Chapter 08

Kulagi knelt over Triki, gently shaking him awake. "Time to up-get," he said quietly.

Triki blinked his eyes opened, still drowsy. "Where we ever-go now?"

"Just a little side trip," Kulagi said. "But you need to be quiet, so we don't wake anybody else. For real now," he added, as Triki opened his mouth to speak.

"Fine, fine," Triki grumbled, grabbing his bag of supplies. "Let's up and go."

The two of them joined Sufina and quietly exited the underground chamber. It had been hours since Kulagi had first arrived, giving him plenty of time to forge some discs and get some rest. Although they couldn't tell because they were underground, the sun was just starting to rise on the island above them. Most of the Matoran refugees were still asleep. A few Po-Matoran were on guard duty, but they had a tendency to nod off for a few minutes, and Sufina used the chance to make their escape.

Kulagi left behind most of his supplies, but took his Kanoka and launcher, since he would probably need them later. He had crafted a handful of powerful Ga-Metru Kanoka, confirming the purity of the protodermis he had found. He had left a bunch for the refugees to use, but brought a few of the stronger ones for Sufina, Triki, and himself.

They passed along quietly through one of the pipes until they were far out of earshot from the chamber, and the glow from it no longer reached them. Sufina pulled a lightstone out of her pack to illuminate the dark pipe. "I think we got away," she said.

"Why were we sneak-walking from Matoran?" Triki asked. "Are they bad-bad too?"

"Not necessarily," Sufina said. "But if Agni heard us leaving, he would surely try to stop us. So the best way is to just slip away unnoticed."

"Except that didn't quite work out that way," said a voice further up the tunnel. Sufina and Kulagi spun around to see Glax walking out of the shadows.

"How'd you get here?" Kulagi asked.

"I'm not stupid, you know," Glax said. "Sufina's been arguing about something with Agni all day, and I could see that you two were plotting something. I figured you'd make your escape about now, so I was up here waiting for you."

"Ooh, are you Ko-Matoran fortune teller?" Triki asked excitedly. "Can you tell me my future? What will my next disc-attack change something into?"

"So are you going to turn us in now?" Sufina asked, frowning.

"No, you've got me wrong," Glax said, holding up his hands. "I came here to join you."

"Join us?" Kulagi repeated. "Why?"

"You're not the only one who finds Agni's tactics distasteful," Glax said. "I know we don't stand a chance against the Dark Hunters, but we should be doing something. We could make a break for the Toa controlled lands, to get reinforcements. Or even mess with the Dark Hunter's supplies. Or something. It just sounds better than sitting around." He smirked. "It sounds like you have something like that in mind."

Kulagi glanced at Sufina, who sighed. "Okay, the thing is, we're after something I left in my lab," she said. "But it's something that we can't let fall into the Dark Hunter's hands."

"Got it, let's call it a treasure hunt," Glax said with a grin.

"Come if you like," Kulagi said. "But be ready to put your discs to use. If we do get cornered, we'll need to fight our way out. And we can't expect Agni to come bail us out this time."

"Hey, don't forget, I was on the team that bailed you out," Glax said. "I know how to aim a launcher."

"Then let's have a fun-trip with friends!" Triki said gleefully.

"Sufina, lead the way," Kulagi said. "You're the only one who knows where we're going, after all."

The four Matoran passed through the protodermis pipeline, and returned to the surface at one of the other maintenance facilities. Sufina led them through the shady streets to avoid detection as she headed towards her lab. The morning sun was already up, but they saw little sign of the Dark Hunters, although they saw a lot of destruction.

Sufina led them into an empty canal that was located just below street level, and passed under a bunch of buildings and streets. However, part way down, she paused. "This is as far as I can take you now," she said. "From here on out, the route is exposed."

"We haven't seen any Dark Hunters patrolling the streets," Glax said. "But that doesn't mean they're not out there."

"Well, that's cause it's sun-bright out," Triki said. "If Dark Hunters get caught in the sun, then they flash-burn into dust. Or quick-turn into stone. I ever-forget which."

Glax rolled his eyes. "Contrary to their name, Dark Hunters aren't vulnerable to light. They prefer to work at night, but they're just as strong during the day."

"Oh, maybe I'm thinking of Ice-Bats instead?" Triki mused.

"That means we need some alternate routes," Kulagi said. "What's the surrounding area like?"

Sufina drew a quick map in the dust on the ground. "My lab is located in this building, on the second floor," she said. "The streets go along through here and here, and the adjacent buildings also house laboratories, but they were not in use before the attack."

Kulagi looked over the drawing. "Let me think of something," he said.

"Since when are you the stealthy one?" Glax asked. "If all the stories I've heard about you are true, you're more known for stirring up trouble. You've led Vahki on chases across all six Metrus, causing lots of damage along the way."

