Isla Sorna Stories: Rebirth

[C S]

The lone survivor thudded against the concrete wall and dropped to the ground. Instinctively, it stood up and hobbled about, trying to get its bearings back after the impact. It staggered towards the entrance where the mutant raptors were tearing away at the last of the vines, knowing without explicit thought that it would be its last chance at survival, after its peers were butchered by the intruder.

Aircrest hit the diamond-patterned floor hard on his side, the jaws of a mutant raptor bearing down on him, lips held apart, saliva dribbling out in between its horrendously altered teeth. A mouth full of saw blades clenched shut, the mutant made a sadistic purr as its mouth got closer and closer to the Wanderer's neck, watching his eyes widen with the realization of what was about to happen.

The green and black raptor rolled over, one arm held out. The mutant squealed when his claws dragged across the side of its face, the sound high pitched and blood curdling. Aircrest might have taken out its eye for all he knew, but he didn't consider the suffering it was going through when he kicked up into its chest and stabbed into it with his sickle claw, forcing the mutant back with the kick as he did so. He pulled his claw out with a spurt of the mutant's blood and scrambled back to his feet, running away from the band of guards that were hot on his heels. Several cuts and bite wounds were on his sides and back. He didn't know how severe they were, but he knew they weren't enough to make him stop going. At least, not yet.

Aircrest stepped onto the platform railing and in the same motion, jumped over it onto the adjacent walkway, thudding down onto it. The first of the raptors after him emulated the motion, but Aircrest jumped straight into the air and kicked out into the leading one, knocking it into the ones behind it and sending them tumbling to the ground below in a screeching mass. Meanwhile, he barely managed to grab onto the railing on the other side of the catwalk, dangling on the outside edge of it. He looked down at the tops of the cylinders several yards away and bared his teeth. He'd seen them in Ripper's home. He didn't want to see them anywhere else.

Then again, he did not want to be hanging perilously off of the ground on some spindly human-made branch-thing either.

He reached up for the catwalk with his feet as his arms trembled. Out from the corner of his vision, he saw it: the troodon with its glowing eyes, walking along the catwalk. It was like a living shadow with lanterns for its eyes. It did not speak, but it moved swiftly and deliberately. Aircrest knew it wasn't going to waste any time gloating or threatening him. It wanted him dead, and he just happened to be in a pretty good position to make that happen. Redoubling his efforts, Aircrest grunted as his claws slipped into the diamond-holes in the platform and he pulled himself up, clambering over the rail and dropping onto the floor where he stared down the mutant.

"I expected you to be bigger," Aircrest growled somewhat breathlessly.

"I expected my guards to be able to kill you. We don't all get what we expected, raptor," the troodon spat.

[The Kingpin]

Hellfire's fangs glinted as he snarled, turning and leaping for the one escape route within reach, climbing up the thick vined wall and onto the top, glancing around to identify Aircrest's path based on what he had heard. Before long, he'd pinpointed it. A lone tree rising several feet above the top of the facility, its lowest branch far too high to attempt a ground-based ascent. Gritting his teeth, he jumped for it, landing heavily on a branch as he began looking for a way into the facility from here. hoping to follow Aircrest's path...


The two Rexes continued feeding until most of the kill had been stripped of its flesh. Several bones were missing by the end of it, and only the most unreachable scraps remained. In the distance, a third Rex could be seen; Sarcus was approaching them. "Where're Styx and Ruvox?" growled Zephora once the young male was close enough. "They've chosen to stay. My father thinks that once the word gets out Thrasher's territory's up for grabs several of the outlying predator territories will be abandoned and they'll try and take as much of the inner island as they can. Means more turf and peace for them in the long run" rumbled the male, Zephora nodding. "They make a good point. What about you?" growled Sarraya. "I need to make sure Morphena's okay. After that I'll decide what to do next" responded Sarcus. "Then let's get going. The longer we stall the longer they're on their own. Just because they beat Thrasher doesn't mean they're unscathed. They may need help holding down the territory" growled Zephora, turning towards the heart of the island, beginning the long trek, the two younger Rexes in tow...

