Chapter 5: Storm and Starlight

Previously…

"You're going to need a new shin guard," said Shane, "but if you're careful, you should be fine. In the meantime, we should probably see what Matau and Keika…"

"I'm happy-fine!" interrupted a cheerful male voice.

A bell-clear soprano retorted, "Said the one who didn't have to bail a reckless airhead out of danger…"

Keika huffed her side-bangs away from her eyebrows as Matau hovered beside her. He had been talking most of the time, as usual. Keika hadn't been listening, as usual. Her attention faded in and out as the two made their way through Le-Metru's backstreets.

"...and they're going to build us an honor-monument when we're finished-done! It'll be so tall-high and glitter-shining, and I'll quick-soar trick-loops around it - hey Keika, don't you want to see your face-likeness in ever-stone?" Matau waved his hand in front of Keika's face. "Keika? Tower to Keika?"

Keika realized Matau wasn't going to shut up anytime soon. She hit his hand away. "Mission first, monument second." Her voice was so icy it would make Nuju shiver, but Matau didn't pick up on it. He went back to the ground and started whistling, slightly off-key. Keika recognized the tune as "Lesson Number One" and wanted to snap something about how that was HER camp joke…

...no, bad timing. Speaking of ice and jokes, they had just met up with Keyok, Cairos, and Vakama. Vakama said Nuju was acting strangely around Laney. In the Fire Toa's words, "Who would have thought that Nuju's frozen heart would turn to slush around a girl?" Despite the report, Keika was pretty sure that Nuju didn't have a crush on Laney. Those two never got along...

"Matau, duck!" Keika dropped.

"Where?" asked Matau, his eyes darting around. A glowing sphere of energy came flying at his head. Luckily, his quick reflexes held true and it missed. "That wasn't a duck!"

"Oh, ya think?" Keika snarked, jumping as another energy sphere rolled towards her. It scorched the ground where her feet had been. Matau, on the other hand, readied his aero slicers. "Who's rage-throwing these danger-spheres?" he shouted. "Reveal-show yourself!"

"Airhead..." Keika muttered as she brandished her golden staffs. An aura of sunlight began to flare around her body. This was a sure sign she was losing her cool… then she took a deep breath. She had to keep her emotions in order. Strangely, the spheres had stopped flying.

"Well, looks like we can - OW!" Matau had turned his back at the wrong time. Almost immediately, a crackling sphere struck the back of his hip armor.

"The spheres are coming from higher up!" Keika called. "Fly up there and see what's going on!"

"Don't boss-order me! I'm not your small-chaser!"

Keika rolled her eyes. She had to try another tactic. "What would Nokama think of you cowering in fear?"

"Me? Fear-cowering?" Matau put his aero slicers on his back like glider wings. "I'm a Toa-hero!" He summoned a gust of wind and took off. Keika dodged another volley of spheres. The first thing that went through her head was the instinct to survive. The second thing that went through her head was one of the spheres. Everything flashed around her like light bulbs on a pinball machine, and her brain felt like it was on fire. Keika fell face-down on the ground.

The last thing she heard was the rhyme...

"Spheres of power in the fray

Storm and starlight show the way."

Storm clouds made the daylight into midnight. Thunder clashed. Lightning cracked the skies. There was the storm in the rhyme - but how would it show the way?

Matau was at too high of an altitude to control the winds. The air was too thin. Not to mention, he still couldn't see where those blasted spheres were coming from as he bumped through the storm clouds. "What I'd give-pay to have some bright-light now!" he cried out. He looked down and saw Keika splayed on the wet ground. "Oh, that's just happy-great! No bright-light!"

As if the weather heard Matau's complaint, a flash of lightning illuminated a chute strut. Something was standing on it. No, there were two things - Rahkshi. One was all silver, spinning chains of lightning with its staff to make the energy spheres. The other was all gold, twirling and thrusting its staff to control the storm.

"Ugh, dumb-staffs Rahkshi." Matau grumbled. "I'll hard-teach them to mess-fight with a Toa-hero and a high-leading Vahki!" He dove towards the gold Rahkshi, whooping in triumph as he summoned the storm winds. Annoyed with the interruption to its ability, the gold Rahkshi exchanged glances with the silver one. They combined their staff beams, causing the wind to push Matau's dive out of control and a lightning chain to wrap around him like a lasso. Matau screamed in agony as the lightning crackled through his circuitry, his heart-light jittering from the surge.

