Well... Merry Christmas. Hopefully you readers had a good time today. :P Anyway, here's Amber and Vakama. Also, to clear up some confusion, there won't be anything outside of friendship forming, I don't plan for anything else to happen. Also, Alena's just fine for me. After all, saying my proclaimed title is to long to type anyway. XP
Chapter 4
Gasping, Amber followed Vakama. Vakama was used to the heat. Amber wasn't. Her fur made it all the worse. Placing her hand on a wall to steady herself, she sighed in relief as the cold lining that was meant to resist the outer lining of her gloves kept her hands cool. "I should have followed Nokama." She gasped, "I didn't realize the heat would be this bad. At least in Ga-Metru there would have been water." Scolding herself for the weakness in which she had that longed for a cooler place, she decided to take this as a challenge to herself mentally. To get used to extreme heat and move around efficiently in it. It would be a later lesson in her training, so why not practice now?
Looking up, she saw Vakama glancing at her with a little bit of concern. Straightening up, she explained, "It's the fur." Studying Vakama calmly, she noticed that he seemed a little upset while they were heading to Nuhrii's and his forge. Keeping to herself, she decided to ask him once she knew more about him. He might not like her interference.
Following Vakama while withstanding the heat, Amber spent energy into examining her surroundings. Disturbed by the sootiness of Ta-Metru, she knew that even Unity's village, dedicated to machines and carpentry, would have never approved of this!
Looking around, she saw the Ta-Matoran glancing curiously at both Vakama and her, unfortunately mostly her though. Hurrying up to Vakama, Amber willed her gloves to become 10 degrees so that they left a trail of cold for her. With her legs feeling the cold of the gloves, she walked faster with a little relief.
Upon entering the forge though, Amber heard plenty of screams from a certain room. And a sloshing noise. Ignoring the heat, she burst through the door, only to stare in shock at what was in it. A great, sickening smell, and a huge green vine wrapped around a vat containing liquid that wouldn't look pleasant if it hit someone. It reminded her of lava. Grimacing, Amber had her gloves heat up to over a thousand degrees, glad that the cloth beneath it was one that would grow as cold as needed so that her hands weren't scalded. Looking at her gloves, Amber saw them glowing a cherry red. Looking up, she raced up to the vine with speed that could let others see her moving.
Jumping on the vine, she let her claws out, and started slashing at it. Plants hate heat. Heated gloves should work. Instead though, it was like there was barely a mark on it. The plant appeared to heal faster then her claws left marks. Disturbed at this, Amber considered many possibilities and made her gloves temperature down to a level that could freeze upon touch. Letting her claws still stay outside, Amber slashed the vine again. This time though, the slashes were much deeper. Still not enough to damage it severely though. That's when a warning came across.
Looking up, she saw some of the liquid flying towards her. Only a vine was covered in it. Grinning, she knew it was weak to cold. Jumping to a nearby ledge, she narrowly evaded the vine. Despite that, she felt a small shower of the liquid fly onto her tail. Shrieking in pain, she curled into a ball and sent her gloves to a soothing cold while pressing them against the burned tail. Looking at Vakama, she saw him loading a disk into what appeared to be a launcher. Shooting it, Amber followed it's path to see it hit the vine, after dodging it several times. Almost instantly, a very thick patch of ice started forming on the vine. Staring in amazement, she jumped down, while still holding her burned tail, next to Vakama.
A curious, "How'd you find out it's weakness?" followed. Looking at Amber, Vakama explained, "I saw your gloves turn an bluish color while you were attacking the vines that froze certain parts of the vine while you were scratching it, the vine started to attack you, and then decided to stop the vat from spilling. So I shot the vat with a freeze disk to stop it from turning. Then the hint grew larger as it recoiled from the ice after reaching over to try and tip it again."
"Amazing…" Amber breathed, "To notice tiny details like that and correctly guess what would happen. You'll have to explain these disks powers to me too. They seem like an intriguing weapon." Another thought crossed her mind. "Was that the Morbuzakh?"
Vakama looked at Amber and said, "Yes. We're lucky enough to escape with this little injuries."
"Where did you get such a good eye at noticing tiny details like that?" Amber asked curiously. "Mostly from carving masks." came a response, "Mask-maker's have to time making masks out of disks well. One tiny mistake and the mask risks even a tiny crack. Unfortunately, just one crack ruins the whole thing."
"How can a hairline crack ruin it?"
Pointing to his mask, Vakama said, "These masks are our lifelines. If we don't wear them all the time, then we'll die after a period of not wearing them." Nodding her head to indicate she knew what he meant, Amber looked around. "Is there a reason as to why it stopped? There were several other doors I saw as I ran to this one where the vats were speeding to fast for the Morbuzakh to grab."
Nodding, "The only thing I can think of is someone tampered with the controls." Vakama said to answer Amber's inquiry, while pointing to a Ta-Matoran. "He'll be leading the way for us.
"Lead the way then!"
