Wrecking Ball

As the fire crackled from the bunker and the cries of trapped Atlanteans spread through the jungle, the trio were already making tracks back to where they had come from. The march of empty-handed warriors were picking up speed the further they travelled, word was getting around about the fire and soon they were mobilising forces to put it out, leaving them another opening to enact the second half of their plan. The plant storage was harder to find now that all the workers were rushing to fight the fire, but there were enough of them carrying farming equipment that the gang could follow them back along the worn path. 

The plant repository was a great deal larger than the weapons bunker, and it was all above ground too. With no singular entrance and exit point, Cassidy knew a different approach would be needed here. She kept the group to the bushes, not wanting to stick their snouts out any further than they had to, but kept circling the large depot. There were large glass buildings filled with seedlings, a field with larger plants and what appeared to be another shed; she could only guess that it was where the seeds were stored to prevent them sprouting too early from the exposure to light. Sparrow was crouched next to her where she had stopped, following her eyeline along to the various buildings.

"I vote for not attacking the glass one," he whispered, making Cassidy snort.

"Good point, glass isn't worth the hassle," she agreed. She kept her eyes on the glasshouses nonetheless, fascinated by their well-maintained panes. It was clearly valuable to the Atlanteans, but Sparrow was right, glass shattered and didn't pick which side it cut, it was a fickle material that she didn't trust in a high-stakes operation like this. The activity around the repository was high too, seemingly unaware of the nearby fire and still transporting equipment and seeds out of the shed and into the jungle. The shed was their most ideal target, cutting off their plans at the root, no pun intended. 

“…” 

Hazard hung back behind the other two, she was eagerly awaiting instruction from Cassidy, she wouldn’t even mind if she was sent to smash up the glass houses. Any mayhem was good mayhem, she thought to herself as she looked between the two in front of her at the maintained glass almost hearing the satisfying sound of it shattering around her. She did not feel well enough established in the gang to push the matter of leaving the glasshouses and so she turned her attention to the seed storage. 

The fire they had started was still puffing out smoke which had begun pooling in the curve of the domed ceiling. The air conditioning system fought to digest the grey plumes but it was fighting a losing battle. Hazard cast a cautious gaze up to the darkening ‘sky’ above them, unsure of how much longer they had before the air became unbreathable if the Atlanteans weren’t able to extinguish the flames soon. “Hey boss, not to rush you but we better move fast.” She nodded her head upward to draw Cassidy’s attention. As she looked up she nodded and made a thoughtful sound as she began to consider the best course of action. 

“…”

Hazard made a good point, with all the ruckus from the fire they were beginning to lose their window of opportunity. Cassidy knew she wasn't a good leader, she just led by default and Piper reminded her of that frequently, and she was feeling it keenly now. This wasn't just raiding a caravan of travelling herbivores, this was true guerilla warfare and she was out of her depth. She tried to shake the doubts and zeroed in on the shed where a steady stream of Atlanteans were still coming in and out with young seedlings and bags of seeds.

“Strike the root of the problem,” she said firmly, “we need to sabotage the planting of the islands, it's their main focus now.” Sparrow nodded and Hazard straightened up, ready for orders. Realising they were both waiting on her, Cassidy bit back a noise of frustration and tried to wrack her brain again. Hazard was a big help in terms of muscle, but the three of them had no chance at taking down an Iguanodon in open combat. There were no convenient torches this time, she'd be forced to use her brain this time.

“Okay, here's the plan,” she started, “Hazard, you make the biggest distraction of your life, draw them all outside. If they're getting too aggro the signal is ‘outlook’, loud as you can, top of your lungs, okay?” The Cryo nodded seriously, her eyes wide and her attention thoroughly captured. “Sparrow and I will sneak into the shed through the smaller doors on the side and cause as much shit as we can.” Sparrow looked nervous but he nodded as well. This plan was too scattered for him, he preferred the meticulous planning of his twin, where nothing could be left to chance. Cassidy had always been more freewheeling than Piper, but this was on another level. It boiled down to ‘get inside and see what happens’ and his mind was already buzzing with the thought of what could go wrong.

