(A/N) Remember the mini-game in MNOG where you ride on a Kahu and shoot down Nui-Rama? You know, the best part of the game? I really tried my hardest to recapture the magic of that sequence in this chapter. Hope you enjoy it!
(Also, I hope that two weeks isn't too long to wait between chapters...)
Takua quickly remembered that he did not enjoy flying.
The wind whipped past his mask and battered his body, threatening to pry him out of his seat as the Kahu raced across the sky. His organic muscles screamed and twisted themselves into knots from the intense speed, and his mechanical joints and sockets chattered and clattered like rusty junk tumbling down a hill. Every part of his brain screamed that Matoran like him weren't meant to go this fast, or this high, and certainly not both at the same time - yet the Le-Matoran in the seat ahead of him didn't seem to mind, and neither did the half-dozen sky-warriors flying in loose formation alongside them on their own Gukko birds.
On his right Penny hung from the side of Vizuna's saddle, with her hook-headed spear in her free hand and her feet planted firmly against the great bird's flank. Unlike the Chronicler and his reluctance to be in the sky, she was practically beaming with joy - her orange hair flowed behind her in the wind, her emerald eyes sparkled in delight, and she had a smile so big it almost overtook her entire maskless face. In contrast, the darker-skinned human on his left was stoic and focused, her finger fiddling methodically with her weapon's trigger while her crimson eyes glared daggers at the encroaching swarm.
"This is wonderful!" said Penny with a giggle, her voice barely audible over the rushing winds. "It feels so good to fly again!"
"Try not to get too distracted!" Emerald called back. "Remember, we're not flying for fun - we need to punch through the Nui-Rama swarm and get into their nest! Takua, you got that thing figured out yet?"
The Chronicler gulped and looked down at the odd contraption in front of him - a projectile launcher mounted to the Kahu's armor by a flexible swivel joint. A single long rail down the middle sat between two rotating cylinders, each of which were loaded with racks of wooden throwing disks with sharpened edges. A pair of handles on the sides allowed him to easily aim the entire launcher, and according to Penny's cursory scan with her Semblance, the left trigger was meant to load a disk into the rail while the right trigger launched said disk at high speed. While it wasn't as accurate or precise as a Matoran throwing a disk with their own arm, the launcher made up for it with quick loading and pure stopping power…as well as making it accessible to villagers like Takua, who had no idea how to throw the most common weapon on Mata Nui.
"I think so!" he shouted above the roaring wind. "Maybe! We'll see."
"Best quick-learn, traveler!" cried Kongu. "Rama-swarmers incoming!"
Sure enough, smaller clouds of buzzing orange and green split off from the funnel-like hive in the distance and rushed towards them. As they got closer, Takua could see that each cloud was in fact, made up of dozens - if not hundreds - of winged insectoid Rahi. Twisted masks over their compound eyes dripped with caustic fluid, razor-sharp claws and stingers bared themselves for the coming battle, and the constant flapping of their wings created a buzz so loud it could be heard above the rushing wind. Frail as each one might have been on its own, they didn't need to be tough - not when there were enough of them to darken the sky.
"Break formation, but back up your wingman!" yelled one Le-Matoran as their Gukko banked left.
"May the wind ever be under our wings…" chimed another as they followed suit and went right.
The Nui-Rama swarm dispersed and spread out to cover as wide an area as possible, hoping to catch flying Gukko birds in their claws. Shrieking and buzzing blended together into a cacophony of noise, which was further drowned out by the sound of gunfire from Emerald and the whistling of Penny's spear in motion. All the flying Le-Matoran banked left and right to avoid the insects that rushed at them - all except Kongu and Vizuna, who never stopped their straightforward charge across the jungle sky, turning the treetops below into a rushing blanket of green.
Takua took a deep breath - why was the air so thin up here? - and adjusted his grip on the disk launcher's handles. The weapon thumped as he pulled the left trigger to load a disk, letting him know it was ready to fire. He lined up the sights with an incoming Nui-Rama, squeezed the other handle to fire…
And missed.
