[Event] Oops there was Murder

No one really knew how they got into this situation but here they were, working for this Queen Rhys. Moonbeam and Crucible had sworn they would never venture back into Morpheus Labs after they gained their freedom from the Alpha Labs during the Doomsday event, but somehow the situation has brought them back into those crumbling tunnels not unlike ones they already knew. Really that situation led back to the small Cryolophosaurus named Piper, who was named so because she resembled a small, bright yellow airplane with a black lightning bolt marking. She was the healer of the Boneyard Pack, the mender, doctor. The yellow thing had gone off to investigate these new plants on the island and the wild journey she had gotten into  had led to her disappearance and eventual rediscovery when they found out she had gone into this underwater domed jungle called Atlantis. The plants here were surreal and unusual, but Piper seemed to do just fine. In fact, Piper, now serving alongside them as the Honor Guard, or honorary warriors for this Queen in her crusade, was now using her skills not to fight but to help tend these plants. In general Piper was one of those who tried to help everyone, even if it meant introducing invasive species to the islands. She was somewhat cautious about this of course, knowing places here and there from her travels for special herbs. There were specific places she had in mind for the Atlanteans to plant and nurture their seeds, places that would restrict the spread of the modified plants naturally. 

When that wasn't happening, like today, Piper was in the bowels of the Atlantean home. As a honor guard it was…well…part of her job to actually guard things. Ever since the Oviraptors started coming surface-side they have started making enemies with all sorts of Dinosaurs on the island. Some of these dinosaurs would push into Atlantis and try to sabotage and stop the Atlantean effort at the source.

Now Piper was no fighter, she could scrap yes, but she'd rather not. That's where Moonbeam and Crucible came in. They were big, strong, Albertosaurus. Banded, dark and light in color respectively. They'd come for Piper and weren't leaving without her, so that meant guarding Piper, and in return, guarding the Atlanteans and their plants that Piper tended and researched. 

Today Piper was guarding one of the bridges across the water feature that flowed through Atlantis, something built into the dome by Morpheus. This bridge was a natural choke point and just beyond it was one of the farms that Atlanteans used to grow their food. The yellow Cryolophosaurus was generally bored, guard work was boring, so she took any distraction she could get for entertainment. The fluttering of dragonflies was one thing, before they scattered off. It got her attention and she looked to the roadway which snaked towards her, squinting at the passage as she cocked her head. She straightened up, her feathers puffing up as she called out in alarm. She hoped her alarm call would draw anyone nearby, especially her friends from outside. What she saw was the approach of a decently sized pack of Carnotaurus. There was about six of them, which was, very intimidating. 

“Stop! “ She shouted to them, trying to get the trotting Carnotaurs to slow their pace. They did, attention homing in on her. 

“And what are you supposed to be? You look nothing like these Atlanteans. “ One of them, swamp green with a lighter countershading and lines of mud would ask, tone arrogant and dismissive. Piper was small, and by herself she wasn't very threatening. Behind the Carnotaurus of the bayou others would flank out, surrounding Piper at the front as they moved along the bank of the water feature. One was bald,  a rose gold with black unders, a light rim, and so, so many fawn spots. Another to the side of it was  brown, shaggy, with a lighter countershade, soft midline and darkened stripes. Next to that one was brown as well, feathered as well,  but generally lighter with an overabundance of light dappling. The legs were lighter and the face had reddish markings. Its hooded neck, streaked. 

There were two more on the other side of the swamp Carnotaur. A feathered and grey one with a light haze, black tears and lighter socks…then also a feathered one, light grey with a solid black frame, black bordered grey saddle and black patches.  They were all clearly eager for a fight, bristling and ready to go. 

“Be-cause I'm not?” Piper would answer back sheepishly, attempting to placate the larger theropod before she continued. She took a ginger step back, feathers somehow poofing up even more. “I'm from above! I'm just working with them to help them spread their plants and care for their plants and-” 

“So that makes you part of the problem, got it. “ The swamp Carnotaurus cut Piper off rudely. It seems negotiating with them might be a little hard when they don't want to listen. They were just there for a fight. 

“Now c'mon don't be like that, I'm just trying to solve this with as little bloodshed as possible!” Piper would try again to appease the pack. She took another ginger step back as they got closer to her. 

“There's already been enough bloodshed and if this keeps going there will be even more. Now get out of our way or we will make you get out of our way. “ The swamp Carnotaurus would threaten. 

“Sorry but I can't do that. “ Piper would apologize, trying to buy time for Crucible and Moonbeam to get there. Thankfully she thought maybe she saw something out of the corner of her eye. 

“Get her. “ The swamp Carnotaurus would command and his packmates rushed forward after Piper. “We'll make an example out of her!” 

Piper took a step back before she pivoted and proceeded to run and jump off of the side of the bridge and into the water.  The Carnos spread out around her, some staying on the bridge while others went down the banks on either side of the yellow Cryolophosaurus. She let out an alarm call again, hoping to be heard as she started downstream. 