With a final reiteration of the distress signal, Hazard was left to her own devices, stepping out into the open. The smoke was still swirling in the corner of her vision and an idea struck her, there was a very obvious distraction gambit here and she knew what she had to do.

“FIRE!” she called into the shed, “THERE'S A FIRE, LEAVE YOUR STATIONS, GET TO THE BUNKER, ALL HANDS ON DECK!” The occupants of the shed looked startled but unmoved and she gestured at the sky. “Look! Fire! You wanna tell the Queen you were hiding in here while Atlantis burned down?” The Iggys and Euoplos exchanged loaded glances before some of them began to set their equipment down and hurry out of the door. The few stragglers remained in place, picking up more plants instead of setting them down.

“This is the finest of Atlantis? Letting your court members burn? Shame on you!” A voice called from the other end of the warehouse and Hazard saw Cassidy step out of the shadows. “Is it up to us surface dwellers to save your hides?” she scoffed, “the big Iggy that sent us said we'd just have to guard the seedlings, not force deserters out the door to fight the fire.” With her derisive comments, Cassidy had seemed to spur a stronger reaction than Hazard had and the more reluctant Atlanteans began to file out of the doors.

“Nice work, boss,” Sparrow said, his voice echoing in the now-empty storage shed. “I guess we can do whatever we want now, right?”

“…”

Hazard looked over at Cassidy with a big grin, “Nice one, boss!” She said following in Sparrow’s lead. The larger Cryo made her way into the shed as well and as the others began to destroy things Hazard started to wreak absolute chaos. Fully invested and enjoying the process of trashing the shed she grabbed seed bags flinging them across the room, a few of which sailed close by Sparrow, “hey! Watch it!” He warned. Hazzard just laughed a crazed laugh fully consumed in the moment. She threw herself against the tables that were placed around and covered with tools knocking everything to the ground, stamping on tools and breaking them apart as she came across them. 

Once the other two were outside waiting for Hazzard to finish her rampage she shot them a cheeky smirk clearly not finished with the demolition. With the knowledge her gang members were clear of the shed she rammed into the wall like a pachy, causing the degraded structure to skew and then collapse on top of her. Cassidy and Sparrow looked at each other, their faces concerned. Had she gone too far? Had she been crushed under the weight of the building? As the dust settled over the ruined remains of the shed the pair stood with breaths held, with each passing second their hopes of Hazzard emerging grew smaller and smaller. 

Cassidy gave a heavy sigh, they didn’t have time to dig through the debris for their fellow gang member, they were on the clock and they had to move. As Cassidy shook her head at Sparrow she began to turn. “We have to go.” She said in a somber tone, the sadness of the moment was interrupted by maniacal laughter emanating from a dense pile of rubble and to everyone’s surprise, including Hazzard’s she burst out of the remains of the building cut and bruised but clearly enjoying herself. As she joined her gang again she grinned as though she had the most fun of her life, “it’ll take me more than that boss.” 

“…”

Cassidy heaved a loud exhale when Hazzard's bulky body burst free from the rubble. The Cryo shook the dust loose from her body and grinned at her, clearly pleased with herself and stifling giggles.

“Try not to give me a heart attack next time,” Cassidy said drily, trying to hide the way her heart was still pounding in her chest at the thought of losing Hazzard under her own orders. Distracting herself by flicking the soil from under her claws, she looked back to the wreck and felt a thrill of pride. These fuckers had it coming, kidnapping Cath and Kaiwi, trying to raid their islands, this felt right. 

“You thinking about becoming a vigilante now?” Sparrow asked her, elbowing her playfully.

“Not quite, might do a little moonlighting though,” Cassidy said breezily. “Now, while they're chasing their tails we can scout the jail, maybe we can find a little more chaos out there.”