He furrowed his brow as he saw the projectile sail through the air, cutting through the air a bio behind his target. His targeted Nui-Rama seemed to laugh at him as it charged in, only to get skewered by Penny once it came into range. The freckled Huntress cast a comforting glance towards him as she flung it off her spear, but he hardly felt any better. Especially not after the Rahi carcass flew back in such a way that it collided with another insect in mid-air, sending both bugs crashing into the sea of trees below.
Dead weight yet again, he thought darkly. What a surprise.
Pushing the thoughts of his own inadequacy aside, he kept firing at the oncoming bugs. The results didn't make him feel much better. Miss. Miss. Miss. Another miss. Hey, that one hit! …no wait, that was Emerald shooting it down. Because he missed.
The green-haired Huntress seemed to notice his troubles. "Lead your shots, little guy!" she called over the rushing winds. "The disks need time to travel between the launcher and a Nui-Rama on the move! Pick your targets, watch their flight paths, and aim for where they're going to be - not where they are!"
The Chronicler furrowed his brow behind his mask as he tried to follow Emerald's advice, shifting the launcher's position and picking out his next target from the swarm of oncoming Nui-Rama. Eventually he found one - a big orange bug coming on the right side, trying to sneak around while the gun-wielding Huntress was distracted shooting down targets on the left. He watched it fly in a curved path for a moment, aimed just slightly ahead of the Rahi, squeezed the trigger, and…
Direct hit!
His disk flew straight and true, striking right between the eyes and nearly cleaving the entire insect in half. Its buzzing wings sputtered and stopped before it fell to the trees below - if the quarter-bio-wide plate of wood sticking out of its face didn't kill it, the impact of landing almost certainly would. He let out a laugh of disbelief as the giant insect limply dropped out of the sky, no longer a threat.
"I got one!" he exclaimed excitedly. "I actually got one!"
"Good job, Takua!" The freckled Huntress was beaming in pride.
"Nice shot, keep it up!" Emerald sighted down her guns and took out three more. "Watch out, on our six! They're coming in hot!"
"Leave it to me!" Penny called as she twisted around and used her spear to hang off the side of the Kahu. Her other hand stretched out towards the trio of Nui-Rama gaining on the bird's tail, wrapping teal-green wires around the middle bug's limbs before she pulled her fist back forcefully. Takua looked over his shoulder just in time to watch the central Rahi suddenly lash out, slashing the left one with its claws and crashing into the right one to take them both out in a high-speed collision of chitin.
"Whoa, Penny!" Takua exclaimed as the shattered bodies fell away. "I didn't know you could control the Rahi!"
"Neither…did I…" Penny let her hand fall with a slight pant. "I only…acted on instinct…but I do not think that was full control. It seems that…I can only control the technology in their joints… provoking what one might call a 'muscle spasm.' I do not…I do not believe I have the ability to fully control them…"
"Still a pretty useful trick!" Emerald called out as she shot down another two bugs. "Try not to burn too much Aura, though - save it for when we're actually in the hive!"
Right…Takua remembered that they didn't need to shoot down every Nui-Rama. Only the ones that tried to stop them. He focused on covering the right side yet again, loading another disk preemptively.
Their flight continued with little interference. Emerald was a crack shot with her own weapons of choice, easily swatting down Nui-Rama like they were nothing more than fire-flyers. Takua's aim wasn't quite that good since his first shot, but he could feel his accuracy steadily increase with each grazing blow he landed. The green-haired Huntress's advice was a lifesaver - by aiming just a few bios ahead of the flying Rahi, his disks struck true more often than not. It wasn't always enough to knock a bug out of the sky, but it was enough to make them peel off and abandon their attack. He told himself that was just as good as a kill.
When they were about halfway to the hive, Emerald suddenly shifted her gun into a chained sickle. Everyone looked over with shock as she balanced herself on Vizuna's wing and drew her other weapon, transforming it to match.
"Kongu, the other Gukko riders are getting shredded!" She started twirling the hooked chains. "I'm jumping off to try and help them out!"
"Understood, shadow-leaf!" Kongu called back. "Meet you in the Rama-hive!"
