Metal Gear Solid

The jungles of Atlantis were strangely quiet, Piper thought to herself. She was lying in wait near the prisons she suspected contained their lost gang member Cathedral and waiting made her nervous. From the vague sounds of chaos she could barely hear through the thick foliage she knew the other half of the gang were causing trouble and she itched to join them instead of keeping watch. She wondered vaguely if Cassidy had stuck her here to keep her from the fun, but she recalled the grave look on the pink raptor's face when she had said Piper was the only one she could trust and the suspicion left her. They butted heads over a lot of things, but she knew Cassidy respected her.

When the bushes rustled next to her she didn't startle, she'd know the step of her twin anywhere.

"How did it go?" she whispered as Sparrow's amber eyes peered out between the leaves. 

"We made a little bit of a scene," he said bashfully, making Piper squint suspiciously at him.

"Where's Cass and Hazard?" she asked, looking into the bushes behind him.

"Cass is putting Hazard in timeout, she might have a concussion after her wrecking ball act," he said, looking over his shoulder and not elaborating. Piper didn't get a chance to interrogate him further before Cassidy stepped out of the plants.

"I think she'll stay put," the pink raptor grunted, "Any movement on this place, Piper?"

"A fair amount," she nodded, "Whatever you guys were up to seems to have pulled a lot of the guards away but I think we're stuck with this lot as the skeleton crew." She jerked her head towards the prison and stepped back to let Cassidy take a peek through the trees. She could hear her mumbling under her breath before retreating back into the dark.

"It's not ideal, but it's better than a whole army of them," she said begrudgingly, "That big cone on top of the building? You seen it used yet?"

"It's an alarm," Piper said quickly, "I was about to bring it up, if we don't take out the alarm first they'll call the whole court back to help." Cassidy scratched her chin, looking through the plants again and humming to herself.

"Alright, good work Piper," she praised, "Now, you up for being the lynch pin for this whole operation?"

"Aren't I always?" the raptor asked dryly but her heart began to pound in her chest, "What's the plan?"

"We get you as close as we can to the building, you're our best climber so you can try to scale the vines on the wall. If you can't we'll fall back and regroup, figure something else out

"And if she can?" Sparrow interrupted, earning him a withering glare from both girls.

"If she can, she'll trash the alarm and we'll be down to six guards plus whoever's guarding the interior," Cassidy said confidently.

"But- the Iggys!" Sparrow exclaimed, causing his twin to clamp her claws around his mouth to shut him up.

"There's two Iguanodons," Piper told Cassidy, ignoring her brother squirming in her grip, "not armoured, no weapons, but they're still gonna be your biggest threat." 

"I'm aware, but I don't think we're escaping this place without squaring off with at least one of them," Cassidy said pragmatically. "Not ideal, but if we want to leave here with Cathedral then we'll have to take the heat." Piper didn't want to agree, but the gang leader was right, they couldn't avoid conflict any more. 

"Then that's the plan," she agreed, "Don't worry about 'if', I'll make it up that wall and push that trumpet clean off," she added confidently. Cassidy's face split in a grin, the thrill of a fight finally breaking through her more cautious nature. 

"Then we move, good luck Piper."

Six guards waited along the walls of the prison, two framing what appeared to be the main door and the others scattered to stand under the larger windows. Two Iguanodons at the door and four Euoplos spread out along the wall. Cassidy and Sparrow followed Piper to the back of the building, only guarded by one Euoplo, choosing to launch their first attack to allow her the best chance at making it up the wall. The Euplo was wearing cloth armour but she hardly needed anything else, covered in stone-like plates and armed with the famous dangerous club. These were both useless to her, however, when she wasn't expecting the attack from behind. Donna had barely a moment between hearing the soft footfalls behind her and the feeling of claws in her gut. She jerked back in pain, reflexively and felt something feathery collide with her chest, knocking her completely over onto her back. A foot landed heavily on her throat, cutting off her scream and turning it into a hiss of pain.

"Don't move, or this gets messy," A voice hissed beside her head. She could feel the point of the Utahraptor's claw against her skin and despite her instincts to fight, she stayed still on her back and glowered into the dirt. "Good, good, we're all happier with this outcome," the raptor said in a mock soothing voice. "Now, we're going to tie you up and keep you from snitching, okay? Again, the less you fight, the less the Atlantean census goes down, understood?"

"Understood," Donna rasped reluctantly, feeling the pressure lift off of her throat long enough for her to respond. True to her word, the raptor began to bind her legs together and tied another loop around her snout to keep her beak closed. She could feel a second raptor tying her back legs but she wasn't surprised, even she knew raptors ran in packs. She felt the claw rest on her chest, like its owner was taking a break from the hard work of taking her prisoner. There was a moment of silence that made Donna struggle to lift her head to see what was happening and she found herself staring into the pink eye of the raptor standing on top of her.

"If we leave you like this on your back are you gonna suffocate or something," she asked bluntly. Taken aback, Donna nodded, only now realising how hard it had become to breathe. The raptor grunted and she felt another force at her back pushing her over onto her front. It was still uncomfortable but she could feel more air in her lungs at least.

"We done?" she heard the other raptor ask, "You wanna get her a fuckin' pillow too?"

"Shut it," the pink one snapped, "Piper's up the wall, we can move around to the door."

"To the Iggys?" the male asked, a nervous timbre to his voice.

"Cath isn't gonna rescue herself, we can't leave her there," the pink raptor said firmly, leaving no room for arguments. Donna heard their footsteps walking away towards the entrance of the prison, gone before she could try to warn them.