Hordika Under the Bed
"Mic?" Whenua's voice asked and she was nudged, "Open your eyes, it's over." She was nudged again. The falling had just...stopped, but there was no squishing involved. It had just been a swift shift and the human had been set down.
For a few seconds she recited a memorized poem in her head before daring to open her eyes. But something wasn't right... what was she seeing? Whenua's face mostly took up her vision and his shifted, pretty much sitting on Vakama as the smaller Hordika calmed down.
"Are you alright?"
"Wh-What happened?" she answered with a question of her own, feeling like she was still falling though she wasn't. Stupid after effects...
"Less than dignified way of getting home." Vakama mumbled getting his head and neck free, blinking slowly as he took in the dark landscape, "Po-Metru?"
"Yes." Whenua nodded, standing and picking Mic up to set her on her feet.
Her eyes were huge and she couldn't help blurting out, "PO-METRU?" as the black Hordika did this. When she was upright she only fell back to her knees, in utter shock, but at least she was upright for the most part. 'Po-Metru!'
Both Hordika hissed at her, Whenua's paw like hand wrapping around her mouth (and around her neck as a result). They tensed, looking around, spinner patches humming to life as they did so
The human went stiff, though a tremble escaped every other second as her brown eyes snapped to the right and left. This... couldn't be happening.
Rocks were heard shifting and falling...and then something cat-shaped slinked out of the darkness into view. It was as big as a dog, bio-mechanical and chasing a six legged bug-thing.
Whenua relaxed, "Just a Po- tiger."
Mic wrenched her head free from him as a result, but made no more blurted shouts of shock or disbelief... best to just keep those inside the head. The human panted slightly, looking around before turning, as if hoping to see the way back to her reality.
It looked like a half rounded cave thing, more dug into the side of a bluff, now pits or places above to fall from. Back in front the 'tiger' had pounced on the bug-thing, evidently killing it before darting off with its prize. Vakama slid around the other two and outside, sniffing and scanning around.
"Looks clear."
At first, the only thing Mic wanted to do was go back, to get back to home... but remembering the freaky being and the, oh lord, Rahkshi she thought better of it. On looking past Vakama she could see a very different world than her own. Not even books could go into as much detail of the real life Metru of stone.
Though dark, there was still enough light to see the general outlines of what could only be a rocky desert. It was wide and vast as Whenua nudged Mic out ahead of him, the black Hordika's bulk shielding her on one side. The smells of hot rocks and the warmth under foot suggested that it hadn't been dark too long.
"Stay close," Whenua said, "You stand out a bit."
The human had no intentions of NOT staying close whatsoever. But as for standing out... Mic got a bad feeling in her stomach as she walked out, trailing behind Vakama, unconsciously gripping her phone within her pocket. Like that would actually do anything in this situation. "What... happens now?" she asked slowly.
"At the moment," Vakama looked back, "Get into the archives, more secure."
"I think we should stop by the market first," Whenua cut in, keeping his pace so Mic could fallow, "We can get the little one a," He said something that the translation stone put the word 'poncho' in the human's mind.
Mic tipped her head slightly, confused. "A what?"
"A...cover." Whenua said slowly, coming up with another word, "It's going to get very cold in a little bit."
She just nodded, knowing they knew more about their island home than she did. The thin green jacket she wore probably wouldn't be as much help out here.
The market was far too... dead. Both Vakama and Whenua had been to the Po-Metru markets and it was just far too creepy not to see it packed with Matoran bodies. The earth elemental paused walking down the street, dipping his head to gently lift something off the ground, a Kanoka disk?
"At least the Po-Matoran had some warning." Vakama said from where he was inspecting some more disks, and what had to be a Matoran sized launcher, "They really did put up a fight."
Despite how dead the place was, Mic had a sense of curiosity as she gazed at the Matoran designed market. She spotted the launcher the red Hordika was looking at. "Against what?"
"Vahki," Vakama said with a snort, shaking himself from head to tail tip. He looked more than a little sad, almost sulking more than walking.
"They're shut down," Whenua said, huffing and returning to his scenting, adding more to Vakama next, "Nuju's been trying reprogram them to go after the Visorak."
