In the short time it took to reach Onua's house, the smoke billowing from the hole in the roof had grown much thicker, Gali standing nearby and grimacing as she watched the rising plume. Even as they got closer, she could be heard murmuring to herself with very clear concern before she actually caught sight of them and turned. "Whenua is searching his library for anything we might be able to use that could stop him." She reported grimly to Pohatu before looking at Onua. "This was also his idea, so blame him for the damage." Finally, her gaze fell to Takua, blinking in surprise when she noted he was on his own. "Takua? Where is Jaller?"
"We got separated." The Chronicler replied almost hollowly, though his gaze was fixed on the tower of smoke. It was hard not to think back to the forge assault when he saw the sheer magnitude of the haze issuing forth from the roof. "Toa Gali what happened to Toa Tahu? Is he okay?"
"No." Gali answered with a sigh, glancing at the stone slab that currently blocked the doorway. "Ta-Koro was destroyed and Tahu… Tahu was poisoned. Badly."
Onua raised an eyebrow. "He seems pretty lively to me, Sister; it's no small feat turning a house into an oven."
Gali shot Pohatu a disapproving frown when she heard him stifle a faint laugh before answering her shortest Brother. "Rahkshi poison apparently drives people insane instead of damaging their body, or at the very least it looks to be that way. Tahu and I were hoping we could find a way to cure him before it drove him mad, but…"
"But?" Onua pressed. "What about that healing trick of yours?"
Gali shook her head. "I tried that already; Tahu said it was agonizing and based on the reaction he had when we tried it, I'd believe him. If it works, I want it to be purely a last resort; he's suffered enough from this as it is."
The sudden and explosive surge of fire that erupted from the hole in Onua's roof left all four of them ducking and staring in varying measures of alarm. "I… think peaceful tactics might not be an option anymore." Pohatu remarked awkwardly, wincing again as the stone barricade shuddered from the other side. "So… how many of us will it take to stop him?"
Onua frowned as he adjusted his stance. "That depends on if you let him hit you." He cast a glance in Takua's direction. "Go tell Whenua to stay out of the way while we deal with this; I doubt he'll be able to do much at this point." He gave the teenager a stern look. "And I want you to stay with him until one of us comes to get you, alright? No shenanigans." The Earth Toa knew full-well that telling Takua to behave like an angel was about as useful as telling Tahu to chill out, but he could always hope for the day that the Chronicler would actually listen to him. Thus, he felt a small measure of satisfaction when the young matoran nodded and bolted off in the direction of Whenua's home; perhaps his hope had some merit after all. At least there wasn't an argument about leaving.
"Onua we have a problem!"
Pohatu's exclamation drew Onua back to attention just in time to see the stone barrier crack and split, smoke escaping through the gaps and fire licking at the outer surface. Just how Tahu could dish out that much damage was a mystery, but if he was somehow angry enough to split a considerably thick slab of rock then there was no knowing what sort of destruction he would cause if he got loose. "Please tell me I'm not the only one who's thought of knocking him unconscious." An awkward second or two of silence passed over them before Onua sighed, but before he had a chance to comment about it the stone was struck again… an energy-shielded fist crashing straight through it.
"Oh. That's how he got away with that."
Pohatu made a face. "Oh come on, his kanohi lets him become a battering ram?!"
"Well, when you have an unbreakable shield you may as well get creative with it." Onua replied with a faint shrug. "Just be glad he's punching a rock and not your head." As if on cue, the rock slab was struck one last time and fully cracked apart, its pieces falling harmlessly aside as Tahu stepped out into view. From head to toe he was wreathed in fire, his skin sickly and almost tinted with a deathly shade of green, his expression contorted with nothing but rage. It was as though Tahu was gone, his essence replaced by a hate-filled mockery with only one goal in mind; absolute destruction.
Onua spared a glance at his siblings. "You took his swords away, right?"
The fact that Tahu ran at him with his fists raised and ready was enough of an answer, the Earth Toa sidestepping and making a face at the sheer heat that was radiating from his berserk brother. "Gali we need this fire dealt with or we'll only get hurt."
There was no response, Onua forced to duck and dodge back as Tahu took another swing at him and inhaling sharply as he narrowly missed getting a face-full of fire. "Gali!"
Pohatu shot a hasty look at Gali – having been focused on the fight with Tahu and how to try and intervene without causing trouble - , eyes widening a little when he saw she was frozen with fear. "Onua keep him busy!"
"Pretty sure keeping him busy won't be the issue here!"
Deciding Onua could take care of himself, Pohatu moved over to his Sister and caught hold of her arms, giving her a light shake to demand her attention. "Gali you need to douse that fire." He said urgently. "We can't help him if we can't get him under control."
"I-I failed him…" She whispered listlessly, her eyes glassy and almost glazed over in appearance. "I couldn't save him…"
"Gali what are you talking about?!" Pohatu stammered with no small measure of alarm. "WE have to stop him before he does anything he'll regret! We haven't failed him yet because he hasn't done anything severe yet!" When all she did in response was repeat herself the Toa of Stone shook her a bit more firmly. "Gali snap out of it!" That was when he saw it; a tall, otherworldly and somewhat reptilian creature standing just barely visible nearby, its armor crimson and a staff held tight in its hands. One of the weapon's faintly glowing ends was pointed straight at him.
No, not at him. At Gali. Was this why she was so unfocused?
