YAY! It's FINALLY here! Sorry for making you all wait so long. Hope you enjoy!
Bionicle is not mine.
Okay, so Kate didn't know where she was. She hadn't for days now, but it certainly didn't help that she was in a dark tunnel, underground, and utterly alone! Hadn't she already been through enough for a lifetime? Why this too? It just wasn't fair! Then again, her whole life's story seemed to be unfair. This world, her home... everything. And it had all happened so fast.
First, she'd been dragged along to the Toa's fight with the Morbuzakh. That had been absolutely terrifying and thrilling at the same time and she was positive that if the Matoran hadn't formed into one (which had TOTALLY made her think of Dragonball Z) then she'd be plant feeder right now. Not only did she owe those brave matoran her life, but she had also made some of her first friends among them. Visola was energetic and reminded her of an overly enthusiastic big sister. Even so, she'd enjoyed learning about Ga-Metru from the native Ga-Matoran. Nuhrii, the Ta-Matoran, had tried to explain in detail to her the forging of masks. While Kate had found it interesting, it was thanks to Vakama that she still had ears to hear with. Tehutti had finally gotten over his strange aversion to her and went on and on about his pride and joy in the archives. He'd even promised to show it to her some time. That was, if she wasn't mistaken for a new type pf rahi and ended up in there herself. While he had seemed to think it was a joke, she and Whenua didn't find it very funny. Ehrye was a talkative matoran who swore that he would be a great scholar in the Ko-Metru towers one day. This had caused another argument between Kate and Nuju when the Ice Toa had quickly told Ehrye to 'Not count on it.'
Ehrye had quickly stopped an all out fight by quickly telling Kate that he was 'used to it', but that he'd prove Nuju wrong one day. Kate had told him that was the spirit while still shooting cold glares at the Ice Toa's back. What right did he have to tell somebody that their dreams were unachievable! Some protector...
Then there was Orkahm. From conversations she'd overheard between the Toa and matoran, Le-Matoran were supposed to be fun-loving, fast moving, crazy little buggers. Orkahm was anything, but! He was responsible and often thought before he spoke, unlike his bigger counterpart, Matau. The Toa of Air was a complete representation of what Kate imagined Le-Matoran to be. But that didn't mean everyone was like that. Kate liked listening to Orkahm talk about his Ussal Crab, and all the jobs they did. Now Akmou... The Po-Matoran had issues to say the least. He wasn't very sociable and seemed to avoid contact with the others as much as possible. Not to mention he was jumpy. She'd never gotten to have a proper conversation with him before he'd stormed off after the whole Morbuzakh thing.
Those memories, although recent, were some of the best ones Kate had. The Toa had even seemed to be warming up to her, a few of them already trusting her completely. Whenua and Matau seemed to enjoy her company as much as she enjoyed theirs. Nuju, while he had admitted that Kate didn't appear to mean any harm to them, was still frigid towards her. Not that she cared. The guy's high and mighty attitude got on her nerves anyway! So the incident with the giant vine thing had ended. And yet, Kate would do anything to fight it again. By herself if she had to! Compared to this... At least with the Morbuzakh, she knew who her enemy was and that there was a way to defeat it. Here in the dark, she knew nothing.
Why did she have to follow the Toa down that stupid hole! She could be safe on the surface right now! When the Toa had parted down the six different tunnels, Whenua had told her to stay out and he would come get her when he was sure there was nothing to worry about. What seemed like hours had passed and nobody had come back from the tunnels. So, against her better judgment, she had wandered into the tunnels herself. And now, here she was. If only her mom could see her now!
Kate glanced from side to side in the almost pitch black. Did she dare chance it? She'd been through all of this crap already and she hadn't once used one of her strange abilities. But she felt so insecure just standing here in the dark. Undecidedly, she bit her lip. Then, slowly, she allowed a faint, purplish glow to radiate from her hands, illuminating what she couldn't see. It was better, she had to admit. But still far from comforting. Hesitantly, she began walking down the dark tunnel again, her ears straining to hear anything and everything she may have to run from. At one point she could have sworn she heard the sounds of battle coming from further down the tunnel, but when she explored further, all she found was a caved in wall and burn marks on the ceiling. It was odd, but what did she know about odd? For all she knew, this could be an everyday occurrence!
What she did know was that she was getting tired of just walking aimlessly. Because, by this point, she was hopelessly lost now. What was she supposed to do in a situation like this? Wait for the Toa to find her? Yeah right. With the way they got along, they were more likely to attack each other than to come running to find a lost little human. She kept walking, her shuffling feet echoing off the walls around her. What other choice did she have?
What felt like hours later, Kate had finally had enough! "ARGH! WHAT IS IT WITH THIS PLACE AND TUNNELS!"
Her voice echoed back at her, harsh on her ears after the silence of the last few hours. Thinking back on it, raising her voice that much had probably not been such a good idea. Even as she thought it, something came flying out of the darkness at her. The teen barely had time to dodge before the wall behind her was exploding.