With a nod, Emerald tossed her chains out and drove the hooks into the underside of a Nui-Rama. Rather than yank it down, she used it as an anchor point to pull herself up and into the sky. She deftly tore it apart with the sickles even as she leapt off its falling pieces, jumping to another airborne Rahi to repeat the process.
"Well there goes most of our firepower," groaned Takua as he fired another disk that tore off an oncoming insect's wing. "Now what?"
"Too many Rama-swarmers at this sky-level for you to shoot down alone!" responded Kongu. "Heading to the high-clouds to sneak-pass them!"
"What does that even mean?!" wailed the Chronicler.
"It means hold on, Takua!" Penny clarified as she shifted position, digging her spear into the back of his seat and straddling the armored ridge behind him. "We are going up!"
…oh good, so they were going to fly even higher now.
The beak of the Kahu tilted upwards as she flapped her mighty wings, pouring power into her engines and pushing herself through the layer of clouds. Takua's mask rattled against his face as they ascended, moisture poured into every exposed hole in his frame, and his heartstone seemed to slam back against his metallic spine from the sheer force of the speed. Behind him, he could hear Penny struggling to breathe through the watery clouds and the thinning air, but a quick glance over his shoulder told him that his friend was still hanging on with all her might - despite her clothes and hair growing more damp with each passing second.
At last, they broke through the cloud layer to the world above…and it wasn't the thin air that took the pair's breath away.
It was the view.
"Whoa…"
In contrast to the darkened yellowed sky below them, the world above the clouds was crisp and blue. The ugly rolls of black and gray mist were replaced by fields of pure white, and the sun shone down clearly and cleanly with its golden-white glow. A feeling of peace and serenity briefly settled over the Chronicler and his companion…a calm moment in the eye of the storm.
"It's…beautiful," Takua finally said in an awed whisper.
Penny laid a hand on his shoulder. "This was always my favorite part of flying. Going above the clouds, seeing the open sky…it is gorgeous."
"It's a sight-view for sure, but there's still a battle-fight going on!" Kongu barked. "Rama-swarmers below! Easy-hit marks!"
Sure enough, while not many of the buzzing Rahi braved the journey to pursue the Kahu through the clouds, the ones that did moved slower as water and ice clung to their wings. Penny laid her hands over Takua's arms, taking advantage of the lax flow of battle to give him a few more pointers against the struggling bugs. His next few disks flew straight and true, cleaving through layers of metal and chitin like they were made of rotted wood. A smirk formed beneath Takua's mask with every Nui-Rama felled, and he took pride in seeing each one fall through the blanket of white below with a little cloudy puff.
Maybe flying's not so bad, if it leads to places like this, he thought to himself.
The flight proceeded smoothly enough. Kongu steered Vizuna on a straight path once again, trusting the aerial instincts of the mighty Kahu to keep them pointed towards the hive. Takua's aim steadily grew more potent with each straggler he shot out of the sky, as did his confidence in handling the disk launcher. In fact, out of the dozen or so Nui-Rama that flew up to meet them, only one managed to get the drop on them - and that Rahi was quickly skewered by both the hooked spearhead of Luce and the sharpened point of a Chronicler's Staff.
"Excellent work, Takua!" Penny called as the pair withdrew their pole arms. "It seems the combat lessons are paying off!"
"Sure looks like it!" he called back, settling back into his seat and gripping the disk launcher. "Good thing I had such a great teacher."
He didn't need to look over his shoulder to see Penny's proud blush. The heat from her cheeks was proof enough.
Eventually, their little vacation in the heavens had to come to an end. The Kahu dove down and back through the clouds, once more obscuring the world around them for a brief, wet moment. A Nui-Rama emerged from the fog to swipe at the wings, only to get shredded by a quickly-aimed shot from Takua. When the haze of white finally faded, the once-distant hive now towered above them. Kongu didn't pull up, however; instead, he allowed his mighty steed to keep diving downward, eventually passing through the blanket of green below them and into a world of rushing brown blurs.
"Wait! You're flying through the trees now?!" Takua yelled, no longer in love with flying. "Are you insane?!"