"I'm not going to deny those stories, but they're only the ones where I got caught and had to flee," Kulagi said. "There've been plenty of other times where I managed to sneak in and get some good protodermis without getting noticed."

"And how often is that?" Glax asked.

"Okay, it's only about a seventy percent success rate," Kulagi admitted. "But let's focus on the issue at hand."

"Gosh, we're doomed," Glax complained.

Kulagi looked down at the map, and then glanced down the canal. "There are a lot of drains leading into here," he said. "They're used for runoff and such during rain storms. But that means there are more pipes leading from the various buildings to this canal, and we could sneak through those."

Sufina shook her head. "Our building specifically does not have any drainage routes," she said.

"Okay, but that could still help us," Kulagi said. "What about these adjacent buildings?"

Sufina thought for a bit. "This one has some drainage pipes, I think," she said, pointing to one across the street from her lab.

"Okay, that will get us that much closer to the lab," Kulagi said.

"But how will we cross over?" Glax asked. "Doing so will still put us out in the opened, and if there are Dark Hunters along the way..."

"I have a few other ideas that might help," Kulagi said with a grin. "Let's go."

It took them a little bit of searching, but Sufina was able to locate the right drainage pipe. This one was much smaller than the ones they had wandered through earlier, forcing them to crawl through it. Worse of all, it went vertical as it reached the building, and the Matoran had to chimney their way up it. Kulagi wanted to use an Enlarging Kanoka on it, but doing so might alter the structure of the building it was climbing through, and that could alert the Dark Hunters.

Luckily, the pipe remained large enough for them to crawl through, and they reached a grating cover on the roof. Kulagi gently removed it and climbed up onto the roof. He glanced around, but there were no Dark Hunters in sight, so he gestured for the others to follow.

"Now what?" Glax asked.

Sufina pointed over to the building across from them. "My lab's in there," she said.

Kulagi compared the two buildings. The one they were currently on was four stories high, but Sufina's lab was only three stories high, so it's roof was lower than their current position.

Glax, however, glanced over the building's ledge to the street below, and quickly drew back. "Trouble," he hissed. "There's a Dark Hunter down there, on patrol."

Kulagi tensed up. "Has he spotted us?"

"I don't think so," Glax said. "But we can't get into the lab with him down there. So do we take him on or something?"

Kulagi glanced over the roof and sighted the Dark Hunter. It was the dark blue powerhouse, Krekka. "He won't be an easy one to take down," Kulagi muttered. "But he seems to be a bit dim, so we might be able to trick him."

"How do we do that?" Glax asked.

"Triki, can I borrow one of your Le-Metru discs?" Kulagi asked. "It doesn't have to be a high powered one; let's save those for later."

"What are you going to do?" Glax asked, as Triki fished out a disc.

Kulagi pointed to a domed temple in the distance. "I'm going to shoot at that, cause some noise, and distract the Dark Hunter. He'll think we're way over there, allowing us time to sneak in."

"You can't fire that far," Glax said.

"Watch me," Kulagi said, taking aim. "Le-Metru discs fly further, you know. I think I'll be able to make this shot."

After taking careful aim, Kulagi fired. He aimed upward, so the disc gracefully arched up and flew through the air, finally crashing into the distant temple.

"No way," Glax said.

"Nice shot," Sufina said. She looked over the ledge, and added, "The Dark Hunter heard it too. He's on the move."

"Okay, let's get down to the ground level and get into that lab," Glax said.

"That'll take too long," Kulagi said. He pointed to the roof of the laboratory. "We'll jump instead."

"Are you nuts?" Glax said. "What if we don't make it? A fall from this height will surely..."

However, he was cut off as Triki gleefully took off at a run and jumped across the alleyway that separated the two buildings. He sailed through the air, and then hit the roof and rolled. He popped up, unharmed and with a big grin on his mask. "Yeah, that was sky-fly fun!"

Kulagi was also grinning. "See, it's doable," he said. He nodded at Sufina. "Think you can make it?"

Sufina secured her bag and launcher to her back. "No problem," she said, and she took off at a run and leapt between the two buildings.

"You're all crazy," Glax complained.

"The benefits of crazy acts are that the enemies rarely see them coming," Kulagi said, taking off at a run. He leapt through the air and managed to land nimbly on the other building. Glax followed, and he managed to leap the distance, but fumbled his landing and tumbled across the roof.

"Alright, now that we're all here, let's get down," Sufina said, opening a roof access door. She led the other down through the building, passed empty laboratories. Finally, she came to a stop outside a locked door on the second floor.

"This is our main office," she said. "The device is in here. The door's locked, but I happen to have the key." She fished it out of her bag and unlocked the door.

