Break-In

The Atlanteans weren't exactly quiet about the presence of a treasury somewhere in the dome, music to Cassidy's ears. The idea of somewhere this big and fancy storing all of their goodies in one place was too tempting to resist, and she knew she had to at least try to break into it and peruse the treasures inside. Piper was unusually agreeable about it, usually giving a few token excuses of protest about any idea Cassidy had but this one seemed to have piqued her interest too. Sparrow didn't need persuading, if Piper was on board then so was he, the little sheep. With those two in tow, Cassidy followed every rumour she heard on the air until she had a decent idea of where they were going. A few plants had to be dispatched along the way, but they considered this as a 'two birds one stone' type of situation; clear their way to the vault while also taking out the freakish plants the Atlanteans were growing down here. They had overheard enough conversations between guards to know the plants were being spread to the surface and it didn't take a genius to realise how poorly that would work out. The thought of carnivorous snap traps lurking around the already dangerous area of outlook ridge gave Piper a headache. With a satisfying crunch, she stepped on the stem of a gurgling pitcher plant and watched it shrivel slowly. She would've liked to stay to watch it wither completely but Cassidy was keen on keeping good time. She begrudgingly agreed on hurrying as fast as they safely could through the jungle, the longer they spent in this humid armpit of a place was hell on her feathers.

When the large fronds of a surprisingly sturdy monstera parted they were faced with the back of a large stone building. The bricks were worn and cracked by vines forcing their way through the mortar and covering the entire building in a film of shiny green leaves. Cassidy scanned the back of the building carefully, looking for any weakness in the structure that they could reach and force their way through. As comparatively small as they were to Iggys, the cracks in the stone had been sealed up enough that only a small mouse could crawl through. The front door would have to be their entrypoint, she realised with a grimace. She retreated into the foliage and nodded towards the front of the building. Piper nodded back and she and Sparrow fell into step behind their leader as they worked their way through the undergrowth to stay hidden as they circled the structure and tried to get a read on the building. To their surprise, they found one guard standing at the large double wooden doors. 

The Iguanodon guard was alone, and they knew this for sure because he was dozing off without fear of being reprimanded. They stayed watching the spiked Iggy for a while, waiting for the other shoe to drop and a second or third Iguanodon to join him, but he remained alone for as long as they watched him. Cassidy's brow furrowed and she shrunk back into the jungle again. As she stomped into deeper cover a short red plant snapped at her and she beheaded it with a swift kick, too annoyed to bother any further with it.

"What's the plan?" Sparrow asked nervously, picking up on a foul mood and not quite understanding why. Surely only one guard was a good thing, right?

"She's thinking there can't only be one guard for the famous Atlantis treasury," Piper remarked, watching their leader pace. 

"It doesn't make sense, does it?" Cassidy implored. "I mean, we've heard a bunch of these hoity toity fuckers talking about the riches in the vault, why the hell is there only one guy there, and why is he taking a nap?" Her voice was strained with the effort of not yelling and Piper let her stew a little while longer before clearing her throat and speaking up.

"Is it possible they don't think the treasure is important right now?"

"Treasure is always important, what do you mean?" Sparrow asked.

"Their focus is planting as much as they can, down here and on the islands, maybe the vault doesn't have any plants in it and they're focused on guarding their most important resource instead of the shiny baubles in the treasury," Piper continued like her twin hadn't spoken. Cassidy hummed and scratched her chin, looking back in the direction of the vault even though she couldn't see it through the dense foliage.

"Good point, great point actually, this is why I keep you around," she praised, heading back towards the clearing. Piper gave a rigid smile with too many teeth to Cassidy's back, not daring to say what she was really thinking about that 'compliment'. When they poked their heads through the leaves the guard was still leaning against the wall, dozing off and snoring gently while still somehow remaining on his feet. "Sparrow, how fast are you feeling?" Cassidy asked innocently.

--

"Hey!" Kratti startled from his sleep to see a small brown raptor bellowing up at him. He blinked wearily downwards but his vision pulled sharply into focus when he realised what raptor this was.

"You!" he snarled, raising his forelimb slightly and cocking his thumb spike towards the raptor. The description matched perfectly to a number of reports of chaos across the dome, if he was remembering correctly this raptor was part of a group of-

Kratti's thoughts faded with his consciousness as he slumped to the floor, blood seeping slowly from the impact point of the loose block Cassidy and Piper had pushed from the roof of the vault.

"Nice work, Sparrow," Cassidy said brightly, eagerly shimmying down the vines to reunite with him, "You can have the honour of opening the door!" Sparrow scratched the back of his head bashfully.

"You sure? I didn't really do much," he protested.

"You literally did the most dangerous work, numbskull," Piper scoffed as she picked her claws out of the woody stems, "Open the fucking door." At her 'encouragement' Sparrow hurried to the wooden doors and began to push hard against it with his shoulder. To his surprise, it wasn't locked and only the age of the hinges groaning against the rust slowed his progress in pushing it open. With both doors wide open, he had a clear view into the dimly lit vault.