"No more than other tree-folk!" shouted Kongu as he threw his head back and cackled (which did not help his case). "We're coming close to the Rama-hive, we need to fly down-tree to hug the surface as we approach!"
"And what if we hit something on the way there? Like, oh, I dunno, the trees?!"
CRACK! CRUNCH! Oncoming tree trunks and branches exploded into showers of splinters upon contact, giving the rushing Kahu uninterrupted passage through the jungle. Vizuna cawed in delight. Evidently, she enjoyed the experience exactly as much as Takua hated it.
Kongu looked back with a grin. "That answer your question, story-keeper?"
"…unfortunately, yes."
Thankfully, their flight through the jungle canopy was completely free of enemies. The Nui-Rama didn't have room to maneuver down here, and if they tried they probably would've met the same fate as the trees that stood in the Kahu's way. Even so, a surge of panic shot through Takua's system as he saw a flying sickle latch onto the bird's armored frame, only to sigh in relief as the weapon's wielder yanked on the chain to pull herself back into position. The second Huntress looked tired and out of breath, and her skin and clothes were stained and splotched with various fluids, but that wasn't why her crimson eyes narrowed in annoyance.
"Emerald! It is good to see you once again!" Penny exclaimed in delight, shifting to one side in order to give the new arrival some more room to perch. Then she looked around in confusion. "You jumped off to aid the other Le-Matoran - where are they?"
"Did what I could, but they still ended up needing to bail anyway," she explained breathlessly as she opened up her weapons, snapping new cylinders into the empty slots. "There were so many of those damn things, too many for the Gukko riders to outmaneuver and too many for even me to take down. Everyone else peeled back towards Le-Koro and went to hide with the others - which means it's just us on the rescue mission now."
The words rattled Takua even more than the flight had so far. Just them? Just a pair of Huntresses, a single Gukko and her rider, and a banished Ta-Matoran who couldn't even remember his own Naming Day? Against an entire swarm of Nui-Rama armed with razor-sharp claws?
What hope did they have?
Kongu didn't seem deterred. "If it's just us on the rescue-fight, then we'll fly-fast for all their sakes! Approaching the hive-nest now! Be ready!"
Penny narrowed her eyes and nodded, giving Takua's shoulder a comforting squeeze. Emerald brought up both of her hand cannons, aiming them in separate directions. The Chronicler took a deep breath to steady his nerves, then gripped the disk launcher with two trembling fists.
The rushing green of the jungle soon gave way for a twisted blur of brown against a yellowed sky, as the Kahu zoomed across the base of the towering hive. Kongu kept her just a few bios away from the nearly-vertical surface, guiding Vizuna carefully and steering her to bank and weave through outcroppings of stony wax. Nui-Rama took advantage of the open sky and zoomed towards them with reckless abandon. Emerald's guns boomed and Takua's launcher thumped as bullets and disks tore into the insectoid defenders.
"Just a little further, old girl…" intoned Kongu, barely heard over the roars of battle. "Wind-fly with all your might!"
Don't think too hard, thought the Chronicler as the weapon buckled in his hand with each devastating blow. Just load a disk, aim, and fire. One target at a time. Lead your shots. Make each disk count. We'll get through this, no problem.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK.
…uh oh.
A quick glance at the empty chambers told him what he already knew. "Launcher's spent!" he cried out.
"Running out of shots here too!" Emerald shouted. "No time to reload!"
The Nui-Rama seemed to sense their vulnerability and lack of long-range weapons, because they started rushing in with even more fervor and rage in their compound eyes. Emerald shifted her weapons into chained sickles and started swinging and slashing, while Penny did the same with Luce on threads of her Semblance. Though the Huntresses did their best to cut apart the charging bugs, more kept coming and slipped past their defenses - until a dozen of the annoying things dug their claws into the great Gukko's wings.
"Rama-swarm latchers!" Kongu cried out against the pained shrieks of the mighty bird. "Get them off Vizuna, or this will be a short trip-flight!"
Penny pulled Luce back into her hand while deploying Vita, expanding the shield just in time to bash a Nui-Rama between the eyes. "Takua, your staff! Just like before!"