“What did you expect to get from that? “ The shaggy brown Carno with the dark stripes would ask, making fun of Piper as they paced her.”There's nowhere you can go, we have you surrounded!” they did have Piper surrounded, she would either eventually get tired and drown or she would be grabbed when she came back on land. 

Luckily for her a surprise  option C reared its head very quickly. 

Moonbeam burst from the nearby giant bamboo thicket and grabbed the nearest Carnotaurus in her jaws. The Carnotaurus, the feathered one that was grey with the haze and the black tears named Baltoro. It shrieked as Moonbeam grabbed it by the tail just behind the hip and started to drag it back away from the water, using a combination of her massive neck muscles and her strong legs. The carnotaurus tried to snap back at her but couldn’t swing around enough to reach Moonbeam as she dragged, dodging here and there in a bit of a drunken weaving pattern.

The other Carnotaurus didn’t even get to react to Baltoro getting dragged back by Moonbeam, Crucible had burst out of the bamboo around the same time and bodyslammed the black framed one with the saddle (Taura) into the water feature, forcing Taura temporarily out of the fight. Now thanks to Crucible, Taura was at the mercy of Piper for all Taura could really do was kick to keep her head above the water as Piper made a b-line right for her and grabbed onto her shaggy coat just behind her tail with her front claws, using Taura as a raft.

Crucible pivoted now, turning to face the alerted pack as Moonbeam released Baltoro. The hazed, shaggy Carnotaurus turned around now to try to take a snap at Moonbeam. Moonbeam was, however, much larger, and already in the motions of bringing her jaws back around Baltoro. The Carnotaurus made a noise of struggle as Moonbeam used her longer reach to close her jaws around Baltoro’s neck and shoulder. She quickly started to overpower the struggling Carnotaur as she forced her bodyweight onto it and one of her legs, using the other leg to kick at Baltoro’s own, gouging up the Carnotaurus’ left thigh deeply as Moonbeam’s foot claws dragged through flesh. Baltoro made shrieks of pain, not even begging with words as Moonbeam tightened her jaws around him and forced him to the ground. She began to violently drag the Carnotaurus around before letting go, stepping on him as she looked up to watch as one of the other Carnotaurus rushed in to help.

She didn’t have to do anything, Crucible intercepted the Carnotaurus. It was Goose the hooded one with the red face markings. Crucible got between Moonbeam, Baltoro and Goose, snarling at the fluffy beast as it skidded to a stop to try to rear up and intimidate Crucible, seeking an easy way to attack the white Albertosaurus. They stepped around each other, with Crucible shifting forward a few steps or backwards even more as he tried to stay between Goose and Moonbeam and Baltoro. Now the other Carnotaurus in the pack were ringing around them as well, the fight about to turn into a free-for-all brawl. “Well? Come on!” Crucible instigated, challenging the Carnotaurus to the fight as he stood tall and tried to intimidate the Goose Carno.  Crucible wouldn’t let them be smart with him, the moment he saw the tiger striped looking one start to open their mouth he lunged forward to charge at Goose and slammed his head right into Goose’s ribs, forcing the smaller theropod away from him. Crucible pushed forward straight at the pack of Carnotaurus, one of them running to flank him as the swamp one turned to try to get away and the other tried to flank the other direction. The pale Albertosaurus leaned over and grabbed the one trying to flank left. They had nowhere to run to get away from him, having put themselves between Crucible and the water. It was the rose gold one, the one with too many spots and the dark unders. Crucible grabbed them right by the spine, pulling them off-balance as he used his size to pull them off-balance and to the ground. Probably with a couple of broken ribs now the Carnotaurus screamed as Crucible used a series of swinging motions combined with his large teeth to roll the Carnotaurus over and then he grabbed them around the stomach. Now Crucible started to crush at the Carnotaurus’s stomach. They screamed out and tried to kick at him and get away from him but Crucible’s bite force was too great, now that he had them he wasn’t letting go. Only…he did let go. Crucible let go of the rose gold Carnotaurus just long enough to get one of her legs in his mouth and then he dragged the Carnotaurus by her leg a bit, getting a good anchor before he proceeded to snap the Carnotaurus’ leg off at the tarsels. The rose gold Carnotaurus became a bubbling mess of pleas, whines and screaming  as she was now out of the fight. Crucible threw her leg into the water feature before he turned his attention back to other things.

Ever since he had gotten occupied with the rose gold Carnotaurus, Moonbeam had left the beaten Baltoro in order to deal with the one Carnotaurus that had been flanking Crucible on the other side at the time, intercepting that Carnotaurus. It was the tigerstriped one. She had shaved off a good patch of fur with her initial bite towards the striped Carnotaurus but it was fast on its feet. The fluffy thing had gotten to Moonbeam’s flank to bite at her left thigh. It sidestepped, keeping itself just out of range of Moonbeam’s snapping jaws as she tried to pivot with it. Biting at it didn’t work, so Moonbeam moved to to try to throw her weight around side to side, trying to dislodge it or smack it around a little bit with her larger body size. It wasn’t that it was really a suddenly life-threatening situation, but it was a bit debilitating having a Carnotaurus hanging onto her. It was a lot harder to move around. She tried to kick, too, but that didn’t seem to really work. That tigerstriped Carnotaur really was just not giving up. It put Moonbeam in a bad situation as that swamp Carno started to come back, not so cowardly that she would abandon her packmates.  Moonbeam snarled and snapped at it, keeping it at bay as she tried to drag the one biting her ever so slightly around.