"That's... smart," Mic said lamely, nudging a disk with her foot. She scanned the area again with her eyes. "So, where do I find a 'cover' you mentioned?"
"Over here," Whenua said, having walked away some odd paces and now sat down in front of a store front, he was far too big to fit inside but motioned Mic to go in, "Fabrics." He explained as Vakama sat down beside him, but facing the other direction.
Mic entered the empty shop, glad that the roof was not too low. The inside was dusted with sand and small webs, but it wasn't badly cluttered. Making her way through, she found something that looked promising and proceeded to shake it, dust and sand flying.
It was a rug.
A very pretty rug, the weave was actually dark blue with a yellow pattern in it like fire. It probably belonged to the owner of the store, or he was reselling it. There were some displays of assorted fabric things in this front room, but there was a door in the back that lead to the back of the store in a wider room/chamber for storage.
Mic walked through the shop until she reached the storage room, still holding her new found treasure. Sure enough, in the back were a good amount of different assorted fabrics, ranging from all sizes and lengths. Mic glanced at the rug over her forearm and then back to the wide room, jumping slightly when a biomechanical rat-like thing scurried across the floor.
Unexpectedly another of those 'tigers' dropped down from above and with a little church the rat-thing was no more. Unlike the one outside in the desert this one was smaller and a light tan and white colors instead of dark brown. Wide blue eyes turned up at Mic and the Rahi mewed.
The human clutched her rug tight, startled, but relaxed slightly. It wasn't very large, maybe a bit bigger than Abby. Still, it was a Rahi...
Mic watched it for a moment. "Well... you're kinda pretty, huh?" she laughed quietly at herself.
It mewed again, ducking to pick up the rat thing and trotting over, sitting in front of Mic, looking very smug about itself as it put the vermin at her feet. This wasn't a wild Rahi, in fact it had writing etching on the armor.
"Ahh... thank you," Mic said, somewhat disgusted. Taking note of the writing, but not being able to read it, she decided that it wasn't wild. It could be the shop owner's pet, used for catching the rats that got it maybe. Bending, Mic cautiously petted its head.
"You abandoned, Mr. Rattrap?"
The feline Rahi gave a light purr lifting up a little to accept the pet, arched it's back as it rubbed against Mic. Relieved enough to see anyone Matoran-like that it was willing to over look the pure organic thing.
Mic rolled her eyes with a smile. "Seems anything that purrs can't leave me alone," She gave one more stroking before moving on, spotting a good piece of fabric. Thicker than her own jacket too. It was a faded shade of blue, with an interesting yellow pattern running along the hem.
Mic got right to work in putting the fabric over her own clothing. In the end, it resembled something of a shawl. She turned to 'Rattrap' and shrugged. "It'll do."
The Rahi tilted it's head, mewed again and looked down at the rat-thing, and back up at Mic, expectantly. It was probably used to getting a treat or food, though it didn't seem to mind her taking the new shawl. It's white tail swished through the dust and kept its large blue eyes on the human.
The girl sighed sadly. "I don't have anything for you..." The Rahi's expectant, slightly longing expression made Mic sighed again, harder. 'Can't resist... cute animals.'
"Well, maybe I can find you something up front," she said to herself. Perhaps the owner keept treats or something in the front of the store, so she went back and looked around the counter areas. Mic eventually found a stone-made basket seeming item hidden away, and inside were... some kind of weird... strips.
The Rahi fallowed her out, bee-lining over to one wall where, under a display table was a mini-pool of water that was hocked up to the water line for the water kept moving. The Rahi trilled as it bounded over to Mic, not seeing Whenua and Vakama lower their heads to peer in at them.
The rahi hopped up to a table before going back down as it remembered it wasn't supposed to be up there. With another trill it sat and all but wiggled as it waited.
"Okay then," Mic murmured, pulling out one of the strips, thinking about how much this rahi reminded her of Abby whenever she got the dog treats out. Mic flung the treat through the air, toward the awaiting Rahi.
It backed up, startled but managed to catch it. Scrambling a little but flopped down to start chewing.
"Its hand trained," Whenua said softly so not to startle either. "Po- and Onu-Matoran use them to keep the vermin populations down."