The Ta-Matoran nodded before he stood up in his seat and pulled the Chronicler's Staff off his back, the handle expanding in his grip and becoming a polearm fit for carving stories into protodermis. He let out a yell as he drove the tool into the eye shield of a Nui-Rama, shattering the infected Kanohi with a single thrusting blow. His opponent screeched in pain and slashed at him with his claws. Takua responded by leaning left and right before pulling out the staff and bashing it with the blunt end. The Nui-Rama fell off a moment later, dashed against the side of the hive.
Takua chuckled in relief. "I got one!" he declared excitedly, and looked over to the next target -
Only to see Emerald and Penny dispatch the remaining Nui-Rama with a series of sweeping slashes and flowing kicks. The green-haired Huntress tore metal and chitin to shreds with her sickles, while Vita and Luce seemed to move and strike with their own free will. All in all it took less than four seconds for the Huntresses to finish freeing up Vizuna's wings.
"…aaaand it looks like you got the rest." He grinned with pride to mask his own feelings of inadequacy, as usual. "Nice work, girls!"
Vizuna cawed and flapped her wings in gratitude, using her talons to grab a pair of insects approaching from underneath and smash them against the hive's walls.
"You are welcome!" said Penny with a giggle.
"Wait, do you speak bird now, too?" Emerald raised her brow as she delivered a warning whip to another Nui-Rama without even looking at it.
"Oh, certainly not," she answered as she pulled Vita and Luce back into her hands. "Or at least, not yet."
"Our way-path into the hive approaches! Everyone hold-tight!"
Takua hopped back into the saddle with a yelp and held on for dear life. Penny and Emerald hugged both the sides of the Kahu and each other. The mighty bird tucked in her wings and dove into one of the holes in the hive's exterior, plummeting down into a network of darkened tunnels with razor-sharp reflexes and incredible agility. The freedom of the open sky gave way for claustrophobic walls of stone-like wax, but their pilot kept them steadily on course as they plunged into the tower of evil.
We've gotten this far, the Chronicler realized. Farther than I ever thought we would. And we did it by working together - it doesn't matter how strong or weak we are alone, as long as we have each other.
Still, despite his relief and renewed confidence, Takua could only hope that they weren't too late to save the Le-Matoran.
Deep in the bowels of the Nui-Rama nest, Turaga Matau wondered if it was too late to save the Le-Matoran.
He sat and rested his old joints on a rocky outcropping, glaring at the sky-high walls of stone that trapped him and his people on all sides. Old, flickering lightstones painted a bleak picture of their even-bleaker surroundings, giving just enough light to illuminate the dozens of hexagonal holes in the hive that fed into tunnels to the outside world. And all around him he could see the shadowy frames of Matoran forced into labor, as well as the threatening outlines of the Nui-Rama and Nui-Kopen that far, far outnumbered them.
The infected insects had wasted no time in putting their captives to work since the attack, forcing the air-aligned villagers into taking up pickaxes against their will. Some of them were digging out new channels and vents for the flying Rahi to come and go as they pleased, while others were tasked with maintaining the pool of water that held metallic egg clusters in suspended animation. The pace demanded of them was brutal and relentless, often pushing his people to the point of exhaustion after just a few hours of work. Even the newest arrival - an Onu-Matoran that had somehow ended up trapped with them - was growing slow in his work…but a snap of a nearby stinger "encouraged" him to keep chipping away at the stony wax all the same.
Capturing my people and forcing them to live like Whenua's earth-diggers… Matau scowled. I suppose this is Makuta's idea of a folly-joke. Well if it is, I'm not laughing.
He knew what the intent of their captor was, of course. It wasn't enough to just slap them all with infected Kanohi and make them his unwilling slaves. Makuta wanted their spirits broken first, wanted their very last threads of hope snapped before he subjected them to his own will. And what better way to do that than to trap the Le-Matoran underground, with none of the freedom or merriment they held dear?