[saurus172]

Ebony growled loudly the minute the third showed up, but shut up at the spotted's words. The two listened until the three rexes left. "We better go tell Coaty, he needs to know all this," Blue Eyes chuffed, turning toward the mountain, her larger counterpart on her tail. They couldn't believe it. Thrasher, the ruthless behemoth, was finally overthrown! The joyous female carnotaur gave a whoop of joy, making all the herbivores stare straight at the duo. Toklo, a large shunosaur, started to follow them, wanting to know what happened. 'What could cause her to make herself known to the herds' thought the club tailed herbivore as he temporarily left his herd, an anxious look from his herd as he left.

[C S]

The raptors clawing away at their blocked exit slipped back into the darkness of the facility once their quarry began his ascent, their footfalls on the floor taking a distinctly metallic clang as they darted up stairs and jumped off of the old machinery to get to higher vantage points on the catwalks. They were always taught by their troodon leader that the breaches in the walls would be where an attack would be staged against them. They never thought anything would be skilled enough to make it onto the roof of the building, not without alerting the guards first, at least. How wrong they were...

Aircrest glanced from the troodon to the silhouettes dashing through the shadowed murk behind it. He could tell by the way they were acting that they weren't even trying to pursue him, unlike the other raptors. He knew they were going after Hellfire, like a murderous swarm. He had to find away to diffuse this situation, but how? He looked back to the troodon as it started to walk towards him, slowly. Aircrest cocked his head as he walked away from it at a similar pace, keeping a constant distance between himself and the mutant. It wasn't afraid, despite its clear physical disadvantage. Had Aircrest been more naive, he would have been fixated on that, overwhelmed by it.

Without warning Aircrest sprung into the air, arced over his feathered adversary and slammed down on the catwalk behind it. The troodon spun around, teeth bared as it saw the raptor speeding down the way. It turned its gaze to the small band of staurikosaurs that were creeping up from the other side of the platform and hissed, "Corral them into a corner and gut them both!"

The mutants shot past the troodon, otherworldly calls and hoots trailing after them as they gave chase. The mutant leader looked over the railing and down at the raptor running along the bottom floor of the building, eyes narrowed. They might have been useful for its cause, but clearly someone else had them indoctrinated. Someone that was able to make them quite a force to be reckoned with.

[Giratina93]

Ironfang made his way though the swampy landscape, nostrils flaring as he scanned from side to side. His body was still in pain from that tyrannosaur Berserker, though the wounds given to him were well on their way to healing. It was a small price to pay, but now he found the irony of that situation. was just painful. Just as he had lost to a Tyrannosaur, so too did Thrasher to Crusher... but just as what happened to Berserker, soon Thrasher would be getting his dear, sweet revenge And this time, it would be with the head of Crusher as a monument of what happened to those who dared defy the true ruler of the island...

Up ahead, he could already see it looming in from the mist. The massive remains of sauropods, titans far larger than any carnivore on the island, their bones like towers that rose up around Ironfang. On some of them, were pieces of flesh that had been left, small compies and raptors desperately trying to reach them with no avail. The smaller predators scurried away from the Baryonyx, who paid them no heed. He wasn't interested in them, not by a long shot. He already knew he was crossing territory boundaries, and entering into a dangerous area... but he was willing to take the risk.

After all, he was going to have an audience with the killer of the giant sauropods... with the owner of this territory, who no doubt already knew he was there.

[The Kingpin]

With a light thud, the Deinonychus landed on the roof of the facility. An annoying ascent through the branches in search of a way in brought him to the conclusion the roof of the structure was the only possible way, and it had been through several near-falls and fragile branches that he had finally managed to reach high enough to cross the gap. Now, wasting no time, the Dromaeosaur ran across the structure's slanted roof towards an opening at it's peak; an access point into the facility. He could only hope his pursuers were not waiting for him...