"Like a housecat," Mic nodded, watching the Rahi chew away for a few moments. She turned and started for the exit/entrance, and the waiting Hordika, noting how much darker it was now.
"You could set a few of the food containers down." Whenua said tilting his head to focus one glowing eye on Mic. "It might be a while before her master comes back..."
"Right," Mic quickly went back in and found them, setting them on the ground. '..."Her!" Mr. Rattrap is a girl,' she thought to herself, mentally face palming. Well, how was she supposed to figure out biomechanical Rahi genders? Mic shook her head at herself, giving Miss Rattrap some more strokes to the head before leaving.
Vakama was watching, humming in approval as Mic came out. Neither Hordika got too close so not to scare the tamed Rahi inside. Already it was getting cooler out as Whenua had said.
Thankful for the new shawl, Mic looked to the two larger Hordika. "Now where do we go?"
"Down," Whenua said, pleased with going back underground to his home Wahi/Metru, "The others were heading to the Onu-Suva last I saw them."
"Down," Mic repeated, knowing what that meant. "How far is the Suva from here?"
"Normally with the chutes working a few hours." Whenua make a face, "Walking or even loping straight will take us until next nightfall."
"But we can't go straight can we?" Vakama asked as he stood up.
'Wow,' Mic thought. 'Metru Nui must be waaay bigger than I thought.' The thought of walking so long did not sound very pleasing... not when your body would be asleep by now. The timing was off in this world than in hers.
"Straight?" Mic repeated.
"No," Whenua shook his head as he stood up on all fours, stepping over and crouching down. "Get on Mic, I can move faster and it'll be as cold as Ko-Metru in less than an hour."
The human did as she was told and climbed onto the larger of the two Hordika. Finding herself in a similar position as she had been with Vakama, Mic shifted a bit and got a better grip, not even bothering to ask if she were too heavy this time.
Vakama flashed her a grin as he did a kind of half trot to keep up with his brother's longer 'normal' stride. "How's the view?"
She just smirked and said, "Not too bad. I've been higher, though. "
"It might be a better idea if you stick more to ground level." Whenua said, looking back, "And avoid going with the climbers, Matau and Nuju."
"At least Nuju is sensible." Vakama grumbled.
"I'll keep that in mind," Mic glanced around as they went. The city was just so... dark and... quiet. For now at least. A thought suddenly came to her: what happened if the Visorak attacked them? The thought suddenly reminded her how real everything was now.
Sidorak and Roodaka were at the Coliseum, too. 'Ohhhh, why did I have to remember THAT?'
The red Hordika sniffed, huffed, and then leaned up to lick Mic's hand, having picked up on her fear. Probably smelled it, and if so the earth elemental did too because he hummed under her.
Mic let out a deep breath and set her head down on the earth Hordika's back. "...tell me again how long until we get there?"
"Tomorrow night, late." The earth giant rumbled, scanning around the buildings and carvings before spotting what he wanted. And arch like structure on one end and sloping into the ground.
"Wait," Vakama paused, scenting and looking up.
"What's wrong?" Mic asked, sitting up a bit, eyes on Vakama.
"Hang on," Whenua warned as he got ready to run, hearing the whine of power from not only Vakama's power but from other points in the dark as well, "And stay low,"
Mic immediately tightened her grip on Whenua, clinging at him as new fear rushed through her, keeping herself plastered to his back. "It's them isn't it?" she whispered.
Her answer was twin roars, the deeper more deathening one from Whenua as he launched himself forward. Vakama's howl was a bit lighter and sound more mixed, yet there was a counterpoint shrieks from several directions. The earth Toa was making for the underground entrance, for all the world acting like a living tank as the dark Bionicle plowed through two large green forms that dropped down.
Mic let out a scream, unable to hold it in, and shut her eyes tightly, her senses picking up the Hordika's fast movement under her.
'Visorak!' her mind screeched. Already memories of the movie and how the Toa Metru were mutated ran through her mind. She did not want the same to happen to her. All the human could do was put her trust in Whenua, and hope for safety.
Hordika could move extremely fast, the bio-mechanical-ness of their boding helping, but Whenua... The earth elemental could sprint, his line of true Hordika ancestors were ambush predators, not like Vakama who could chance down pray. He slowed just shy of the entrance, apparently just enough for a stray spinner in the air to graze over his back.