As Amber and Vakama walked out the room, all the while follow the Ta-Matoran, Amber noted the damage done by the heated contents of the vat. What was apparently extensive damage, with still heated pools of running liquid, Amber paused for a moment and made her gloves temperature go to a point where it freezes everything in a certain area upon contact. Touching the pool, Amber watched fascinated while the liquid turned into a solid for a radius of ten feet away from her. Smiling, she noted with gladness at how her gloves were both indestructible and were able to go hotter then the sun along with being able to become cold enough to form a massive glacier. "That'll make it easier for them to clean up hopefully." She mumbled to herself, "After all, who could touch liquid so hot a touch could burn your hand off?"
Looking up again, Amber found that she was left behind by accident. Lifting her nose to the air, she found Vakama's scent line. It was faint, and almost completely overcome by the hot liquid's apparently hundreds of scent lines. Following the line, she traced it's path to a room. Taking her gloves off and stuffing them in the pockets of her shorts, Amber made movement by getting off her knees, Amber walked into the room to see Vakama fixing controls for a system.
Waiting for him, Amber stared at the walls of intriguing buttons and lights and patterns in it. Walking over to one wall, she put her finger on it to trace a pattern that caught her attention, but, due to taking her gloves off earlier, quickly withdrew her finger due to the heat coming off the wall. It wasn't nearly as hot as the other chamber, but still enough to cause discomfort as she found out.
Hearing footsteps, Amber saw Vakama walking over to her. "Where to next?" came the next question. "To the reject pile." Came a straight, and to the point reply.
Letting Vakama lead the way, Amber silently followed him. Her mind lost from reality, the only thing that didn't let her lose the Toa of Fire was her instincts in following the pack leader. The things her mind was on was what was going on here. And whether there'll be any more trouble in finding this Nuhrii.
After a while of walking, Amber found herself at the gates to a dump. Her nose scrunching at the acrid stench, Amber saw Vakama arguing with one of the Ta-Matoran to let them in. Ignoring the two, Amber jumped over the fence with a flip as easily as if it were a foot high and she were diving off a board high in the air into the water.
"Vakama! Just ignore the little guy and get over here!" Amber yelled, "I'm not going to listen to you argue with him all day." With that, Amber walked away from the gate, leaving Vakama and the Matoran. Seconds later, she heard the sounds of metal being heated and melted, and then Vakama's footsteps following.
Walking through the mask grave yard, Amber looked around calmly at the masks around her, then at Vakama. He's an odd one. Although with the way he's working at this, it seems that he was a good choice for the title of 'Toa'. Sure, it'd be easy to find one little Matoran, but to have to find a Matoran in a huge city, with the city's fate resting in the hands of that one Matoran, all the while knowing that if the Matoran is killed, then the city is doomed. Then again, he probably has yet to realize that. If he, and the others, did though, he's handling the stress of it all with surprising calmness.
Turning back to the mask yard, she spotted a lone figure, and then sniffed the air. Small remnants of the Matoran they were searching for remained, she could see broken scent lines, but they were to difficult to follow. Unity would have had much less trouble following them, but with Amber's half dog heritage, her scent glands weren't as good as a full dogs, but better then Alena's nose. After all, Alena was a full cat. Not an inch of dog in her.
Looking behind her, she saw that Vakama had caught up. "He ain't here. He was, but isn't anymore. I'd follow the lines to where he went too, but their to scattered and broken up. He must have been searching desperately for that mask. Then again, only a dim-wit would fall for a note like that. Or someone desperate. You say he was jealous of you right?"
Lifting her nose to the air again, she sniffed it again, feeling more nervous. She remembered Vakama's warning at the temple, and was scenting the air again. Only this time it was to see who else had been in the mask yard. Frowning, she caught a scent, scattered like Nuhrii's, only it didn't have a trace of the similarity in the scents that all the Ta-Matoran shared. "I smell a more… Either earth or stone scent. Not at all like Ta-Metru. It's scattered about, only more faintly in some areas, and thicker in other areas. Almost as if the same person visited twice."
Taking another whiff of the air, Amber caught a far more fresh scent. This one showing similarity to the other Ta-Matoran. Formed only minutes ago. Looking around, she spotted the new appearance.
Doing a quick back flip onto a nearby pile of masks, she steadied herself as it threatened to fall-which probably would have had she not had part cat in herself. Gingerly placing a foot on each mask, she walked across the pile to look at Vakama and the Matoran converse.
Letting out a breath of air, she looked out around the area, then turned her head back to study the Matoran and Toa conversing. She saw the Matoran pass on a tablet and mask.
Studying the pile, she judged the distance and how hard it would be to jump from there to the small group. Deciding to risk it, she took the long jump to the two. Not without results though. As it turns out, a rather loud noise resounded as the mask pile partially fell in one section.
Amber's ears automatically flew backwards to try and block out the sound, still wincing due to being the closest to the noise. Unfortunately, it had ruined her concentration, and therefore landed in a heap on the ground- A long ways from landing on her hands and letting the blow run through her bones, and through her feet.