[C S]

He was split-seconds from disaster by time he dropped to the ground. Aircrest had barely seen the pile of bodies that he was responsible for in the consuming dark, seeing only a dark shape amidst a backdrop of black figures, twisted in the shadows. As he closed in on it at his full speed, he quickly realized the shape he was seeing was not any other human remnant. Worse still, there was movement on top of the mound of dead mutants. He dove on instinct as the survivor shot off from the body pile, passing overhead with its legs lashing out. It tried twisting about in the air to get at him on the floor, its lower body pointed in the direction of its flight while its upper body swiveled around, arms reaching for the Wanderer that was just a few feet out of reach. Aircrest slid into the bodies, coming to an abrupt stop against lukewarm flesh. It was a disturbing sensation, made worse by the knowledge that just a short time ago these creatures were alive. When he hit the side of the pile he nudged a few of the corpses aside, their loose limbs rolling about over one another.

He heard a striking noise behind him, first a hard thud that then became a shattering crash. Aircrest jumped back to his feet and looked behind him, seeing a writhing raptor atop a metal pedestal where one of the cylinders used to stand, now a glassy spill on the floor with a foul liquid flowing freely in the mess. The raptor groaned, trying to pry itself off of teeth of jagged glass shards, its blood covering its deathbed in dark red. Aircrest knew then from its voice that the survivor of the fall was none other than the raptor that had thrown him down on the catwalk above, the one that had given him his new wounds and the one who he stabbed in the chest. He grimaced. For what purpose did these mutants have such resilience to otherwise lethal force, if not to suffer more in the end? Such horrid monsters were almost tragic, yet more reason to erase them. For the good of themselves as well as the other creatures of the island.

Aircrest was pulled from his dark thoughts when the yelling of the staurikosaurs registered to his ears, the group slipping on the fluid that was in the tank and tumbling onto the broken glass. As the small mutants floundered about trying to stand, Aircrest jumped over the bodies that had stopped him and continued into the dark. Glowing orbs tracked his movement from the platforms overhead.

[The Kingpin]

A dull thud was heard as Hellfire landed, his feet touching down on metal grating. Below, he could see Mutants running back in disarray, trying to find and kill Aircrest, and most likely, him. A purring growl resonated behind him as he watched, the Deinonychus swinging his stiff tail into it as it lunged at him, thankfully catching the smaller predator with enough force to knock it off the rail, a loud clang being heard as it hit the edge of a railing below, a creaking groan immediately following a second collision with a robotic arm, the Raptor, bent grotesquely, falling into the darkness below. Cringing, Hellfire bolted down the rails, looking for a way down, watching for a passing catwalk below as he resumed his search for his companion, making sure to remember everything in his path.

[C S]

The troodon's gaze left Aircrest with a swift shifting of its body, now precisely pointed at where it had heard the raptor hit the first railing. By time it was facing that direction, the falling raptor was but the faintest blur at the lower region of its vision and the sound of it slamming into the machine had just traveled across the building, resounding in the chamber. The troodon looked up from there and its eyes widened as the truth of the matter dawned upon it. Barely visible shafts of light descended from above, diffused through the nighttime atmosphere and further filtered through the swamp: the unaccounted for breach in its fortress. The flaw these raptors exploited... how were they able to dismantle every defensive measure it had in place so thoroughly, in such a short time? How did they coordinate themselves so well, without even verbalizing? It was routine... how could so much time... so much work be undone by two raptors--

The troodon inhaled sharply with a sudden dread, the realization that its carefully constructed environment of control was falling apart around it. It spun around to look at the ground floor, but the green raptor was gone, disappeared into the darkness. The troodon knew, then, what its guard must have felt when he vanished into the leaves. The dread that he could be mounting an attack right at that moment, from any angle. The mutant leader spun around again, heart racing, eyes bulging with anxiety. It watched the remaining guards moving along the catwalk where the deinonychus entered, moving slower and more cautiously than usual. They were both prowling in the dark. No visual contact, no confirmed positions. No way to assemble a trap. Now the troodon's fortress was its own trap.

