Co-Authored by Dragon Claw92 and Omicron the IceQueen
Queen's notes: Hero, meet another hero!
Heroes of Spherus Magna
Welcoming Party
It had been a while now since Macku got up from her rest, and the trip had been rather boring... however, everything changed when the wind did. Stormer gave a sudden shudder and glanced around. "...are my sensors malfunctioning, or does something smell... wrong?"
The female looked up and snorted, than sniffed the air, she blinked both sets of lids. "That's odd."
"That word works too, but it doesn't explain what it is." The veteran remarked, frowning as he glanced around, mostly in the direction of the wind. "What sort of thing even makes a scent like that?"
Mack tapped her fingers on her light armor, walking along beside the mech, but standing on one of the many small islands while he drifted on the raft. It just about put them even. "I... I don't know but it seemed familiar somehow..."
Stormer didn't know if he liked the sounds of this or not, keeping an eye out on the surroundings to try and figure out what was out there. "Familiar in a good way? Or a bad way?"
"Bad, that smells like...Visorak..." the girl shivered taking a few steps closer to the safety that water was to a Ga-Matoran.
The bot thought that over. "...Visorak... you mentioned those to me earlier, didn't you?" He asked grimly, his expression showing plainly that he wasn't liking this situation in the slightest.
Nodding, and pulling out her collapsed spear to hold onto Macku spoke up again, "Yes I did, they are, very, bad rahi. They're the ones with the mutagen venom."
"...right. Those ones." Stormer instinctively moved to pull out his weapon, but remembered it was broken and stopped himself. "...what's the likelihood that it will find us?"
"I'm not sure if it is one of the spiders, they travel in hordes, not alone," The Matoran sniffed again. "This is different."
"...mutant hybrid?" The bot suggested, expression still grim as he kept an eye out on the surroundings. "I've seen a few mutant creatures before, and none of them were fun to deal with..."
"A mutant Visorak...?" The Ga-Matoran looked visible sick, and the dark hide between the blue armor took a more gray than brown tint. "I don't think so... its more than likely an altered Rahi... and that mound wasn't there before." She added in a tone that was calm but the snapping of a spear extending was warning that she wasn't as calm.
Stormer gave a small nod of sorts as he turned his gaze to the bump she indicated. "...a burrower, perhaps?"
"I'd rather not find out," Macku said backing up and crouching to step into the water, but she froze for a moment at seeing the hill move up higher.
The veteran bot watched the hill suspiciously, ready to move, but hoping whatever it was wouldn't go for them as he too got lower down on his raft to try and make himself harder to see.
The earth shifted... and growled, rising up as the island split and cracked, falling away as large oval eyes, a bright glowing three tone color of reds in the cent and back drop, with a horizontal green ring. A massing head shook free the dirt, the grasses and aquatic moss hanging off it and two sets of curling and curving horns, giving it a shaggy look. The rest of the creature was still in the muck, but already partly standing up at a good twelve feet, twice as tall as the white mech.
Stormer's optics widened as he stared up at it. "...What... is that...?" For the moment, he seemed to almost forget he was a Hero. Granted, this creature was huge, and he... well, wasn't.
And those were some sizable teeth, even if they were scarily blunt.
"That was a... a rahi- and it's different...oh Mata Nui." The Ga-Matoran gasped spotting dull, rotted metal, flailing as she stepped too far and fell into the water. Only to pop back up, alarmed, "That's an infected Kanohi! Run!"
The creature, monster, roared and snapped.
Stormer flinched slightly at the roar, and quickly made to follow Macku. "That sounds like a very smart idea!" He could easily recall what Macku told him about infected masks, and though seeing one here was a bit confusing for him, he wasn't about to stop and ask questions. This was, after all, a time for action, and at the moment, that action was run. Very, very fast.
The Matoran flipped her spear into subspace and dove under the water, able to move much faster in it than over the islands like the mech for now. She was racing as the monster lunged up to all fours, shaking off the rest of the debris, one massive paw that was half claw half hoof came down on the raft Stormer used to be on.
Luckily for Stormer, he wasn't on the raft when this happened. His only problem now, however, was speed. He wasn't equipped for moving quickly through water, and he was still damaged, which impeded him even more. Despite this though, he did his best to keep up with Macku, his circuits humming as he tried to come up with away to possibly slow this monster down.
"Jump!" Macku yelled at the mech, launching herself up out of the water to scramble, and then had a running pace over the land, and jumped the short distance between this island to the next in the network. "You're too heavy to swim, up and over like this!"
The veteran managed to follow her, stumbling a little, but keeping on his feet as he raced after her. "Just had to get to land so I could manage that!" He remarked grimly. "I didn't get much of a chance to choose where I landed when I abandoned ship earlier!" He glanced briefly over his shoulder to gauge how far behind them the monstrous creature was. "How fast is that creature anyway?"