Naturally, the Le-Matoran resisted the psychological torture of the Master of Shadows and rebelled in their own little ways. Some hopped off stones and rocks and pretended they were swinging through the trees of Le-Wahi. Others whistled merry tunes under their breath, just quietly enough that they could be heard by their friends and not by the buzzing Rahi that flew above them. Still others whispered excitedly about what Lewa would do when he arrived to save them, conjuring up vivid fantasies that depicted the Toa of Air slashing through the bugs and bringing them back to the outside world.
Of course, Turaga Matau alone knew the greatest irony of their situation: that Lewa was already there.
But their patron Toa was not going to save them this time.
Makuta had already seen to that, too.
After a solid minute of feeling her stomach compress into her chest from a sheer downward dive, Penny slumped her shoulders and sighed in relief as the hive's tunnel came to an end. The great Gukko flared her wings to slow down, gliding through the open chamber on unseen winds. Takua relaxed in his seat and took his hands off the empty disk launcher, Emerald took advantage of the pause to reload Thief's Respite, and Kongu narrowed his eyes as he scanned the ground far below for his fellow villagers.
"We made it," she said with a proud smile. "We…actually made it into the hive."
"Yep, we sure did," agreed Takua. "We managed to fly straight into the hornet's nest, one that's crawling with killer bugs that are all under Makuta's control, with no way back out and low supplies." The Chronicler frowned. "Wait, why did we think this was a good idea again?"
"I didn't exactly hear you coming up with any better ones," retorted Emerald. "Kongu, down there - I think I see Turaga Matau."
"I see him too, shadow-leaf. Fly low and quiet, old girl. No need to draw more attention to ourselves."
The Kahu quietly chirped in understanding and dipped down slightly, arching her wings to descend in a slow spiral. Penny looked over the side to see the distant frames of Matoran running and pointing at the incoming rescue party, as well as the insectoid Nui-Rama and the wasp-like Nui-Kopen coming and going from holes in the wall. Occasionally she looked up and held Luce tightly to discourage any oncoming attackers, but nothing came close to them. If anything, they seemed to be giving the intruders a wide berth as they made their way towards the ground.
"You know…" said Takua, "not to look a gift Rahi in the mouth, but you'd think us flying into their nest would have made all the Nui-Rama come and swarm us."
Kongu shot an annoyed glance over his shoulder. "Would you prefer that happen, story-teller?"
The Chronicler shook his head. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm very glad we're not getting torn apart right now. But at the same time…don't you think it's weird how nothing's tried to attack us ever since we arrived? We're not exactly hidden up here."
Penny had to admit, it was quite strange. If this were a Grimm nest, then surely they would be swarmed as Takua expected. She looked over at Emerald, and was about to ask her thoughts when she noticed that her fellow Huntress was seemingly frozen in fear.
"Emerald?" she asked quietly, reaching over to put a hand on her bare shoulder. "Emerald, is something the mat-"
WHOOSH!
The answer came in a blur of green that moved with incredible speed, slashing through one of the support struts on the Kahu's wing. The mighty Rahi screeched in shock as she lost control of her flight path, coming down quickly no matter how much Kongu shouted and pulled on the reins. The ground came rushing up to them far faster than anyone would have liked; Vizuna's talons scrambled across the stone floor to find purchase, only to stumble and crash onto her side and throw off all her passengers.
Kongu and Takua were lucky enough to just tumble across the floor of the hive and land in piles of dented parts.
Emerald and Penny were not.
SPLASH!
Her momentum from the crash propelled her downwards into a deep pool of murky liquid. The freckled Huntress instinctively held her breath as she plunged into the watery depths, feeling herself sink to the bottom as bubbles spilled out of her lips and nose. She grunted and reached for the lightstone tucked into her belt as a safety measure, which began to glow as soon as she pressed it against her palm. Blinking to clear her stinging eyes, she brought the source of light (and life) up to eye level to get a view of her surroundings -
Only to come face-to-face with a Nui-Rama larva, staring right back at her from behind its metallic, transparent eggshell.
Penny screamed into the water.
