Chapter Six

1.21 Giga-What's?

"Freeze!" said Takua, pointing his disk launcher at the Fire Army's sergeant. To Takua's surprise, it had actually been easy for him to track down the Fire Army's sergeant and corner him in the canyon's cliffs. Now all he had to do was get him to hand over the flag before Fire Army reinforcements arrived. To do that, he was going to need to be as tough as a Rock Lion, and twice as stubborn.

"Hey! Why in the name of Mata Nui were you shooting at me? You could have hit me Akilini-head!" said the tan colored Matoran, dropping the flag to the ground and pulling out his own launcher.

"Can it! Don't try and play stupid with me Sergeant," he said, loading his weapon. "I know who you are. We've been spying on you for several months now."

"I just got here two hours ago, and I'm not a sergeant. I'm a private."

"Wait, you're not the sergeant," said Takua, lowering his weapon and taking a better look at the Matoran.

"Yeah, that's what I just said," said the tan Matoran.

"Well then how in Karzanhi did you manage to steal our flag?"

"Steal? I have no idea what you are talking about," said the tan Matoran, peering from out behind his launcher.

"Three!"

"Mata Nui!" cried Takua.

"Great Temple of Ga-Metru! Who is this guy?" asked the tan Matoran.

In a bright flash, Kongu had suddenly appeared covered in some kind of black residue from seemingly out of nowhere. He quickly turned around, and seeing the Fire Army Matoran, pulled out his weapon.

"What in Karzanhi? Kongu? Is that you?" asked Takua, lowering his weapon.

"How did you get up here ahead of me?" asked Kongu, turning to Takua.

"And what's with all that black stuff on your armor?" asked the tan Matoran.

"Hey! Freeze fire-sergeant!" said Kongu, turning back to the Ta-Matoran.

"Would you stop calling me a sergeant? I'm still just a private!" said the tan Matoran.

"The fire-spitter's sergeant is still a private?" said Kongu, a look of utter confusion on his face. "Oh…my…Great…Spirit! The teleporter sent me back in time!"

As Jala climbed into the driver's seat of the Vako, he turned to Zadakh. The Fire Army's mechanic seemed somewhat upset, though it was hard to read its expressionless face as Jala tried talking to it.

"Sorry Zadakh. We need the ground transport."

"I'll take gunner," said Nuhrii, and climbed into the turret mounted on the back of the vehicle. After making some small adjustments, he called to Jala. "Let's roll." Jala started up the vehicle, which roared to life and began playing loud, Le-Matoran music.

"How do you turn off the radio in this thing?" he asked, trying to find a knob or button that would shut it off.

"Don't worry Zadakh! I'll bring her back in one piece," called Nuhrii as the two Matoran took off towards Hafu.

"Look, I know you don't know me, but you have to believe what I am about to tell you," said Kongu, speaking as calmly as he could. "Sometime in your future, I get stationed here in this canyon and we meet, and this guy here; he gets promoted to the sergeant of the Fire Army and we spy on them, and they get this new ground transport and I'm all like 'There is now way you can pick up water-sisters in a tank!'"

"Kongu…what in the name of Karzanhi are you babbling about?" said Takua, looking utterly dumbstruck at Kongu.

"I know this all sounds crazy, but he eventually becomes a sergeant, and then one day we get a tank, and he comes and steals our flag when we're distracted!"

"Has this guy taken a few too many disks to his head?" asked the tan Matoran.

"Tan: Shut up. Kongu, listen to me. You haven't gone back in time, okay? This is the Matoran who stole the flag, he's just not the sergeant," said Takua, slowly getting louder. "Turns out, he's just some dumb rookie who happens to have a Great Hau. He got in somehow and FOR THE LOVE OF MATA NUI! WHAT IS THAT MUSIC?"

"Wahoo!"

"Mata Nui protect us!" said the tan Matoran, ducking behind a rock.

"Spawn of a Makuta! Run!" said Takua, and he began running towards an outcropping on the canyon wall. "Run! For the love of Lhikan! Run!"

"The ground transport followed me back in time!" said Kongu, following Takua. The two Matoran leaped behind a large rock, and huddled against it as the Fire Army peppered it with Rhotuka Spinners. Kongu looked at Takua, waiting for him to start laying out a brave battle plan or ingenious strategy to get them home safe.

"Well, we'll just wait here. That thing's got to run out of energy sometime."

"That's right! That's what I'm talking about!" said Nuhrii, as he opened fire on the two Ice Army soldiers. Jala hopped out of the car and ran over to Hafu, who was crouching behind a rock, holding the flag in one hand and his Kanoka Disk Launcher in the other.

"What in Karzanhi going on here?" asked Jala.

"You know what? I honestly have no idea what's going on!" said Hafu. "I think everyone in this canyon is absolutely insane!"

"How did you get the flag?" asked Jala.

"I don't know. I just asked for it!"

"Wait, that worked?"

"I guess. Is it not supposed to?"

"I don't know. We never even thought to try that," said Jala, more to himself than anyone. "Just take the flag to the base. I'll explain there."

"Not until someone tells me what in the Great Temple…"

"There's no time to explain rookie! Just take the flag and go to base! I'll explain everything there!" he was getting frantic, knowing that the Ice Army could be preparing an offensive as they were speaking.

"Fine," said Hafu, and picked up the flag and took off for the base.

Jala turned to Nuhrii, who was still firing Rhotuka spinners at the rock that the two Ice Army Matoran were hiding behind.

"Yeah I know you like that! Come out where I can get you! Come on out! I know you're in there!" He turned back to the rookie, who was running off in the opposite direction.

"Back to our base Akilini-head!" he called, no believing their new recruit's stupidity.

"I know! I just got turned around, that's all!" he called, and turned around and started running towards the Fire Army's base.

Ehrye stood on top of the base, watching the events unfold. After Kongu, Takua and the Fire Army's sergeant had all met at the center of the canyon, a large vehicle had come barreling over the hills and started shooting Rhotuka Spinners at Takua and Kongu, forcing them to retreat behind a large rock on the side of the canyon for cover.

"Oh Mata Nui protect us! That is not good," he cried, watching the events unfold through the scope of a long-range launcher. "Oh Great Spirit above that thing's got a really big launcher!" As the Fire Army's sergeant began to retreat towards their base, Ehrye knew he had to take action. He frantically began looking around for ideas, and then saw the Ice Army's tank. Though he did not know the first thing about driving any kind of vehicle, he had seen several manuals as his days working in the Knowledge Towers, and seen many Matoran drive through Ko-Metru and figured it couldn't be too hard to figure out. But what if he messed up? What if he could not figure out how to drive it?

"Hmm…stay here…tank? Stay here…tank? Ah, forget it," he said, and took off towards the tank.

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