Gritting his teeth and uttering a quiet apology, Pohatu pushed Gali to the side and out of the strange being's line of sight. "Sly guy, huh? Well now it's my turn!" Slamming his boot down against the ground and sending a small tremor through it, Pohatu's eyes narrowed as he clenched a fist and threw it forward and upward, as though he were trying to flip a table. No sooner had his hand lifted than a pillar of solid rock erupted forth from beneath his target, throwing it high into the air and forcing it to lose focus in favor of trying to recover. But the Toa of Stone had no intention of showing it quarter; the moment it was airborne he opened his hand, the pillar splitting like it was a mimicry of his movement and reaching up to grasp the offensive thing in its 'fingers'. In moments it was pinned, Pohatu closing his hand in a fist again and trapping it in coils of stone as it screeched angrily and struggled vainly to break free. "That's what I think of your nonsense you… uh… whatever you are."
A sudden yell behind him drew Pohatu's attention, cringing as he turned and saw Onua tear his now-burning hoodie off and throw it aside, exposing the rather sturdy looking silver-grey chestplate he wore beneath it. Tahu was still utterly ablaze, his attacks a wild and frantic mess of swings and stray bursts of fire. Gali was still trying to regain her bearings, currently sitting on the ground and holding her head as clarity struggled to return. There really wasn't a lot they could do with Tahu while he maintained his 'flame cloak', and if any more strange creatures showed up…
WHANG!
Flying out of seemingly nowhere, a circular, pearly white shield hurtled forth, hitting Tahu in the head and dropping him to the ground in a crumpled, unconscious and no-longer-burning heap. "I've wanted to do that for years."
"Kopaka!" Pohatu exclaimed, relief sweeping over his features as his much paler Brother stepped into view. "Your timing is remarkable! How did you-"
"I don't have time to bandy words right now." The Toa of Ice remarked grimly, his tone stern though clearly not intending to be rude. "I need to find Takua. Now."
"Sent him to Whenua." Onua puffed out, shaking his head and wiping sweat off his brow as he stood up straight. "Told him to stay with him until one of us went and collected him. He's safe for the moment."
"He might be, but we aren't!" Pohatu sputtered uneasily, gesturing toward the being he'd trapped. Three more had make their presence known, each a different color; white, brown, and black. To make matters worse, the brown-armored rahkshi lazily tapped its staff against Pohatu's stone 'fist', shattering the structure as though it were little more than glass and freeing its crimson comrade. "Oh come on!"
"Less complaining, more focus." Kopaka said with a frown, retrieving his shield and giving no cares as he stepped over Tahu to stand beside his Brothers. "There's no knowing what these things will throw at us." He cast Gali a brief glance as she struggled to her feet. "We need Tahu back, Sister; do whatever it takes."
"I'll need him restrained for that." She said grimly, her gaze fixed on the beings that were now moving toward them at a lazy, almost careless pace. She shuddered and shook her head. "Three of these things destroyed Ta-Koro; how will we fight off four?"
The reply Kopaka gave was firm and full of conviction. "The same way we beat everything else we shouldn't have been able to. Onua, go with Gali, keep her safe while she gets Tahu's brain back in his head. Pohatu, you and I are on damage control; we keep the rahkshi busy and away from the matoran for as long as possible. If the worst happens, then we work with what we have as best we can and try to regroup."
Pohatu grimaced further as Onua and Gali collected Tahu and fled for safer ground. "And what's the 'worst' you're thinking of?"
"Takua showing up unannounced with a new master plan to get himself nearly killed."
"Ah."
"Turaga Whenua, there's a fight breaking out on the edge of town!"
Takua blinked and turned as Nuparu, Onu-Koro's resident inventor, burst into the house, his eyes wide with alarm. "What's out there?" The Chronicler asked hesitantly. "It's not a Shadow Toa, i-is it?"
Whenua, in the meantime, nearly dropped his book when Nuparu slammed the door open. "More importantly, who else is involved?"
"Those are good questions honestly." The rust-haired matoran confessed awkwardly. "At first it was Tahu fighting with Onua, but now there's weird robo-reptile things fighting Pohatu and Kopaka, but Gali, Onua, and Tahu, are kind of gone?"
Whenua looked far from happy about this news. "Rahkshi. Perfect, just perfect." He shook his head and frowned, closing his book and tossing it onto his desk as he moved for the door even as Nuparu inched inside and got out of the way. "We need to evacuate. I'll go sound the alarm, you two head for the nearest evacuation tunnel. Go, now!"
Takua shuddered as he watched the turaga leave, then turned his gaze to Nuparu. He was surprised to see that his friend looked disappointed. "What's wrong? Other than the obvious."
Nuparu shook his head as he took the lead and headed back out into the open with Takua close behind him. "It's kind of stupid but I want to see how those… rahkshi?... things are built. They look like they're heavily mechanical, and I bet a person could do all sorts of stuff with a frame like that. Kinda seems like a waste to not have a look, that's all."
Takua hummed a little at that. If the rahkshi really were some sort of construct, it would make sense that parts could be used for building, and turning one against the others – even if only indirectly – could be useful. But it wasn't safe enough to just go and have a look; these things were really dangerous, and neither he nor Nuparu had weapons, let alone armor!
Unless…
"Hey Nuparu, you still have some of those armor vehicle things right? Boxors?"
"Yeah, wh-ooooh." The older matoran grinned a little. "Whenua wouldn't get too angry if we tried to help the Toa, right? It's not like we wouldn't be careful. We're both more or less adults; we can handle this sort of thing, and the Toa might really need a bit of backup."
"Exactly!" Takua agreed as he grinned right back. "We can't just leave it all for them to do; it's our home too! We gotta do more to protect it!"
"Yeah! We're just doing our part to help!" They both paused as the alarm bell rang out. Nuparu glanced at Takua. "You didn't hear that just now, did you?"
"Nah. To the boxors!"
"Yep! Preferably before Whenua decides to check on us."
"To the boxors faster!"
Takua just hoped this wasn't actually a bad idea…
