Chapter 2

When the rain finally let up, I headed back to the village unsure of what I could do. I knew I needed to be ready for whatever it was that was going to happen, but how do you prepare for what you don't know is going to happen?

With my clothes soaked through, I ran back to my hut to get changed before anyone noticed. The last time I had gotten caught in the rain Lewa had teased me for almost a week, and I didn't feel like going through that again. I usually had my own ammo to use against him, but so far I had nothing new on him that I could use. After changing my clothes and drying out my hair I stepped back out in to the village to see most of the matoran out and going about their regular business.

"Jaden," Lewa called from his perch at one edge of the village, waving me over to his spot.

"Good morning, Lewa," I greeted as cordially as I could manage. I was still exhausted and honestly didn't feel like interacting with anyone this morning.

"Why so glum? Night terrors again?" he asked, probably sensing my bad mood. I suppose it was harder to ignore than I thought.

"Yeah," I answered. "Same one as before. I just can't figure out what it means. Something's coming, Lewa. Something big."

"The jungle feels it too. The animals have been restless the past three nights. Is there nothing this dream can tell you?"

"Lewa, the last time I had a dream like this my plane crashed here. There's no rhyme or reason to them, no hint to what happens next. All I know is that we have more warning this time, for all the good it will do. I don't know, Lewa. I just don't know what to do next," I muttered as I slumped against the railing.

He put one cold, metal hand on my shoulder reassuringly. "Worry not now. Come wind fly. Always relaxing," he said in an uplifting tone.

"I think not today, friend," I said trying to manage a small smile. "I can hardly focus as it is. I'd crash into a tree if I tried flying today. Tomorrow?"

He smiled back at me and patted my shoulder before taking off breezing skillfully through the trees to wherever it was he needed to be today. I had to admit that the thought of flying did sound pretty appealing. It was one of the few pastimes I had available, and there was a rush unlike any other that came from it, especially when I flew with Yori Yoi. However, my mood was sour enough that I would hardly be good company to anyone else. I needed time to think, truly think about what my dream might mean, what could possibly be waiting for me, and I was hardly going to find my answers here in the village.

Refusing to use the ladders that led down to the ground I jumped out on to the branches nimbly as I had earlier this morning and swiftly moved from branch to branch lowering myself to the ground before landing deftly on the forest floor. For me this felt more natural even if it wasn't the fastest route down. I didn't care about speed, not today.

I wandered about on the forest floor not really caring where I ended up. It was easier to think when I was moving, and there was more than enough forest to wander through. As I contemplated what my dream could possibly be about it was hard not to notice that Lewa was right; the animals were acting differently. Typically I could walk around for hours and barely hear a sound, but every few minutes there was some sort of sound coming from somewhere whether it was a pair of gukko birds getting into a fight or an Ash bear grumping about something. After nearly being attacked by one I decided it would probably be safer to stick to the tree branches. It was more challenging to wander through the branches and think since I actually had to pay attention to where my next step went, but it was worth it to stay out of the way of the bears.

By the time the sun was in the middle of the sky I was still no closer to figuring anything out. On the positive side I was feeling much more sociable. I usually felt better after a good walk. After finding a sturdy enough branch I settled myself down and leaned against its trunk shutting my eyes for a few minutes. I was almost ready to doze off for a nice nap when I felt a breeze blow across my face carrying an odd odor.

I sat up in a crouched position putting my nose to the air trying to locate the source of the smell. I knew this smell didn't belong here. There was nothing on this island that produced that smell. It was exhaust. It was very faint, but I still recognized that foul odor. Moments later I could hear the drums of Le-Koro sending off a signal that something had landed, something that looked like a dragon. Whatever it was, it was no dragon. I listened more intently to the drums hoping to hear where it had been sighted. With my information gathered I started bounding through the trees in the direction that the drums had told me.

Was it possible that the island had been found by outsiders? How had that happened? The island was fairly well protected by the constant storms that surrounded the island. Any smart pilot would try to avoid the storm when he could. But the drums had said this dragon vehicle had landed, not crashed. Who had found us? Whatever or whoever was here couldn't be good. As I ran I was vaguely reminded of my dream. Was this what it had meant? Something was still off. In the dream I was chased by something, not me chasing it. Whatever it was, I was about to find my answers.