Kulagi entered the room after Sufina, glancing around. It appeared to be a typical Matoran office, but the nearby tables and counters were covered with tablets with technical drawings on them. It was a little messy, but Kulagi couldn't help but grin. This was Sufina's workplace, and like him, when she was engrossed by her work, she left things cluttered too.

"Oh good, all my notes are still here," Sufina said, collecting some of the tablets. "These could still prove useful later on."

"So where's this special device?" Glax asked, looking around. "I don't see it anywhere."

"We put it somewhere a little more discreet than usual," Sufina said. With Kulagi's help, she pushed back one of the tables, revealing a small trapdoor. She opened it to reveal the door of a safe, which she knelt down next to and began to unlock.

Glax hesitantly glanced out the window. "We're still in the clear, but we should hurry it along," he said.

"Just about got it," Sufina said. With a click, the safe unlocked, and Sufina pulled it opened. But as she looked inside, she gasped.

"What's wrong?" Kulagi asked.

"It's empty!" Sufina said. Kulagi and Glax looked over her shoulder to see that the safe was actually bare.

"Did the Dark Hunters get to it already?" Glax wondered.

"Impossible," Sufina said. "I mean, they probably could've shattered the safe and everything, but it's all here in good condition. Whoever took it knew the code to unlock it."

"Maybe it's somewhere else in here?" Kulagi suggested.

"Impossible," Sufina said. "It was in there when I left it two nights ago, and I didn't have enough time to retrieve it when the Dark Hunters arrived. But who else could've taken it?"

Glax glanced out the window again, and cursed. "The Dark Hunter's back," he said, ducking down. "That means we need to go."

Kulagi peered over the windowsill, and saw Krekka approaching from down the street. "Okay, let's just stay low for now," he said quietly. "When he's wandered past us, then we can make our escape then. And then we can ponder over what happened to the device."

But instead of casually passing by, Krekka suddenly broke out into a sprint, heading right towards the laboratory. Kulagi's eyes went wide as he realized the Dark Hunter's target. "Run!" he yelped.

The four Matoran fled out the door, and seconds later Krekka leapt up and crashed through the wall. Kulagi led the way out, hoping they could get to some cover before the Dark Hunter caught up with them. But he froze as he realized that the hallway was blocked by none other than Hakann and Optics.

"Greetings, Matoran," Hakann said with a toothy grin. "Fancy running into you again."

There was a crash behind them, and Krekka entered the hallway by smashing through the door, thus truly trapping the Matoran. Kulagi glanced around, but there were no easy ways out.

"If you surrender now, we can make this process painless," Hakann continued. "After all, we've been looking for you all night, so we're very happy to find you."

"How did you find us?" Kulagi asked.

Optics shifted his head to stare at the Onu-Matoran. "That discs you shot at the temple," he said. "I was able to calculate its trajectory and find where you launched it from."

"Of course, you were no longer in that building when we arrived," Hakann said. "But my companion has excellent senses, and he heard you in here. So we decided to visit, and had Krekka pop in from the street side."

"Look, we don't have anything you want," Sufina said. "Just let us go."

"Unfortunately, that's not how things work with us," Hakann said. "If you want to do things the painful way, that's fine by all mean. It's been a while since I heard a Ga-Matoran scream."

Kulagi drew his Kanoka launcher, with his level seven Enlarging disc already loaded. "We won't go down without a fight," he said.

"That's funny, thinking you can fight us," Hakann said, drawing his lava launcher. "I'd like to see you try."

Before any of the Dark Hunters could act, Kulagi fired. But he wasn't aiming at Hakann or Optics; instead his disc struck the largest of them, Krekka, and caused him to start growing. However, since they were indoors, this caused Krekka to get jammed in the hallway, as his growing head smashed through the ceiling. However, as he flailed out, he left an opening to his side.

"Go, go," Kulagi yelled out, and the four of them sped past Krekka and leapt out of the hole he had blasted. Hakann and Optics tried to follow, but Krekka's growth spurt had destabilized the building, and debris started to rain down on them. For the moment, they were delayed.

As Kulagi hit the street, he glanced around. There weren't any other Dark Hunters in sight, but the three behind them would soon break free and continue the chase. "We need a quick way out of here," he said. "We can't go back to the others; we need to escape some other way."

"I have an idea," Sufina said, taking off at a sprint. "Follow me."

She led them a couple of blocks away, to a dam at the head of another canal. She pointed to various valves along the structure. "These canals have been dry for a while, but they're controlled from here," she said. "If we can turn the water back on, we can create a torrent that will quickly carry us across the Metru. The canal system is intricate enough that the Dark Hunters will have a hard time following. Plus, it eventually dips below the surface, providing further cover."

"Are you insane?" Glax asked. "We'll probably drown in the rushing waters."

"Still beats getting captured by the Dark Hunters," Kulagi said. "What do we need to do?"