Somehow, the energy sphere hadn't killed Keika. Her light energy had absorbed most of it. She staggered to her feet and immediately grabbed a chute strut for support. Her breathing rhythm was choppier than waves in a windstorm. And speaking of windstorms… Matau was in big trouble. The kind of trouble that she'd have to bail him out of.

"Oh, tin staffs…" She focused on the light within her again, and felt it flashing around her like a beacon. "Matau," she ordered, "get down!" She then realized he didn't have much choice: he was snared in a chain of lightning. The silver Rahkshi whipped the chain upwards, and slammed Matau against the ground.

Keika mentally timed the first and second swing, and found out that it took ten seconds for one complete swing. On the third strike, Matau started to go down… and Keika went into full flash-bang. Golden light exploded from her heart area, slicing the chain of lightning like a laser through a thin cable. Matau fell and Keika made a cushion from the remnants of the light, softening his fall. The two Rahkshi, unable to tolerate the sudden brilliance, shrieked as they jumped off the chute strut. They went into flight mode and were gone in seconds.

Keika had sworn she would have heard something clink on the ground. She had managed to free Matau - but the Air Toa was unconscious. His heart-light's pulse was still irregular.

"This is great. Just great. I am so not giving him rescue breathing…"

"Nokama… love-dear…?" Matau's eyes blinked open, a smile starting to form. Then his smile turned into a frown.

"Nokama's not here." Keika rolled her eyes. "Good thing too, she would probably end up…"

"Hey, what are those shiny-rocks by your feet?" Matau asked. Keika looked down and literally lit up.

"The gems!" She stashed them in a pocket of her tool belt and helped Matau up.

"See, teamwork!"

Keika decided not to respond to that - it would probably come out snarkier than anything Keyok could pull off. "Come on, let's head to Po-Metru. Something tells me Onewa is having some difficulties."

Oh, how right Keika was. She and Matau came upon a sight they would hope never to see again: Shane tending Onewa's injured leg. Blood was everywhere, but Shane seemed to be doing a good job cleaning it up. Unfortunately, Onewa wasn't as unfeeling as his element when it came to wound care. He was gasping as Shane applied a healing disinfectant, his expression twisted up with pain. Matau and Keika overheard Shane saying something about a new shin guard and being more careful. "In the meantime, we should probably see what Matau and Keika…"

"I'm happy-fine!" Matau exclaimed.

Keika cut in, "Said the one who didn't have to bail a reckless airhead out of danger..."

Onewa and Shane looked up. "Oh, thank the Li ancestors, you're safe." Shane looked relieved.

"That's really helpful, considering your family's ghosts are in a whole different dimension." grumbled Onewa.

Shane looked offended and was about to deal Onewa a sharp elbow to the chest. Then he decided Onewa had dealt with enough pain for one day. Next time, though, the rude Stone Toa was in for it.

"Come on, let's get back to Ko-Metru." Shane took charge.

"Worried about your girlfriend?" Onewa snapped. "There are still gems to find."

"We found ours. I'm guessing you found yours?" asked Keika.

"Yep." Shane held out the gems and stashed them again.

"So that's four out of six!" said Matau. "We're almost-near finished-done!"

Just then, the ground began to shake. A small hole appeared in the ground, gradually getting bigger and bigger. The whirring of earthshock drills broke the air, coming to a stop when Whenua emerged from the hole. He hoisted Ronin out first, before climbing out himself.

"Did we miss anything?" piped Ronin. He reached into his tool belt and pulled out the gems. "We found our gems!" Whenua chuckled at Ronin's enthusiasm. Ronin was born around the same time as Haidie, so they were both young.

Keika nodded in response to Ronin's exclamation. "You missed quite a bit, actually. But it's a long story… why don't we regroup in Ko-Metru and swap stories then?"

"Good!" Onewa elbowed Shane. "That means Pretty Boy over here can quit pining!" Shane glared at Onewa.

Whenua interjected before it got ugly. "Well, we can also tell the stories on the way. Ours was rather difficult…"