Just over a mile later I could hear the sounds of movement and the voices of strangers. I slowed opting for a silent approach to observe these unwelcomed newcomers. I was on top of them now and was rather surprised by what I saw. Their vehicle did, in fact, look like an emerald dragon. It was long and snake like in design, probably based on Asian depictions. Around it were gathered six individuals, five male, one female. They didn't look much older than I was, maybe nineteen or twenty at the most.

Their clothing was the most odd to me. It too was Asian in design, but they looked more like ninja impersonators than anything else. Their clothes were all black with different colored accents for each person. Perhaps it was a uniform, but it was no uniform I had ever seen. Typically if you were going to have different colors there were no more than four or five colors. Which meant there should have been at least two people with the same color, but this was not the case.

I didn't catch most of their conversation since my mind was still running 100 miles a second. How did they have such a transport? This wasn't something that was normal back home, at least it wasn't when I had left. I doubted technology had changed so greatly in two years for something like this. They had to be a private company, but what could they possibly want here? We had nothing of true value technology wise. Had they somehow gotten pictures of us on satellite and wanted to study the matoran closer? I couldn't let that happen, wouldn't let that happen.

I leaned in closer trying to catch bits of their conversation now. I had to know why they were here.

"Are you sure it'll be safe here, Cam?" one of the boys asked. His uniform was trimmed in yellow and his hair was a bit shaggy.

"It'll be fine here, Dustin," and Asian looking one dressed with green trim answered. "There doesn't appear to be much wildlife around here that would mess with."

"That's what they want you to think. We leave for a few minutes and all of a sudden it's crawling with bugs or something decides to take a nap in there, and then someone gets bitten by something poisonous or something like that. Happens all the time on T.V.," Dustin persisted. This one appeared to either be either a conspiracy theorist, really immature, watched way too much T.V. or some combination of the three.

"Relax, Dustin," the girl, a blonde dressed in light blue trim, chided. "Cam says it'll be fine, so it'll be fine."

"Yeah, but maybe someone should stay here with it, just in case," he suggested.

"Good idea," one of the other boys, a blonde with maroon trim, suggested putting his hands on Dustin's shoulders. "Why don't you stay here with the ship since you're so worried. I doubt anything will want to come near with you around. Your scream could scare away anything," he teased.

I found myself grinning at his comment. At least one of them had a good sense of humor. And he was very decent looking to boot.

Whoa. Did I really just think that about a stranger? Especially a stranger who was probably here to hunt down the matoran. I shook the thought from my mind wishing I hadn't even thought it. I suppose it was only natural. I hadn't been around another human in so long I suppose anyone of the opposite sex would seem like a great person. I had to remind myself that these were not friendly visitors. They were not for socializing.

I leaned over farther as they all continued to tease Dustin about him being a "fraidy cat" and a "chicken." I was hardly paying attention to myself and didn't realize until I heard the distinct popping noise of a breaking branch and started falling that I was not holding on to a very sturdy branch.

With a quick burst of air I slowed my fall and landed in the middle of the group gracefully in a crouched position like a jungle cat ready to pounce on its prey. They stared at me in shock and confusion for a moment. Obviously they hadn't expected a visitor. I hid my own shock and embarrassment at having fallen in front of them with a predatory glare.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the green one–Cam, I reminded myself–try to move closer to me. Choosing to make no assumptions about his intentions I snapped my head in his direction and in one fluid movement blew him back with a gust of air and trapped one of his wrists to the ground with a cuff of earth.

One thing I was grateful for these past two years was the time to practice the abilities that I had been granted with the pendant I had acquired. I was most experienced with earth and air mostly because they were more readily available than fire or water, but I was still rather formidable with those elements as well.

With Cam secured to ground I turned my gaze immediately to the others who had taken up defensive positions already. In the back of my mind a nagging little voice told me I had probably overreacted and made them hostile now, but I wasn't about to take any chances. I could ask questions later when I knew they couldn't hurt me or anyone else.

The closest to me, a tan boy with red trim, lunged at me attempting to grab me. I ducked beneath his grasp and swept his legs sending him tumbling to the ground. Before I could think to secure him to the ground as I had with Cam, Dustin attacked with a quick kick. I blocked his kick by grabbing his leg and pushed him, trying to put him off balance enough for me to land a hit so I could immobilize him as well. I got my hit, but there was no time to tie him down either. The blonde in blue was trying clothesline me. I bent over backwards and gave her a swift kick to the back causing her to go to her knees. The final boy, another tan boy with dark blue trim, grabbed me by the shoulder, but before he could land a hit or restrain me I grabbed his wrist and after removing his hand from my shoulder twisted it away from me and gave him a kick to the abdomen. The blonde boy tried to move in for a punch, but I ducked out of his way with a flip, kicking him square in the jaw in the process.