And that petrified the small feathered creature that now hovered close to the floor, eyes darting around at every fleeting movement, real or imaginary.

[The Kingpin]

Hellfire moved through the shadows, making use of the darkness and the noise generated by the other raptors to hunt down isolated members of the pack in secrecy. Light-footed steps carried him across catwalks and down steps, the Deinonychus stopping as a band of Raptors, seemingly the ones that had been trying to get through the vines earlier, ran past below. As one stopped, lifting its head to pick up a whiff of a scent, it spotted the faintly visible silhouette of the larger Raptor, a split second before killer claws met spine, the creature crushed and killed almost instantly by the black, orange-speckled hunter. The body of his victim muffled his landing, and before it could even call out, it was slain. Hellfire immediately glanced right and left, knowing his luck would not last forever. An angered screech sounded off on the opposite end of the catwalk, Hellfire spotting the glimmering eyes of a Velociraptor as it sprinted towards him, three others appearing on the opposite side. Eyes widening, the Deinonychus looked up at one of the robotic arms, stalled for decades, seeing in it his escape. In a last second decision he jumped, latching onto the arm just as the Raptors jumped from either side, the lone one being crushed and shredded by the accidental attack leaps of two others. The third, lagging behind its companions slightly, jumped higher to hit the Deinonychus, only to be evaded as Hellfire rebounded off that and onto the catwalk he had just descended from, bolting down it and back into the shadows as the Raptors below hissed in frustration...

[C S]

The troodon could not look away from the source of the noises, the uncertainty freezing it in place. Which of them was responsible for the fresh bodies, it wondered. How long would it be until the thralls ceased to preoccupy them and they turned their murderous intent on the leader. It was not supposed to be this way. The Displaced were numerous and organized, they had set a stalwart course for the future! But the blood was spilled, the dead scattered. The troodon stood up shakily but no longer hysteric. It knew the end was upon it and all it had done in the overgrown complex was about to be left for another to take control of. Another will take control, it thought with purposeful conviction. The defeat here would bring the attention of the others... and they would alter the plan to compensate for the failure. This was the way things would be. The way things had to be. The Displacement would thrive in spite of all the death here, the survival of the strong.

The troodon took a contented breath. It panned its sight across the dark in front of it. Perhaps it was trying to make a connection to those that hunted its charge. Perhaps it was trying to make a connection to those that laid dead around it. If it heard Aircrest creeping along the catwalk above it, it gave no indication of the fact. The raptor perched himself on the edge and observed the mutant leader suspiciously, trying to anticipate what was going through its head. If this was a trap, then some miraculous string of events must have happened while he was running around in the shadows. It was over... or rather, about to be.

Aircrest dropped down, arms outstretched, legs extended. He knocked the troodon down, hands pressed against the back of its head and neck, keeping it held against the metal. One foot was resting on the mutant's back while he balanced on the other that was on the grate, a wordless threat.

"Finish it, raptor," the troodon rasped.

"Call them off," Aircrest snarled lowly.

"For what purpose? You will just kill them anyway, if not here then out there--"

"Call them off!" Aircrest barked, his voice echoing. This caught the attention of the remaining raptors and staurikosaurs. Their focus drifted from Hellfire to where their other target was. They were perplexed by the tone of their normally confident leader.

"They will spread the word of what happened here, you know. You will be hunted."

"No more so than every other creature you monsters kill without reason. Call them off. Tell them to leave here," Aircrest pressed.

"They will keep fighting--"

"They are savages who only heed the words of their master. They will revert to their basic behavior, but not until after you give them your last order."

"Why?" the troodon asked, teeth bared as it struggled to turn its head to look at its attacker.

"Do it and I won't kill you."