Letting out a cat-like groan, she got up from her rather sore position. Somehow she had landed on her belly, both a cat and dogs soft spot, even if her species worked hard to get it muscled in that area. So her wind was knocked out of her, and she was sore in that area. "Gah… Ignore me for now. What's the tablet say? I can't read your language."
Of course, when she looked up, she saw that Vakama was already running far ahead of her. She then heard laughing, and looked at the Matoran. Ignoring the red bio-mechanical being, she followed after Vakama, quickly catching up.
"What's… going on… Vakama?" Amber asked, slowly drawing breath during the sentence, well aware that to little air could make her lose ground due to overexertion. That and her accident was still hurting her stomach. She asked the question, despite knowing she won't get an answer. She did know that it never hurt to ask, just in case, though. She had no answer, so she knew that she wouldn't get one.
Dropping in line behind him, like her instructor taught her if someone's leading, she followed Vakama, occasionally looking at her surroundings to see if she could get an idea of where they were going. All she saw was the land getting more devastated though.
So she gleaned that this Nuhrii was in one of the more damaged parts of Metru-Nui. She did notice that his scent was getting stronger. So why would he come here?I'll find out soon, should we get there in time.
Eventually, Vakama stopped, most likely to search the surroundings. "This place is dangerous, isn't it?" Amber couldn't help but question an all to obvious question. "If so, then why is he here?"
"I suspect he wants to surpass me." Vakama replied gravely.
"Why surpass you? Mask-making can't be that special. Then again, what do I know? This is my first time here anyway." Amber mumbled to herself quietly.
As Vakama started walking down the street, Amber's ears going this way, and that, she registered a help, which was also loud enough for Vakama to hear. Tracing the cry for help to what appeared to be an abandoned home, with an even worse sight with it, the pair found themselves running fast towards it.
Hearing Vakama's steps pausing, and a launcher being loaded, Amber was more then aware of the vines that were creeping up the house, that suddenly disappeared into thin air, as if they were either dissolved or teleported.
Turning to look at Vakama with a raised brow, she asked, "How did you do that?"
"Teleportation disk. I'm only hoping that the vines weren't teleported to a more popular area of the city though." Vakama said, with what appeared to be a frown on his mask. Nodding in understanding, Amber turned to the now more fevered cries for help, demanding them to let him out. Taking a quick jump into the house, Amber noted how crumbly the layout was. Then she stared at where the trapped Matoran was. "A puzzle." She said aloud, "However, it's simple enough that a Runt could figure it out."
"A Runt?" She heard the questioning voice of Vakama.
"Yes, it's what we call half-breeds of our species. We use that term because their much weaker then us, and lack certain traits of ours, but then again, certain traits of theirs are better then ours. Several of them in history have showed us up too. Like the famous Atira. She is the only one of the Runts to surpass some of our weaker Warriors. But this is no time for a history lesson. We have to get Nuhrii out, the puzzle looks to collapse soon, although be careful, it could collapse even while it's being solved. One mistake and Nuhrii could be as flat as a pancake."
At this, the yelling Matoran quieted. As Amber sat on one of the many jutting rocks in the house, she saw the puzzle threaten to collapse several times as Vakama undid it. With this, she spent the time reminiscing what had happened. First of all, someone leads a Matoran into a trap. Then they lead us on a rather long hunt for him, only for us to 'coincidentally' arrive, just at the area the Matoran was trapped is under attacked. Then we find he's trapped in a puzzle. If he were wanted dead, he would be long ago. Someone wants him alive… But for what? For us to lead him to the great disks? I'll have to alert Unity and Alena of this. Who knows what could happen? An even though it'd be hard to capture us, like my instructor says, Never let down your guard in a new dimension. Cockiness could lead to your downfall, just like so many others of us that got to cocky. Although… It doesn't make sense. The tablet in the mask yard smelled of another Matoran's, very faintly, and it was one from where Onewa came from. It's possible there's betrayal…?
Startled out of her reminiscing by Vakama shouting, she stared at him as he rebuked the Matoran before him. She couldn't exactly blame him. The city in danger with a fame seeking Matoran? Not the best combination. However, it seems this guy has a grudge against Vakama. Is it possible the others do?
Narrowing her eyes at the Ta-Matoran, she growled her dog-cat-like growl. This obviously showed distrust. And made the Matoran recognize her presence. Feeling shocked eyes on her, Amber sighed, already used to the looks of surprising. "Scream, and you'll pay. I'm in no mood for it now. I'm putting puzzles together in my head on this mystery."
Nuhrii nodded in silent agreement. Eyes still wide at the strange, talking Rahi that no Matoran had ever seen. Amber sighed and started on a direction to the temple. Her inner instincts telling her where to go.
As the group of now three walked back to the Great Temple, everything was silent. The landscape, and the group. Although soon they came to civilized sections and sounds filled the background. Despite this, their group still remained silent. The larger beings filled with either large or small suspicion on their current situation.
Now then... Likey? Hatey? Reviews so that I know where to improve!