I knew this was going to get me nowhere fast. These people were skilled fighters and there was no way I was going to be able to defeat them in a group like this. I needed to divide and conquer. I quickly survey the group trying to decide which one of them was possibly the weakest fighter. I thought maybe the red trimmed one. He seemed to be impulsive since he had attacked first. I was getting to ready to make my move when I saw Dustin make several signs with his hands and with a sudden downward motion he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I watched as the earth around me began moving with a puff of smoke leading it and wondered for a moment how he was doing this. I knew I couldn't do anything like that with my abilities; at least, I had never tried to before. Was it a trick? I followed the fast moving dirt until it stopped suddenly and Dustin came flying up from the ground at me. Thinking quickly, I grabbed one of his outstretched arms and using his own momentum I propelled him onward and rammed him into the red and light blue trimmed people. They all fell over in a mass of bodies, and I quickly fastened them down to the earth quickly, hoping that Dustin didn't have some sort of trick that could get them out.

I turned my gaze back to the others that were left. These two I could handle alone. They looked to each other for a moment with an affirming look and nodded. They then yelled in unison, "Ninja storm, ranger form."

In a flash of light they were no longer wearing their black uniforms. They were now dressed in what looked like maroon and dark blue spandex with black on their arms and legs. Helmets now covered their faces with a shape over the visors that reminded me of beetle heads. Now I was worried. Silly as the uniforms were, could they actually pose a bigger threat now?

I wasn't going to take any chances. I gave them a come hither look and darted off into the trees taking extra care not to head in the direction of Le-Koro. Whatever was going to happen, I wasn't going to put the matoran at risk. I gave a cursory glance behind me as I ran and saw that they were indeed giving chase. As the foliage rushed by me in a blur of green and brown I couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu. Was this what the dream meant? Was I to be chased by these people? And to what end? What did it all mean?

I refocused myself. This wasn't the time to consider my nightmares. I needed to stay focused if I was going to defeat these strangers and get the answers that I needed. With several bounds up steps of stone I put before me I found myself up in the branches again. I searched wildly for the whistle I kept around my neck, and after grasping it in my hands I brought it to my lips and blew. Its shrill sound filled the air for a moment, but a moment was all it would need. I knew Yori Yoi would hear it and come find me soon enough.

I could see the clearing up ahead, the same one from my dream. But this time I didn't have my bow. I didn't think I'd need it for walking today. My eyes searched earnestly for another weapon I could use. Just a few yards in front of me I could see a branch just long enough and thick enough that I could use as a bow staff. I sped up to it and jumped at it using my own weight and gravity to break the limb from the tree. I hit the ground at a dead run and grabbed the broken branch. It was a bit longer than I had wanted, but I figured a good hit to one of them could easily snap off some of the extra length.

When I reached the middle of clearing I turned to face them poised in an offensive position. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse they pulled out weapons of their own from thin air it seemed forming their own bow staffs. Theirs appeared to be made of a metallic substance which meant my stick would not stand a chance for very long. They took up defensive positions, and we stared each other down for what seemed like minutes, none of us wanting to make the error of moving in too soon.

My heart was racing a mile a minute, the sound of it pounding in my ears. I was only vaguely away of the tightening feeling in my chest as my heart continued to pound more fiercely. This was a bad time to realize that I was supposed to have had another blood transfusion yesterday. Sometimes I could an extra day or two beyond my regular two week interval. However, that was only dependent on whether or not I was doing strenuous activity. This definitely qualified as strenuous. I tried to force the pain back hoping to finish with these two quickly and get back to the village before my heart started to give out. That meant one of us was going to have to make the first move.

With little time to waste I charged at them bring my staff up sharply trying to hit the blue one's helmet. He blocked me with his staff like I figured he would, and the other one moved to swing his staff at me. I saw this and kicked him in the abdomen, subduing him for the moment. In one fluid motion I turned around until I was behind the blue one and hit him across the shoulders. Before I could land my next hit to send him to the ground completely I could see out the corner of my eye as the other one tried to bring his staff down on my head.

I raised my staff to block him then, before he could think of another attack, I dropped my staff and grabbed his flipping him over my shoulder and sent him to his back. The other one took this chance to land a hit to my stomach. I let out a grunt and backed up a few paces. With the red one's staff still in my hand I used it swipe at the blue one with a gust of air. He tumbled several feet before landing on his back. I figured this was my only chance and quickly trapped him to the ground with cuffs around his wrists and ankles.