The troodon was still, weighing its options. After a moment, it called out in the darkness, "Followers of the Displaced... abandon your targets... find your brethren in the wilds... wait for me."

Cocking heads and questioning growls were a short lived reaction to the words uttered by the mutant. Obediently, the dark shapes turned tail and rushed down to the bottom floor of the building, funneling in between the rows of cylinders and machinery towards an exit opposite the vine-blocked breach.

[The Kingpin]

A low thud was heard as a figure landed in the shadows ahead of Aircrest and the Troodon. Shimmering orange eyes stared eerily at the pinned Raptor, a smirk curling on the Deinonychus's lips as he stepped out of the shadows and stood before him, head craned as he looked down his snout at the fallen leader of the departing Mutants. "Not bad" hissed Hellfire, eyeing his comrade for a moment, before his gaze settled on the Troodon. "And you really expected me to side with you? I didn't care either way before. Now?....huh. Now I'm just insulted" growled Hellfire, staring through lidded, uninterested eyes...

[C S]

"I have disgraced the Displacement, but my only wish is to see you ripped--"

Aircrest's hands lifted centimeters off of the mutant's body before he brought them around and drove his six claws into the sides of creature's neck. It choked and gagged, spurts of blood flying from its mouth and landing near Hellfire's feet, dripping through the platform. "L-L...Liar..." it struggled to say. More blood was welling up in its mouth until streams of red started to flow freely down its chin and onto the catwalk. Its gagging worsened until its head bowed forwards and its large eyes closed, and when Aircrest was sure it was dead, he ripped his claws backwards, leaving bloodied gouges upon their release. The troodon's red-stained chin hit the metal and its head rolled off to one side. It laid on its underside, still.

Aircrest's anger hadn't subsided in spite of his expectations. His cuts stung and dried blood coated his hide. Fresh blood dripped from the tips of his fingers. The relief or pleasure that was supposed to come from killing the troodon was a sensation absent from him as he stared down at the lifeless body. It wasn't just that there were more mutants out there, and other pools of mutagen yet to be found.

"Hellfire," the growled with raggedy breath, "what in the world is the Displacement?"

[The Kingpin]

"It's what the mutants are calling themselves. Apparently, they're a lot more organised than we thought. This isn't just a pack or two. This is island-wide" growled Hellfire as he looked down at the corpse on the ground. "Seems their plan is to displace us, basically. Spread out and hunt all the normal creatures down, replace them with mutants. Even offered me a 'chance at survival'. Help them and in turn get to 'live the rest of my natural life undisturbed'. Apparently several have already accepted the offer" hissed the Deinonycus, the hint of a grimace on his muzzle. It was around that time that another set of steps could be heard along the metallic portions of the facility's flooring, the tell tale clicks of a Raptor's claws tapping against metal as the two conversed, Hellfire falling silent as he looked up, eyes narrowed. "Aww...Started the fun without me" hissed Fatalis as he walked out of the shadows to join the two...

[C S]

"Convenient timing, as always," Aircrest growled irritably without looking up from the body he stood on. His eyes narrowed as he added, "I take it Thrasher has stopped moving? And that you've marked the way to him?"

[The Kingpin]

"He stopped just outside the swamp. Didn't want his darling young to become croc food" hissed Fatalis with a lopsided smirk. "So, what's all this about mutants and displacement?" he inquired, eyes bright with that typically excited glimmer that never seemed to leave his gaze...

[C S]

"Our mission has become a lot more complicated. Hellfire will explain it all to you later, but for now, why don't you two make yourself useful and gather a couple of the bodies lying around here."

