Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.40 Making Mischief

Luca looked out over the aviary from the careful cover of a large overhang. He suspected it was a perch at one time, but it had started to rot with lack of care. Luca had the North side. Aran the South, Help the East and Lil’ miss and Blue had the West. Luca had been leery of letting either Help or the little bits act along but they had insisted. To be fair they had not seemed to suffer any sort of trouble with anything they’d faced to date. Luca just hoped that they had understood what he wanted them to do. Just making a little bit of trouble that would distract people was a rather delicate balance.

Still with any luck even if they were spotted the Harpies likely wouldn’t think there was a grand conspiracy going on. From Luca’s vantage he could see the pens where the harpies raised their livestock. If chickens the size of sheep counted as livestock. Next to them was a series of dams that fed int canals throughout the city. The dams where heavily filled while the cannels sat just below the overflow point. So many ideas. All of them fun.

[Rӓv: Hah, the butterflies are secure again.] Lucky eyed the harpies approaching the livestock pen.

[Lucky: Ghost can you release three butterflies?]

[Ghost: Da.]

[Lucky: Rӓv can you control the butterflies Ghost activated and send them to the South, East and West. I want to know what’s happening over there.]

[Rӓv: On it.] Two harpies reached the livestock pen and opened the gate one of them grabbing a chook before the two exited. They lazily closed the gate behind them. Thank you very much. While they walked away Luca sidled down and up to the gate. Quickly flicking the lock open Luca left the door ajar and then slipped over and into the dam.

Not a minute later the chooks flicked the gate and promptly stormed out. They raced around pecking at bits of vegetation and wandering into any open passage. The amount of mess they made in the short time they were out before anyone noticed was truly impressive. When two of the chooks wandered deeper into the Aviary and a screeching shout followed Luca eased back to the shadows of the dam. As a group of harpies rushed in and squawked at the open gate. When they rushed in the chooks scattered in every conceivable direction which just made the mayhem even worse.

As they started chasing around after the scattering birds Luca shifted around to the opening for the dam. With a quick jump Luca opened the dam shutter just a quarter turn. Not enough to send water gushing about but just enough that the water levels in the canals began to rise. When the harpies moved away from the opening area Luca swished out of the dam and into the cannel. Time to find somewhere else to wait and see what other mischief he could make.

Further down the cannel fed into a fountain. Luca waited beneath the surface as a young mother led two children away from the fountain before he surfaced and moved out of the pond and over to a large oak tree. He was lucky that he could hold his breath so much longer now. With a quick hop and swing he settled himself amongst the deep foliage. That was enough on this side for the moment.

[Lucky: Rӓv patch me into butterfly by Lil’ Miss.]

[Rӓv: Patching in.]

According to Ghost the west side of the Aviary was a pseudo industrial area or as close as a magic world got to an industrial area. Once the view from the butterfly came in Luca could see why Ghost had used that description.

The area was filled with large warehouses. From what Luca could see with a quick flight past the doors they mostly seemed to hold supples for construction. One was entirely filled with logged wood. Which was its own temptation, but better not to do that just yet, since it would be hard to make it seem like an accident.

Similarly promising was a grain warehouse that was next to the ruins of what looked like a nearly identical building. Considering the ruins looked like the result of an explosion Luca would wage good money that the building had held the grain previously.

Luca started to worry that the area would only be good for larger issues and not suitable for short distractions to delay the coliseum. Lil’ Miss and Blue had found something though. Namely a rat’s nest. Luca should have expected such with the large amounts of grain being stored. Now the question was, could they get the rats to scatter and run around the Aviary. Since they were the size of house cat they wouldn’t exactly be something that could just be ignored.

It seemed Luca worried over nothing. Lil’ Miss landed in the shadows and then scurried into the side of the nest. Luca missed the fact that with the audio line off he didn’t get sound through the butterfly. Not long after Lil’ Miss entered there was a faint shift in the rocks on the ground, followed before rats poured out from every conceivable gab. Even a few that they should not have been able to squeeze through. Not long after that Lil’ Miss exited with a satisfied smirk. In return Blue chirped twice before she fluttered to the other side of the warehouses. Luca cautiously flew his butterfly over to see what else the pair had found.

Luca shuddered and wished he hadn’t looked. The tangle of snakes meant that Luca couldn’t tell where one ended and another started. Not as exaggeratedly large as the chooks or other animals the snakes looked to be practically the same size as what Luca knew from back home. The issue was the sheer number and that from the markings Luca suspected that they were all poisonous.

While Luca was frantically trying to think of a way to stop Blue from going near them and getting bitten the bird swooped. Blue swished down and across the top of the coiling snakes a strange red mist flowed from around the wings before Blue twisted and rose back into the air. Whatever the red mist was the snakes didn’t like it. they uncoiled and took off in every direction at a fast slither. Luca looked at the scattering reptiles before he fluttered the butterfly over to land on Lil’ Miss’s head. She rolled her eyes to look at Luca before giving a slight nod. She’d seen the butterflies used enough to recognise them at least.

[Lucky: Ghost don’t let anyone move West.]

[Ghost: Why?]

[Lucky: snakes.]

[Lucky: Rӓv can you patch me to Help please. Can I get audio for it as well now?]

[Rӓv: Oops, did I not turn it back on? My bad patching now. With sound.]

Luca took a moment while the camera changed to do another check around himself. While the contact visual was vaguely transparent it was still enough to interfere with regular perceptions. The area remained largely empty with people occasionally passing by on the other side of the fountain. The water level had risen to start washing over the edge of the fountain and the canal, but it seemed that no one had noticed it yet.