I focused all my attention now to the only remaining foe. He had pulled himself to a kneeling position and looked like he was weighing his odds. It was hard to tell what he was thinking behind the helmet. That was a definite advantage. I couldn't tell where he was looking to exactly, couldn't tell where he was planning to attack next.

"What do you want? Why are you doing this?" he demanded. I answered only with a glare. I had no reason to explain myself to him. He was the trespasser. "What did we do?" he asked.

I narrowed my gaze at him. I would have thought that one was obvious. "You came here," I said in a low, menacing tone and sprinted several steps before jumping up to land a more powerful hit.

He rolled out of the way and grabbed his friend's forgotten staff and began to strike out at me. We exchanged blows, each of us parrying the other's hit until we found ourselves locked together.

"Listen to me," he said, straining against me. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you don't stop this now."

I scoffed at his pathetic threat. Him hurt me? Did he not notice that he was the last one left of six? Hadn't I already proved that I had no intentions of backing down? We continued to struggle against each other until I saw bounding from the trees four figures dressed in similar uniforms as these two wore now. The others had managed to escape, and they too had this similar ability to transform. I cursed, and this distraction was enough for him to push me back and land a blow to my chest.

I fell to my hands and knees and put one hand to my chest instinctively against the pain. His hit alone was not the only thing causing me chest pain now. The pain from my heart was getting worse, and while I was able to ignore it while I was fighting, I couldn't ignore it now. The pain tore through me like a thousand knives causing my face to contort in anguish. It took everything I had to stifle my groans of pain and keep myself from completely falling over.

They all noticed my pain, and the one I had been fighting stooped over to offer me a hand of assistance. I glared with all the ferocity I could muster and swatted his hand away. Where was Yori? Why hadn't he come yet? I desperately needed him now.

The boy reached down again to help me but quickly jerked away. I heard the sound of a feral cry as I saw Yori swoop down and grab the boy. He pinned him the ground with one large paw with enough force that the suit he had been wearing appeared to shatter to pieces revealing his previous uniform. Yori proceeded to roar in the boy's face as if it wasn't clear he was angry already. It was then that I noticed Yori had not come alone; Frost and Kidril had followed him and had the others pinned to the ground as well, their glimmering white fangs bared at each of them.

I was almost terrified myself. If I was not already familiar with the three terrors before me, I probably would have been as paralyzed as these strangers were now. Besides this, I had never seen Kidril act so ferocious before. I had watched him grow over the past two years, and in all that time I had only known him to be a sweet boy. He wasn't as small now as he was then. He was going on twelve years now and was nearly the size of Yori when I had first seen him. He was surely a force to be reckoned with now.

"Yori," I managed weakly. He tore his gaze away from his prisoner to stare at me. "Leave him for now. I need your help," I said and strapped him to the ground. I was more confident that they would stay put this time since now there were two dragons to keep an eye on them.

Yori released him and moved to my side to help me on to his back. He knew what I needed, and I was sure he was doing everything not to chide me right then and there. I knew I was going to get an earful later.

"What should we do with them?" Yori growled and moved to stand by Frost.

"Frost," I said motioning for him to bring his head closer so I could whisper in his ear. He did so, and I said quietly, "Find out what they want. If they mean harm to the matoran or the island, kill them. We don't need them reporting back."

He looked at me warily but did not question me. I had no desire to see them dead, but for the sake of the matoran, if they meant to do them ill, I couldn't let them leave or live to report to whoever they worked for.

"Yori, let's go," I ordered hoarsely and we took off flying as fast as possible back to the village.

AN: Well, here's chapter two finally. I just realized that it's been about a year since I started this story and haven't touched it. I know I got busy with school and my other story at the time. but that's a little ridiculous. So, cha[ter three will be coming by the end of the week. It's already finished, but i just want to let it sit and double check it for any little errors before I post it. Thanks to those of you who are coming back after finishing the first one and have been paying some attention to this story. I can only hope that this one will be even half as successful as the first one. Also, leave me a review, tell me what you think. I don't know if anyone likes or hates the story if you don't tell me. Though I doubt any of you hate it if you're still reading it at this point. Anyways, you know your job. Your comments always brighten my day and provide me a little extra incentive to keep posting chapters faster ^_^