Aircrest stepped off of the troodon's body and took one of its arms in his hands, mindful not to bite into the body lest he allow the corrupting nature of the creature's blood to start an unfortunate chain reaction within him. He would not become like Fatalis if he could help it. He started dragging the body along with him, leaving a smear of red down his path on the platform. He looked towards the hole in the ceiling and then to the body, planning out how he was going to get onto the building's roof. A few yards away from the others, Aircrest released his hold on the troodon and then wedged himself underneath it, standing up again with it draped over his back. He stepped onto the railing and with a considerable effort, launched both himself and the smaller predator's body across the gap to the next catwalk, landing heavily onto it. He would continue to do this, heading up stairs where he could to ascend to higher levels as he went for the hole.

[The Kingpin]

"Sure, but where are we taking them?" hissed Fatalis as Hellfire started looking for one of the Raptors he had killed earlier. He had an idea what it was Aircrest had in mind, but it never hurt to hear it explicitly...

[C S]

"Somewhere they'll be seen, Fatalis. Somewhere they'll be seen by any mutant that comes back to this place," was Aircrest's reply from the darkness. The metallic thumps resumed as his voice reverberated in the desolate chamber.

[Hopeflower]

Steeltalon often wondered just how she'd gotten herself into this insane situation.

Silver was one thing - raising the hyperactive little bundle of teeth and scales had seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Then, while looking for a more suitable home than the underground caves - where they had all but run out of food and water - they'd almost literally tripped over the ill Viridis and her frantic relative, Astus. And of course, Silver had looked up with pleading blue eyes and begged her to help them like she'd helped her. Astus had, perhaps understandably, been repulsed by the sight of her quills. He'd threatened her with death if she so much as breathed in Viridis's direction. It had taken a considerable amount of time to convince him that while yes, she had mutant blood, it was only because of her father; and no, she'd never seen a tainted pool of water, let alone drunk from one. Even now, he was casting a suspicious look at her while he thought she wasn't looking.

She swallowed a tired sigh. Perhaps she'd take Silver some night and leave the ragtag bunch to sort themselves out...but Silver would never. Between the recovering Viridis, the...odd...Citlali and her brother, Tarik, Silver had made friends.

This is the strangest group I've ever been part of, Steeltalon concluded after a moment's consideration. Because, true to her luck lately, it hadn't ended with Astus and Viridis. No, while Silver was supposed to be out looking for water, she found two more lost 'raptors and eagerly brought them back. A brother and sister pair, and the female seemed to be mute - but somehow Tarik knew what she wanted to say. None of the others had yet figured out how.

Maybe, though...just maybe, if they were still together by the time they found a better place, Steeltalon could get used to this. It was certainly preferable to having to constantly look over her shoulder, afraid that Vertigo would one day find her. She wasn't even sure Vertigo was still alive, come to think of it....Mutants like Riptide and his pack - the ones who chose to become what they were - weren't exactly known for staying...sane. Especially when denied access to their tainted water...

-

Snuggled close to his mate, Devaki gave a deep, content rumble. He couldn't afford to let his guard down with Zuri so close to laying, but apart from the sudden arrival of his father's small splinter pack, all was quiet in their small territory. Idly, he wondered if he ought to expand a bit as Blade, Cirrus and Alira grew, but that was a matter for the future. Right now, all was peaceful, and he meant to enjoy it.

Across the clearing, Xanthe was out cold, with Savarna keeping watch over him and the youngsters. Anyone paying close enough attention may have detected the faintest whiff of sickness about him, but perhaps it was to be expected. Splitting the pack had been a painful decision to make. The stress of worrying about his former packmates on top of not knowing if Devaki were still alive or would even welcome them had kept him up for many a night, and that plus a lack of adequate food and water would make anyone sick. Things will be better now, Savarna promised herself. She shifted slightly, trying not to wake the former alpha, and turned her attention to Cirrus and Alira.

Alira was, as she had expected, bouncing around and getting acquainted with their new home. Cirrus, though, had curled up and seemed to be trying to sleep - like Xanthe. His amber eyes, however, were wide open, watching his sister. With his stubborn pride and dreams of being an alpha, he was trying to be the more mature of the pair. But Savarna knew young ones were more interested in play, at his age. He would get up and join her in time, like always.