"For best effect, we'll need to twist the valves on five of these simultaneously," Sufina said, pointing them out. "I can get those two right there, since they're right next to each other. But the other three are spread out."

"We got it," Kulagi said. "Glax, get the one on the far side. Triki, you're the best at climbing, so you get the one at the top. I'll get the last one."

"On it," Triki said, quickly climbing upwards. "I will twisty-twist it, like a twister."

As all four Matoran got into position, Sufina shouted, "Now!" Kulagi began cranking on his valve. It was stuck from disuse, so he had to apply some force to get it to go. But he managed to get it opened, and Sufina, Glad, and Triki did the same on their ends. The pipes leading into the canal began to hiss, and suddenly started gushing water out, quickly forming a cascade that raced down the canal.

"Now what?" Glax asked.

"We jump in," Sufina said. "And I hope you know how to swim." Without hesitation, she leapt into the frothing water, and was quickly carried downstream.

"This is nuts!" Glax complained, but dodged as a Kanoka flew towards him. It had been shot by the enlarged Krekka, who was now darting forward with Hakann and Optics.

"Just jump in," Kulagi shouted, drawing his own Kanoka launcher. "Use one of your discs and pretend your surfing. I hear that used to be a sport."

Glax reluctantly clutched one of his Ko-metru Kanoka and leapt into the water. Kulagi meanwhile, fired a Freezing disc at the Dark Hunters. However, he had aimed at the road, which instantly froze over. Krekka was the first to hit it, and his feet slipped out from under him, and he fell down and collided with Hakann. However, Optics dodged around them and took flight. Kulagi fired a Kanoka up at him, but missed. Meanwhile, Optics swooshed down to attack the Onu-Matoran from above.

However, before he could strike Kulagi, something landed on Optics' head. "Hey, you big flying thing!" Triki said, having leapt down from his position atop the dam. "Sky-high attacks are fair-no!" He pointed his launcher point blank and fired a Weakening disc at Optics' head. With his energy suddenly drained, Optics plummeted out of the air and crashed, and Triki leapt spryly off his back at the last minute.

"Huh, same thing happened when I last Gukko-trained," Triki said. "And I not-even fired Kanoka at its head back then."

"Triki, look out!" Kulagi shouted. Hakann was back on his feet, and he fired a blast of fire from his lava launcher. Triki just managed to dodge to avoid getting burnt, and Kulagi fired a disc at him, but Hakann dodged it as well.

"Enough of your Matoran games," Hakann said, and closed his eyes. Kulagi took aim again, thinking he had an opening, but he miscalculated. Hakann unleashed a mental blast, and then Kulagi also felt like he had taken a Weakening Kanoka to the head. His grip on his launcher loosened, and he fell to his knees.

"Yes, that's my preferred look for you Matoran," Hakann said, grinning at the pained expression on Kulagi's mask. But then he turned to Triki, and frowned. "Why aren't you down?"

"Because I'm up, up, up!" Triki responded, firing a Kanoka at Hakann, who was forced to dodge it.

"You weren't affected by my mental blast?" Hakann asked. "It takes years of mental training to block those."

"Oh, was that the head thing I felt?" Triki asked. "It tickled. Fun stuff, do again!"

Hakann growled, and then darted forward. He swung his weapon at Triki, but the Le-Matoran ducked and darted away. The crimson Dark Hunter swung a few times, but Triki was too agile for him. Hakann resorted to firing his heat beam eyes, but Triki still jumped away.

"Okay, enough of you," Hakann said, turning. "I'll get the Onu-Matoran instead."

"Nope-not!" Triki said, firing a Freezing Kanoka. It struck Hakann in the back of the head, encasing it in ice. Hakann's eyes started to melt the ice, but it delayed him, and Triki darted around his clawed feet and reached Kulagi.

"Nice going, Triki," Kulagi said weakly, as he struggled to get to his feet.

"Let's go for swim-nice then," Triki said, helping Kulagi towards the rushing water in the canal.

Kulagi looked up just in time to see incoming danger. "Triki, behind you!" he shouted.

Krekka was back, and he was swinging his fist towards the two Matoran. Triki shoved Kulagi aside and jumped up, but he wasn't quick enough. Krekka managed to grasp the Le-Matoran's foot, and then swung him into a nearby wall, knocking him out.

Kulagi, however, lost his footing on the edge of the canal, and toppled backwards into the raging water. But all he could focus on was the body of his fallen friends, and when he hit the water, his vision went dark.

Hakann finally melted the ice off his head, and Optics stood up, recovered from his crash. Then turned to Krekka, who proudly held up Triki. "Krekka got one!" he said.

"He was a skilled one," Optics said. "He got the best of both of us."

"But our superiors don't need to know the details about that," Hakann said. "They just need to know that we got one of the Matoran. Now we just need to make him talk." He grinned. "And potentially scream."