucks. I'm so sorry. I hope you enjoy anyway.
Music: Back to the black by Really Slow Motion.
Disclaimer: I do not own Jurassic Park/World. All OCs belong to Macx with the exception of Kavita.
The bikes low, throaty growl and the rustling of leaves at his passage are the only sounds in their section of the restricted area. Owen is playing bait for the other pack, deliberately making himself a target.
He can sense Blue and the others of either side of him, keeping pace before and behind him, but unseen, unheard. He hates the wall that still lies between them, hates that he can't communicate with them the way he should be able to. But it is no matter. They are bonded by more than their minds by now.
Owen keeps his mind focused ahead of him. This trap is dangerous and they're already going in with one more raptor on the other team. He keeps the bike to an easy pace, not wanting to get caught up in roots or branches and provide the perfect distraction for their enemies. His laser focus is startled however by the crackling of the radio at his hip.
Owen grimaces, not wanting to split his attention but if Carter was calling him now, it had to be important.
He fishes the radio from his belt one-handed and barks curtly into it, head swiveling from side to side, wary of the attack he knew was going to happen soon enough. "Grady."
"Owen, only four raptors came down on ARU's side. That means there's two more adding onto the pack you're going after," Carter tells him, voice as curt as Owen's.
"Shit!" Owen hisses. "Thanks for the update."
"You need backup?" Carter asks.
"Backup would be dead men," Owen says grimly and with real regret. "Thanks but no thanks. You keep that option for if we don't make it out. I have to go." He thumbs off the radio and sticks it back in his belt.
He feels Blue prod his mind, a bare nudge making it through the wall that hissed and snapped and grew as they came up to the next pack.
"More," Owen says. "Eight of them."
He spies her, for a split second but she bares her teeth fiercely and he feels the swell of emotion she shoves at him.
More of them to die!
There is a hum from the other side of the wall, an echo of the sentiment from the other three.
More of them to die, Owen agrees.
He feels the wall thicken in the next minute and knows. They are close. He doesn't look at where he knows Blue is, he won't risk her position like that. He keeps going, slowing slightly, bracing himself. He tugs the gun from his back, one-handed. He needs to be ready because this can go so very badly, so very quickly.
And he can't let that happen. He won't.
The wall…flexes grows stronger. Owen bares his teeth and pushes back, feeling blue and the other's doing the same from their side and then, then there is a raptor in front of him, leaping out of the brush, claws extended, intending to knock him off his bike.
Owen skids the bike, feels the whip of claws passing too close to his head before, turning, revving the bike and gunning the engine straight at the other raptor emerging from the side. The raptor you can see is never the greatest threat.
He rolls of the bike right before it collides with the enemy raptor. The landing is hard, knocks the breath out of him as he rolls and rolls, groaning over the bruises he picks up in an instant. But he comes up to one knee, rifle in hand and shoots.
It saves his life. The raptor heading for him pitches away, his bullet digging a deep furrow on the side of his head. The raptor that first jumped him is busy, rolling with Charlie on the ground. Owen wishes he could help her but he can't right now. Behind him, the raptor he'd nailed with his bike is dispatched by Echo, neck breaking with a quick twist of jaws.
One down good. The wall thins and right in time. Owen can feel the rush of the others before they appear. Six raptors, coming in at full-speed now that the scouts have hit them, have disrupted their close formation and given them all the information they needed about their attackers.
Blue hisses. She can hear them. The three unoccupied raptors split up and disappear into the forest. Owen gets to his feet but stays where he is. He's the bait, the distraction, the first raptor they'll see, the alpha.
There's barely a wisp of movement, a sliver of sound and then they're there. Another person might have called them monsters, something other, appearing into sight like they're formed out of mist and shadows, claws gleaming in the sunlight, intelligent eyes pinning you where you stood. Dappled gray skin, speaking of an underworld, of sulfur and smoke and the end of life.
Owen holds no such fear. They are raptors and he's the damn alpha of a raptor pack. He may not have had claws but he has his own weapons.
The rifle barks. And then barks again, anticipating the jump tot eh side. the second shot hits the raptor in the eye, downing it. Then he's dodging to the side, slamming into a tree, using it for cover as raptor claws are buried in the bark.
Delta appears in front of him, leaping past him and colliding with the raptor right as it tries to dart around the tree to get him. There are loud barks and cries and he knows the rest of his girls have entered the fight. He spins back around the tree, snaps of a shot at a raptor with its teeth buried in Echo's tail, an echo of her pain making it through the wall. The raptor recoils hissing in pain.
There is a sudden lessening of the wall and then Charlie, covered in wounds weeping blood, is back with them, having finally dispatched her opponent. She dives for the raptor Owen had shot while he himself is forced to move, urged by snapping jaws behind him.
He's not as successful as he'd like. The raptor barrels into him, throwing him onto his front, claws digging into his back. There is sheer outrage from the other side of the wall. Owen ignores it all, scrabbling to reach the rifle that had skidded out in front of him. His fingers grab the strap and he orients it back and up and presses the trigger right as hot breath hits the back of his neck.
The raptor jerks and falls onto him. It doesn't stay there long. There is another snap, another thinning of the wall as Blue rips through her opponent in sheer rage and then darts to Owen, using her teeth to heave the raptor from off of him. Owen scrambles out, trying to get to his feet, fingers slipping as he tries to settle the rifle right.
He can't get up. He realizes this as he manages to make it to his knees only to fall right back down. His entire back feels like it's on fire and his breathing is weird. His girls have gathered around him in a protective circle, hissing and barking at the other pack. They're holding them at bay for now, but there are five raptors there and Owen is injured badly. He knows that it is only a matter of time before the other pack takes down one of his girls and breaks the circle.
He has to do something and he has to do it now, before they're all gone. His girls are good but they're outnumbered, injured and have been hunting for ages. He has to do something because he's not letting this happen. He's the alpha of this island and this is pack and he won't let them die like this.
It's sudden and out of nowhere.
It's a rising storm. A fury of voices yelling no. A tsunami of rage and determination. Owen may be the alpha of the island but he isn't the only preternatural here. He isn't the only one who loves their animals, their friends. He isn't the only one who wants their bonds back.
It's a psionic earthquake and it shakes the wall before blasting it away, crumbling it, holding it at bay. He thinks he can feel echoes of Nancy, of Josh, of Laurel, of Zach. And suddenly, simply, everything's open, everything's clear.
He can feel his girls, reconnect with him, feeling Blue singing into his mind, the bright humming of a blade, Charlie slotting in behind her, the crack of a shotgun, Echo and Delta close behind, arrows, sleek and deadly and precise. But beyond that, he can feel the other pack.
He is the alpha of this island.
He reaches out and snatches them, snatches the minds before him, holds them as they batter against him, holds their bodies still.
Blue doesn't need him to tell her what to do. She is his second. She knows.
His girls dart forward, takes advantage of the opening he's given them and they do not disappoint. Blue takes down the other alpha first, before turning on her second. His girls rake through arteries, close jaws on bone, snaps spines, and puncture brains. It's over in less than a minute and then Owen is slumping, vision darkening. Dimly he remembers that he is losing a lot of blood and may have a punctured lung.
Blue barks over him and he can feel her clinging tightly to his mind.
He reaches down, fumbles for the radio at his belt, and thumbs it on.
"Hey," he slurs, "You might want to come and get me."
"Owen?!" he hears Carter bark in concern. "Owen!"
"Follow the tracks," he says and then slumps forward. Blue ducks her head, catches him and he rests on her scales and waits for rescue to come.
Review please!
There should only be one more chapter/epilogue after this.