...His back were there should have been a clinging human!
A freaky sensation spread over the human when she hit the ground, the spinner having knocked her clean off Whenua. First there was a tingling, and then it vanished... along with her own ability to move! Mic gasped in horror, unable to get up and run; her brain was demanding to but her body did not response.
This was... very bad. But her voice had not gone. Mic screamed again, hearing the Visorak approaching from out of her sight.
There was a thumb, from four points all around the girl and the sensation of something big above her. With her face making friends with the road way. The thing above her, in could only be a Visorak hissed and works mandibles...
...and then there was a pulse of energy that ripped the air and made the earth itself trembled and vibrated. Whenua was roaring again as he charged over to grab Mic.
"Help me!" Mic shrieked, rendered completely helpless to the four Visorak around her. The one closest was making that hurried sound, just like in the movie. The human shifted her eyes upward, only able to see a dark shape.
"Help me!" Mic shrieked, rendered completely helpless to the Visorak above her. It was making that hurried sound, just like in the movie. The human shifted her eyes upward, only able to see a dark shadow
That shadow was jerking and twitching as the spike-like feet of the creature dragged too close. There was another earth-rattling tremor and pulse of energy before the spider like monster was blowed over and away from Mic. She might see the stream lined form Vakama launching at the rolled over Visorak, a moment later though long, powerful claws wrapped around the human's middle and lifted her up off the ground.
The human tried to thrash, in the dark about who or what was picking her up, but that failed of course so she yelled instead, trying to get a better look as her head rolled around. "What the heck!"
Tucked up close to the hard, half metallic body Mic could feel a clearly Hordika growl as one to the Toa, probably Whenua carried her. The earth elemental was doing a half loping run, alternating between two legs and three before diving into the dark and underground, "Vakama! Lock the door!" He bellowed over his shoulder.
Rolling her eyes around to try and spot the fire Hordika, Mic saw mostly blackness in the underground entrance. But she still could not see the red Hordika.
Where was Vakama?
The air spiked in temp, but Whenua was keeping Mic close and at a bad angle to see what was going on. After a moment he set the human down against the wall and bounded over to bat off a Visorak from Vakama's back and stood to close the door as the smaller Vakama fumbled with a glowing panel to one side.
Mic remained in the place where she was set, still unable to move her body. She panted heavily as she watched the two Hordika, as the door was being closed, locking the Visorak outside. It also took away whatever moonlight there had been as they were submerged in underground darkness.
"Well this is nice." Vakama grunted after taking in the sudden quite and darkness.
"Use your spinner if you need," Whenua's voice said as he moved back over to Mic. To the side there was a hum of power and a dim red light formed on Vakama's back. "Mic?"
She would have moved her head if she could. "I can't move..."
"It'll ware off," Whenua assured as he reached out to lift her up into his arms, "Sorry Vakama and I aren't of the healing elements."
"I hope is does soon," Mic replied, not very used to being like a lifeless ragdoll. Remembering what had just took place she added, "And thanks."
The Toa's glowing eyes turned down to the human, extremely bright in the dark, "Don't worry, it will."
"Just... what exactly happened out there?" she asked. She had been either keeping her eyes shut, or had her face in the ground. So she wasn't all too sure about what had been going on around her. "What about you guys? Are you okay?"
"Just a couple bits," Vakama assured, walking on all fours beside his brother so he was out of sight, "And it was a small pack of Visorak. About six."
To herself Mic was glad that she HADN'T truly seen much. Giant spiders would be her number one nightmare. She rolled her eyes, remembering what Vakama had said before giving him a bath about not going to Metru Nui because of her bug fear.
And now look where she had wound up. "Geez, I'll settle for the wolf spiders any day than those... /things./" she said, frowning.
"What?" The earth Toa asked, "Are those a Rahi?"
"Uh huh," was the dull reply. "They're tiny, hairy, and disgusting... found one when I was giving him a bath." It was obvious who the 'him' was, since 'him' was walking beside Whenua, though out of her sight.
"Not that impressive," Vakama said with a snort.
"That was just a baby," Mic said. "The adults are freakier."