Before she could lose all her air in her panicked shriek, she felt a hand clasp over her mouth. She looked over her shoulder to see Emerald pointing up with a small grunt, a command she acknowledged with a nod and a bubbly little whimper. The two girls left the horrifying brood behind as they swam towards the surface, guided by the lightstone and their own need to breathe. Emerald glided through the water with confident kicks and smooth, tight strokes; Penny's own movements were less effective and graceful, but she still managed to keep pace with her fellow Huntress all the same.
Remember what Hahli taught you, she thought to herself as a ripple of bubbles pushed through her lips against her will. Kick with the hips instead of the knees…bring the shoulders back to reduce drag…exhale slowly as you come up for air…
Her face pushed through the surface just before her lungs collapsed, allowing her to greedily gulp down air amidst a storm of coughs and sputters. Emerald surfaced moments later with a shrill gasp, spitting up water and shaking wet hair out of her face. Seeing Penny struggling to tread water, she grabbed her hand and started stroking towards the side of the pool, pulling the freckled Huntress along as she tried to keep her head above the water.
"Thank you," she sputtered. "I…only learned to swim a few days ago."
"Could've fooled me," said Emerald with a breathy chuckle. "Come on. I don't think the Nui-Rama will like us taking a bath with their babies."
"That is likely true of all species."
"Penny! Emerald! Over here!"
Grinning at the sound of Takua's voice, Penny somehow found the energy to front crawl over to the edge of the artificial pool. After several grueling minutes of swimming she gripped the stone ledge and pulled herself out of the water with a mighty heave, rolling onto her back and letting the lightstone fall out of her hand as she breathed deeply. The Chronicler came over and hugged her arm with a sigh of relief, partly to restore their link but mostly in gratitude that she was okay. Emerald flopped over the side as well…and found herself buried by at least a half-dozen Le-Matoran who all greeted her with enthusiastic cheers.
"Agh! Blech! Okay, come on! I get that you're happy to see me, but personal space boys! Personal! Space!"
The Le-Matoran all reluctantly withdrew, allowing her to sit up and sigh exhaustedly. Emerald smirked and started patting the crestfallen villagers on the head, instantly raising their spirits. Penny, meanwhile, saw three other figures approaching her and Takua; Kongu, Taipu, and a taller stranger in a green robe that she assumed was the Turaga of Le-Koro.
"I told you they'd come to rescue us!" said the young Onu-Matoran excitedly. "I knew that Mata Nui would send her and the Chronicler to help us out! They are very good at doing that!" Taipu's eyes tracked over to Emerald. "Oh, and she brought another one of her Huntress friends as well! Wow…she's also really pretty…not as pretty as Penny, of course."
She could feel her freckled cheeks glowing even in the dim light. Emerald just scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Hah, pretty strange-looking if you ask me!" said Kongu with a laugh. "Still, we wouldn't have gotten this far without them. Sorry it took us so long to rescue-come, Turaga Matau - but now we're here to get you out of this ugly-dark place."
Matau - as Penny supposed his name was - gave a bow of understanding as he leaned against his buzzsaw-like staff, speaking with a voice that was rough and crackly yet young and full of mirth all at once. "Your valor-spirit more than makes up for your late-delay, Kongu. It is bright-good to see you again. Emerald, it pleases me to know that you not only escaped the Rama-swarm, you have stepped up to aid my people when they needed it most. I cannot thank you enough for all you have done thus far. As for your tree-leaf and fire-spitter friends…"
He turned his old, wisdom-laden gaze on Penny and Takua, humming thoughtfully as he looked them over. "…ah, but of course. You must be the ones that both Nokama and Onewa have praise-sung about in their crab-letters, the local folk-heroes who travel the island righting dark-wrongs. Apologies if you've done more to help the villages since then - I haven't received much mail-news about the outside world since getting stuck in the Rama-hive."
"Oh, don't worry. You didn't miss much, just our visit to Onu-Koro and solving two of their biggest problems," said Takua with a smug smirk. Then he grew serious. "And now we're here to do the same."
Penny nodded. "We are combat ready, and we are here to help however we can!"
One of the nearby Le-Matoran grinned beneath her square-like Ruru. "Yeah! Those buzz-fliers won't stand a chance with two Huntress-girls and a Toa-Hero busting us out-free!" She looked up at Emerald expectantly. "Say, where is Lewa? Did you leave him in the dust with your incredible leaf-running skills?"
