Twilight Mischeif

The background sounds of feasting and revelry were clear but muted, as a trio of large theropods slunk carefully through the Atlantean twilight. They moved surprisingly stealthily for their size, though no doubt the cacophony of the iguanodon court's celebrations helped mask any sounds they might make.

“I still think I could take them,” Honeydew practically growled irritably, if softly. “They're still just a bunch of plant eaters in the end.”

“There's too many of them, they'd get to you eventually no matter how many you take down,” Russ replied, a teasing lilt to his tone. Honeydew whipped her head to the side to glower at him, rising up to her full height and looking down on the smaller suchomimus.

“Try me.”

Before things could escalate any further, however, the third member of the little party spoke up.

“Hush, we're nearly there. There might be guards.” While the glowering continued, Rubi's curt admonition did at least convince the acrocanthosaurus to back down. For now.

They continued to creep quietly through the jungle. Or at least as quietly as their sizes would allow. Their destination was just up ahead: an old, overgrown building that, according to what Russ had overheard, was apparently being used as an armory.

Up in the lead, Rubi slowly swung her long snout back and forth, looking and listening and smelling for any signs of guards. So far, there were none, but that was no reason for any of them to let their guards down. In moments, their destination came into sight, the dull, faded beiges of the decaying structure a stark contrast against the vivid and lush color of the jungle that was overgrowing it.

Rubi paused, then nodded to Russ, who slunk closer, his darker coloration blending in better with the twilight than Rubi's crimsons or Honeydew's pale greens. The spiky suchomimus crept forward, looking around as he inched his way to the door. Then, seeing no one around, he leaned against it to push it open, which it did with an audible creak.

All three therapods froze, and waited. A few moments passed, and no one came to investigate the sound—perhaps due to the commotion of the feast still being audible even from here—and they relaxed again. Or at least, Russ and Rubi relaxed, if anything Honeydew looked rather disappointed.

The door open and the way clear, Russ stepped inside, with the other two quickly slinking over to follow them. Simply because no one was around now was no reason to waste time, after all. Inside, the structure was dimly lit, and it took a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Once they had, however, they were greeted with the sight of shelves upon shelves of assorted armor and accessories. Some empty as their contents were clearly currently being used, others so ill-used they were beginning to collect a thin patina of dust.

But the important part was, the trio had found what they were looking for. Honeydew looked around almost hungrily, yellow eyes glinting in the dim light.

“I could knock this whole shelf down and trample them...” she mused, nudging the shelf in question with her feathery snout. The shelf wobbled a little.

“Wait,” Rubi interjected. “Don't do anything that would be too loud. There's no point if they catch us.”

“Exactly,” chimed in Russ, his claws already laden with objects pulled from another shelf. “Besides, if they walk in and find things broken, they'll know what happened. If we hide them, then they'll have to go to the bother of looking for them because they won't be sure. If we do good enough, it might keep them looking for days.”

With that, he snatched another gauntlet, and started heading further in, humming cheerfully to himself. Following the other suchomimus's example, Rubi went back to looking over shelves for anything that looked interesting to grab. Lacking the forearm reach of the other two, Honeydew considered for a moment, then deciding to take advantage of her greater size to start pulling things off of the highest shelves. And being none too careful about potentially damaging them with her teeth while she was at it. The point of this exercise was to teach the interlopers a lesson, after all.

The trio worked as quickly and as quietly as they could. The two suchomimus did their level best to sow confusion, with Russ focusing on finding out of the way or hard to get to hiding places, and Rubi deliberately and systematically taking apart any semblance of organization she found. Honeydew continued to empty the highest shelves of their contents—sure to cause much frustration and consternation for whoever was tasked with putting everything back later—as well as, at Russ's enthusiastic suggestion and with Rubi's help finding places for it, putting other things up on high, out of reach nooks and crannies.

Their time was limited, however. Even if no one found the troublemakers, there was the issue that the 'daylight' of Atlantis was quickly fading. The same dusk that offered them cover in their endeavor also acted as a time limit. Gradually, it became harder and harder to see, a source of mounting frustration for Honeydew, if not the other two as well.

“Bah, time's up, can't see a thing,” Russ said as he returned from his latest round of hiding. “Grab as much as you can carry and we'll toss it out in the jungle as we go.”

“Good idea, it should take them a long time to find it all again,” Rubi agreed, and hurried to grab a few things from one of the shelves that hadn't been ransacked completely.

Honeydew, however, looked displeased as she picked up a particularly large item and started for the door. “This better work,” she growled, the threat of her displeasure clear enough in her tone. Rubi opened her mouth to assure the acrocanthosaurus, but before she could get a word out, it happened. In the darkness, Honeydew couldn't easily make out the shelves she was maneuvering around and between, and her flank slammed into one as she turned a corner. The shelf leaned and tottered as both suchomimus looked on in surprised, then toppled over, smashing into its neighbor with a loud crash.

For a moment, everyone froze, then hearing a shout from outside sent them running. No thought for subtlety or sneakiness, just a mad dash for the cover the jungle afforded them. Pieces of armor, many broken, dropping in their wake as they ran while more shouting sounded as their handiwork was discovered.

Tossing the last piece of pilfered armor aside, Russ let out a gleeful laugh at the chaos.

“That oughta teach 'em!” he said between gasps for air as he ran. The other two had likewise finished dumping what they'd been carrying, now focused simply on getting away before a proper pursuit could be mounted.

“If it didn't, I'm sure we could arrange another lesson,” Rubi replied with a smirk. Honeydew merely snorted.

“Seems like you were right... This time,” she huffed, before peeling off to go her own way. The suchomimus paused, glanced at each other, then likewise split up.

They could always reconvene again later if they wanted to stir up some more chaos, after all.