"Ahhh!" Kate cried, covering her face with her hands and wincing when little pieces of stone either bounced off her or cut into her. When the wall had finished collapsing, she looked up to see a reptilian-like creature. What had the Toa called it again? Oh, right. A Rahkshi. Man, this place seemed to be crawling with the buggers.
Fearfully, Kate stood and backed toward the ruined wall, her eyes never leaving the staff of glowing energy at the Rahkshi's side. "S-stay away from me!" Her voice shook and she had her hands at her sides in case she needed to throw an electrical* current at it or something.
The creature shrieked, revealing an ugly, worm like thing in its head and it took a small step closer. Kate took a step back. Then another and another, as the Rahkshi grew bolder and began to close in on the intruder. Too soon, there wasn't anywhere for Kate to back into anymore, as her back pressed against the ruined wall. She watched in absolute horror as the staff charged and then she was diving for cover when some kind of energy bolt was released and heading for where she had been. The blast finished off what was left of the wall and a fuzzy orangish light filled the tunnel, replacing the black. A warm heat slowly followed that light, replacing the chill as well. The Rahkshi froze, a low hiss escaping the horrid little worm thing in its head and the yellow creature was backing off, staff forgotten on the ground. A few moments later and it was gone, leaving Kate in a daze and a feeling that she should be doing the same. Instead, she stood her legs still a bit shaky. Naturally, she wanted to run, but something pulled her to the large hole in the wall and towards that light. What she saw didn't exactly astound her or anything, but it certainly caught her attention. The chamber beyond the wall was humungous, easily two football fields. In its center was a depression filled with the source of the light and heat, something that to the human resembled lava. Yet it wasn't lava. Somehow, she was sure of that. There were glowing stones mounted along the walls of the chamber, adding to the luminescent glow. How weird.
"Kate?"
Kate jumped, swinging around in fear and confusion upon seeing nobody in the chamber with her. There was nothing. "Who –who's there?"
"Up here!"
Kate's eyes darted to the ceiling, her look of fear being replaced with one of stunned surprise. The Toa of Earth was pasted to the ceiling by some kind of webbing and bound so tightly, only his head could move. "Whenua? Is that some kind of game?"
The ebony Toa rolled his eyes. "Not funny! Is it really you?"
Kate stared at him, confused. "Of course it's me! What do I look like? Some kind of Ice Toa with a sour attitude?"
"Alright, it's you." Whenua chuckled. "Think you can get me down?"
"Ummmmm… Maybe if I knew how you got up there first."
"Oh, believe me, you don't want to know." Whenua grumbled. "Just… Try something…"
Kate bit her lip, glancing around the chamber for anything that may help her up there. Nothing. This place was almost entirely empty of anything. Was it even inhabited? Kate was at a loss for what to do when her eyes suddenly strayed over the gaping hole she had come through. Then she finally had an idea. She turned back to Whenua. "Hold on for a bit."
"Oh I'm not going anywhere…" Whenua said, his voice trailing off when he noticed she had already left. It wasn't long until she was back, a Rahkshi staff in hand. His eyes widened. "Where'd you get that?"
"You don't want to know." Kate grinned. "Now I just gotta figure out how to work the stupid…!" A thin beam of energy crackled from the end of it when Kate placed her hand over a sensor of some kind. The beam flew through the room, missing the Earth Toa's head by inches. "Oops…"
Whenua felt his hopes plummeting. "Please tell me you're not a bad shot…"
"That was an accident!" The blond protested. "You can't blame me for not knowing how this thing works!"
"Well, while you figure it out, try pointing it somewhere else!"
Kate rolled her eyes and grumbled to herself as she experimented with the sensors. It seemed that the harder she gripped it, the more powerful the blast. With that in mind, she pulled the end up to face the trapped Toa. Carefully, she applied pressure until a thin beam shot across the room and hit the edge of the webbing holding Whenua's are hostage. The webbing was singed and the strands loosened, allowing Whenua to pull his arm free. Then he set to work freeing the rest of his body. In no time at all, he was swinging from the last few strands until he had gained enough of an arc to clear the depression below him. He hated to think about what would happen if he were to actually fall into the boiling protodermis below him. He swung just as the last of the webbing detached itself from the ceiling, falling with a sizzle into the boiling protodermis. Whenua had successfully cleared the depression and whooped in success.
Kate let go of the staff, happy to be done with it. Then, she yelped in surprise when she was lifted from the ground and found herself in a Toa of Earth bear hug. Her cheeks turned bright pink.
"Thank you, Kate!" Whenua said, squeezing the girl in a tight hug. "I thought I would die up there!"
"U-uh… You're welcome, Whenua." Kate replied breathlessly. "Now could you maybe let go? It's getting hard to breathe."
"Oh, sorry!" Whenua quickly put her down and let her catch her breath. "C'mon. We need to catch up to the others." He knelt and picked up the staff, pushing it into Kate's hands. "And it may be a good idea to keep this. You may need it."
With that, he left Kate to follow him out as he muttered to low for the girl to hear, "I just hope we're not too late."
Please R+R!