Emerald bit her lip. "Well, um, he…"
Her gaze trailed over to Turaga Matau, who slowly shook his head. A pit formed in Penny's stomach. Something had happened to Lewa…something bad, from the sounds of it, and he hoped to keep it concealed from his fellow captives for as long as possible.
"…he will be here soon, I am certain!" The freckled Huntress put on her best fake smile. "Toa Lewa only needs a moment to catch up with us."
Hic.
Takua tilted his head.
"Yeah, what she said," Emerald finally answered. She cleared her throat and forced a grin of her own. "In the meantime, why don't you guys all go with Kongu and make sure that Vizuna's okay? We'll need her at full strength to get everyone out."
The collected Le-Matoran looked skeptical, but the promise of freedom was enough to overpower their doubts. They nodded and ran towards the wounded avian Rahi, helping her off her side and checking her wing. Matau bowed in thanks and came closer to the girls, beckoning Takua and Taipu to join them.
"I thank you for your valiant rescue-effort, but I fear it may be in vain," he intoned quietly and gravely. "Your arrival has only played into Makuta's plans - he has us all where he wants us, and every exit is fiercely guarded."
"So we make our own," suggested Emerald. She looked over at Taipu. "You're from that earth village, right? How good of a digger are you?"
"The best digger in Onu-Koro," answered the young Onu-Matoran. "But I don't think even I could make a tunnel quickly enough. This stuff isn't like the stone and dirt that I usually dig through. It feels…wrong, somehow. Harder and stronger than it should be, and the deeper you go the tougher it gets. It's also sticky. Very, very sticky."
"We could always fight our way out," posited Takua. "We may not have any Toa here, but we've got two Huntresses with almost-full Auras by our side. I've seen Penny and Emerald in action - I'm sure they can handle any Rahi that try to stop us."
Matau chuckled humorlessly. "You misunderstand, fire-spitter. It is not the Rahi that we must worry about. It is him."
The Turaga gestured to the wall above. Penny looked up to see a tall, green-armored figure clinging to the stone, hovering just beyond the range of an old lightstone. Glowing yellow-green eyes stared back down at them with uncharacteristic fury and venom, like the gaze of a wild predator stalking its prey. In every aspect, the Toa-shaped wall crawler resembled Tahu and Gali and the other elemental warriors of this island…except that instead of a mask that matched the color of his armor, the beak-like Kanohi it wore was twisted and blackened and rusted beyond belief.
Lewa glared at the new arrivals through the holes in his mask.
His infected mask.
"…oh gods," she breathed as her knees threatened to buckle.
"Mata Nui protect us," agreed Takua in a fearful whisper, shaking his head in disbelief.
Emerald's lower lip trembled, tears pooling in her eyes. "Oh no…Lewa…what has Makuta done to you?"
Penny's mind furiously raced as she gauged her own combat effectiveness against the warden of this nest, and quickly found herself coming up short. Fighting the Rahi was one thing - fighting a fully-powered elemental warrior was quite another. If she still had her robotic frame, or Floating Array, or even the magic of the Winter Maiden, such a fight would be difficult but winnable. Without any of them, however…it would be suicide to throw herself against a Toa. Especially a Toa under the control of the same Makuta who twisted the Rahi to his own evil will.
No, if anyone had a chance of freeing Lewa, it would have to be one of his own kind.
And if anyone could help the Toa save their brother, it was the bravest and strongest Huntress team she knew.
Teal threads of her Semblance reached into her Scroll, typing rapidly and sending a short message to her friends in Team RWBY without her hand straying an inch away from her sheathed weapons.
Lewa is compromised. The Le-Matoran are trapped in a Nui-Rama hive in Le-Wahi. I am there with them.
She gulped audibly as the infected Toa above them tilted his head in fascination. Her eyes fought not to blink, but she did so anyways…and when her vision returned, Lewa was gone. In the darkness of the hive, he could have been anywhere. Could strike from anywhere. At any time.
Please, send help.