Chapter 3, y'all and I hope you have as much fun with it as I did! This is one of my favorite encounters that I cooked up for Kate and the Toa!

Disclaimer: Do I even need to say it?

Kate opened her eyes slowly, trying to get her bearings. What had happened? First, she'd gotten in a fight with her Foster Parents and decided she'd had enough. Then, she remembered running away and hiding….. in the forest behind their house. She sat up, wincing when her head spun. She felt like she'd just survived a tornado. Then again, she may have. What else had she done? She'd stopped to rest, with her backpack on her shoulder…. Then she opened that book…..

Was that all? It was all that she could remember. She shivered and finally took the time to view her surroundings. Her heart froze. This…..was…..NOT….the forest! She stood up and looked around, bewildered, trying hard not to panic. Where was she! A hall. Okay, she was standing in a very cold, very dark, very LARGE hallway. That was a start. She forced herself to calm down, taking a deep breath of the musty air. This place smelled of history. She mentally smacked herself. History, tch, right! What a stupid thing to think. She took another calming breath and tried to focus again. What else could she figure out about this place?

The hall was filled with glass cases. All of which were occupied by…? Robotic animals? That's what she thought they were. Okay. So maybe she'd stumbled into an underground government lab. Yeah, hah! Good one. She shivered again. Boy was it a good thing she'd worn a white knit sweater and jeans! This place was drafty. Her black skate shoes made hardly a sound as she turned in a circle and, seeing her backpack, sighed in relief. At least she had her stuff with her. She bent down and hoisted it over her shoulder, the weight of her spare clothes, the book, and MP3 comforting her. She turned to head down the hall (hopefully she'd find somebody who could tell her the way out) when she paused and tilted her head to the side.

She could hear…..banging of some sort. And voices. Curious, she turned around once more and headed in the direction the voices were coming from. Her blond, shoulder length hair swung with her efforts to keep quiet as she crept around a corner, keeping one shoulder close to the wall. Yeah. Those were definitely voices. And it sounded like they were in trouble. She crept right up to the next corner, listening.

She suddenly had to cover her ears against a loud ringing sound. She tried not to cry out, but it was difficult as the sound grated against her every nerve. When the ringing quieted, she pulled her hand from her ears just in time to hear a loud SLAM! Seconds later, she heard a cold, quiet voice say,

"Ow."

"Sorry, all that I could think of." A much deeper voice replied, somewhat apologetic, but not entirely. He said something else, but Kate was busy fighting the temptation to peek around the corner and see the owners of those voices.

She caught the cold voice again. Funny how it reminded her of winter. "You gave it a headache."

The deep voice again. "Welcome to the Archives."

Archives? Kate frowned and finally lost the will to NOT look. She poked her head around the corner and her breath caught in her throat. She was staring at two …. Robotic… people! One white, the other black. What the frag was going on? She didn't have time to ponder this question, because, like the klutz she was, she dropped the Mp3 to the floor where it hit the ground with a loud KLACK! She flinched just as the two robots spun around and caught sight of her. Her heart stopped and she scooped up her device and bolted back the way she came.

Behind her, she heard pounding steps and the icy voice call, "Wait! Whenua! We don't know what that thing is!"

"Only one way to find out!" The deeper voice answered, much closer than Kate would like it to be. She turned to look behind her and saw the black one chasing her, the white one right behind.

'Oh snap!' Kate thought, urging her legs to go faster. These things were fast! She careened down the hall she'd first found herself in, and ducked into a smaller hall that was obviously built for something slightly smaller than herself, but much too small for the big guys on her heels. She threw herself on the ground, breathing hard, her heart pounding about twenty times a second. She clutched her bag to her chest, staring at the wall and listening.

"What the…..! It's gone!" Whenua cried as he turned the corner. "But I saw it come this way!"

"Looks like you were too slow, brother." It was the white one. Kate could see their legs from where she was sitting. She kept quiet, clutching her bag closer. It was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. "Any idea what that was?"

"None." Answered Whenua. "I wasn't even aware that such a creature existed. What could it possibly be, Nuju."

"Some trick of the Morbuzakh, perhaps. Remember Whenua, I asked you first."

"Well that's just peachy. A Ko-Matoran scholar telling me to remember!"

Kate heard a smack and a low ouch and breathed a quiet sigh of relief when the legs disappeared and footsteps could be heard fading down the hall. That had been nerve wracking and quite scary. She didn't know where she was. For all she knew, she could be in the future! How crazy would that be! And what in the world was a Morbuzakh? Kate sure didn't want to stick around to find out. She waited a few more seconds before deciding that she would take her chances on her own. Slowly she crept forward, listening intently for any other sounds. A second ticked by, then a minute, then two minutes. She didn't hear anything except for her own heart beat and quiet breathing.

It sounded like the coast was clear. Good. She'd rather not have another run in with… whatever it was those were. She stuck her head out and glanced both ways, relieved to find that the halls were clear. Then she snuck the rest of the way out and stood, keeping close to the wall and making her way back the way she had started. After a couple of tense minutes, she made it to a corner and carefully (this time keeping an eye on any loose items) poked her head around the corner. Nothing. She placed a hand over her heart and breathed out.

"Looking for something?" a voice said right in her ear.

Kate yelped and spun around to coming face-to-mask with Whenua. He was nearly double over and when he stood tall again, he must have been seven feet tall. She backed up quickly bumping into something else. A cold chill hit her back and when she glanced over her shoulder she saw the one called Nuju, his arms crossed and his eyes staring at her with interest. Where on God's green earth did he come from!

"Not too smart, is it?" Nuju commented quietly. "Odd looking too, even for a rahi."

Okay, she could take the strange words like Morbuzakh and rahi. She could even take brush off being called an it, but that comment about her intelligence! Even if she was scared, that was crossing the line. She glared back at Nuju, staring him full in the mask.

"Well EXCUSE me that I don't look like you or know my way around!" she spat angrily, taking Nuju by surprise.

Whenua whistled. "Mata-Nui! It can talk!"

Kate turned her steely gaze on him. "Of course I can talk! Now close your mouth before I do it for you!"

"Feisty, ain't ya?" Whenua grinned, looking more intrigued than threatened. He probably believed that she wasn't a match for him. He was probably right. "If you are a trick of the Morbuzakh, then this is the most interesting trick I've seen."

Nuju interrupted Whenua's gawking with a loud cough. "If it is a trick, then grab it and let's go! We've got a disk to find and that banging around earlier probably attracted some curious guests we'll have to deal with if we're still here!"

Kate glared at Nuju and then at Whenua who had moved closer. She caught the gist of what was about to happen. "Don't you dare!"

Not that it mattered because the Toa of Earth had already bent, scooped her from the floor and had thrown her over his shoulder. "Sorry little buddy." He grinned at her protests as he turned to follow Nuju back to their task.

Please review and tell me what you liked! For those of you who enjoyed this chappie, there's is far more to come! I look forward to your comments! ^_^