She would get what she wanted, ultimately. Crucible, free from ripping the leg off the rose gold one, sprung up to help Moonbeam with her two-on-one issue. He chomped his jaws down on the tip of the tigerstriped Carno’s tail and pulled, taking the tailtip right off and making the other release Moonbeam with a pained bark of sorts.  Moonbeam took the opportunity to swing, slamming her tail right into the Carnotaurus and knocking it to the side which threw it off just enough Crucible would be able to get his jaws into its own thigh.

While he was occupied with taking down that Carnotaurus Moonbeam turned her attention to the swamp Carnotaurus, giving a pained whine as it bit at her side and took flesh from her ribs, maybe even broke one. She was quicker to move this time, not wanting to repeat the mistake of earlier.. And she pivoted hard and pivoted quick on her good leg. With a snap Moonbeam grabbed the swamp Carnotaurus by the face, sinking thick teeth into bone and flesh as she started to thrash the Carnotaurus. The leader had definitely been a fool, and not so able. He wouldn’t be able to lead again, not with his skull crushed by Moonbeam as she turned him into a chew toy. There was an awful noise as she did him in, and she threw him with all of her strength towards the ground before stomping down on his ribs, intending to definitely do him in if he wasn’t already going to die from having his skull crushed by her.  She let out a vicious snarl, turning her attention to the rest of the dying fight.

It was now the Tigerstripe, The Goose, and the Saddleback Carnotaurus left. They were shaken at the loss of their leader, the ones that noticed anyway. The Tigerstripe was quickly being overpowered by Crucible who had dragged it off-balance and to the ground. The pale Alberotsaurus soon had a foot down on it holding it in place as he went in for a killing blow on its throat, ripping open its throat with his crushing bite force.

The Goose, now recovered, squawked, startled by the brutality of the two Albertosaurus. The Saddlebacked Carnotaurus had finally shaken Piper off and barely managed to get up on shore as well, drenched and tired from hauling itself and the yellow Cryolophosaurus to shore. Piper was quick to get out of the way as Moonbeam turned on the tired Carnotaurus. Crucible himself went after Goose, the Carnotaurus trying to sidestep and get around the Albertosaurus, now wanting to make a retreat and leave the others behind but unable. Crucible cut him off and he flared at the Alberotaurus. He jumped and bit Crucible on his nose-tip, dragging the larger Theropod down but not doing much more than that. Crucible snarled, trying to shake and move his head to dislodge the Carnotaurus from him but couldn’t manage. Finally Crucible reared up as tall as he could get, almost tripoding as he pulled the Carnotaurus to its toes, using his size against it, and he proceeded to kick it in the gut. He used his large toe claws to drag gashes against it and the wounded and pained Carnotaurus let go of him. Crying and writhing a bit in pain Crucible quickly went in to overpower and kill it like he had the other ones. That left only the saddleback one alive, for now, and not for long.

The Saddleback one, though tired a bit from swimming and weighed down by being drenched..saw the absolute massacre of her packmates and Moonbeam charging at her and decided to turn tail and run, turning and going right back into the water to try to swim across. Moonbeam wasn’t going to let this happen so easily. The larger Albertosaurus gave chase, following the Carnotaurus into the water and starting to swim after it. It was probably going to come down to swim speed, the Albertosaurus was larger with longer legs, however the Carnotaurus didn’t just fight another entire back and was quickly trying to pull away. If it could only get across and get away from these bloodthirsty Albertosaurus it could warn the other islanders about those allying with the invading Atlanteans. It wasn’t something any of them were going to allow to happen so easily. As Moonbeam chased the Carnotaurus across the water Piper came back into the picture and once the Carnotaurus had made it to land she started to give chase. She hadn’t been fighting an entire pack and swimming wasn’t the hardest thing for her so chasing after the saddleback Carnotaurus wasn’t too big of a problem for her. Like a good down she would try to cut it off and when that didn’t happen she started to bite at it and slow it by going at its legs, eventually tripping it up to the point that Moonbeam could catch up to it, and then Crucible as well. Piper stepped back and turned away as the two Albertosaurus grabbed the offending Carnotaurus and..deciding there would be not witnesses to cry wolf.. Dragged the Carnotaurus by it’s neck and a now broken leg  to the water to throw it in and let the wounded dinosaur drown. It wasn’t pretty, and a massacre definitely wasn’t on their list of things they planned for the day… but they had to protect Piper.. And while they were protecting Piper..they were protecting these Atlanteans. That was just how it was. Even as the slower knights came into view, coming to investigate the alarm of earlier..well late to the party.

Well, this was going to be something interesting to report to the queen.