"They can nearly match a land Toa- Run to the Suva before it get's its balance!" Macku was panicked, and putting all her energy into fleeing, the Bionicle agility and her own sport history showing.
"That doesn't help me gauge the speed!" Stormer called after her, doing his best to keep up with her, though he did end up stumbling once or twice, something that cost him a fair bit of ground he was barely able to make back. "Does that thing have a weak point?"
"It means faster than we can go! And I don't know; it's not like I'm a Rahaga hunter!" The girl flailed but kept her balance as she looked back, seeing the mutated Rahi on its feet and starting to slog after the two, its heavier weight made the creature move at a slower rate, but it was still steadily gaining after mecha and Bionicle.
"Well, that's a speed I can at least understand." Stormer remarked, glancing over his shoulder and considering the situation a moment before getting an idea. Digging into his subspace and pulling out his only semi-functioning gun -he'd tampered with it a bit while Macku had been asleep- he pointed it at the soft ground in front of the Rahi and fired. An uncontrolled burst of what appeared to be liquid ice shot out, hitting the ground right in front of the monster and freezing it, though the impact also sent a spray of mud up, covering the ice just enough to make it hard to spot. Unfortunately, the kickback on his weapon hadn't been fixed, and ended up sending Stormer right off his feet, hitting the mud and sinking him in a little.
He wasted no time in getting himself loose, but by now he was likely in a severe danger zone, and all he could really do was hope the Rahi slipped enough to slow it down while he tried to catch up with Macku again.
The mutated rahi gave a trumpeting sound as it slid on the ice and mud, the fore hooves splaying out, and the massive head falling so one of the horns impaled into the soft earth by Stormer.
The mech was grasped by the arm and hefted up to his feet, Macku supporting the Hero for a moment before stepping away. She then rushed forward to thrust the spear ahead and into a gap between the armored head and infected mask. Macku yelped as if stung, but pushed at the spear turned lever to try and get the infected, rusty thing off.
Stormer gave a sharp, inhale-like noise as the horn just missed him, though he quickly got to his feet when Macku helped him up, expression grim as he moved in to try and help somehow. After all, he may have knocked the creature down, but it wasn't out, and until it was out of the fight there was no knowing what sort of trouble could happen.
"Push, push!" Macku cried, shoving with all her Bionicle born strength, her eyes on the staff as the unhealthy rusty colorations was moving from the infected mask to the spear, fallowing it up slowly to the Matoran. She looked at it, scared to death but still trying to remove it before the corruption made it to her.
Stormer nodded, taking hold of the spear lower down than Macku's hands and pushing with everything he could conjure up. He wasn't sure what the rust colorations meant, but it didn't take much for him to tell that Macku was afraid of it, and that meant it wasn't anything good. He decided he would ask questions about it later on, when their lives didn't depend on actions.
The creature's head jerked away, dragging the two with it by the spear, Macku yelped in turn as she was now under the bigger mech. "Don't let the corruption touch you- it infects the mind!" She was scrambling for her feet as the mutated creature bellowed, and a few seconds later something else roared an echo, but in a different tone of a second creature.
Stormer dug in his feet as he was moved, still holding onto the spear and trying to pry the infected mask off. "Great... another go round at going crazy." He muttered to himself before shaking his head and asking. "Do I want to know what that second call was?"
"What second call-" Macku yelped as she was jarred again, slipping on a patch of the ice and falling in an awkward pile in front of white feet. The Rahi growled, jerking his head up to get the little things away from its head, and to look up.
Stormer ended up jolted off his feet as well, forced to let go and ending up landing face-down in the mud nearby. Pulling his head out of the soft earth, he looked towards Macku, pushing himself out of the dirt and trying to help her up, though his optics were scanning the area, and keeping watch on the Rahi they were so dangerously close to.
The Matoran scrambled, getting a hold on the now no longer white mech, her grip was tightening as she watched orange flakes drifting down from above. Those glowing, tri-colored eyes looked up to see the infected Kanohi was flaking where the spear was still logged in. And then she screamed, scrambling to get away from the corruption that was so dangerous to Matoran.
The veteran wasn't as old as he was due to delaying, and no sooner had he caught sight of Macku's growing terror than he quite easily picked her up fully and made as fast as a retreat as he could, not daring to look back until they had at least made a little bit of headway in regard to escaping.
Macku wasn't exactly still, slapping at the muck on her form, then at his shoulders. At least being so covered the mud, it in turn insulated them from the flakes and once covered she was able to smear the orange and red flakes off safely, though she was more batting and slapping
Despite the distraction of being smeared with muck, Stormer kept running, letting Macku continue her endeavour as he kept running. He was used to holding onto moving 'targets', and at the present the Matoran in his arms wasn't causing too much of a problem. It wasn't like she kicked him, after all, and until she did something of that magnitude, it wouldn't have been hard to tell that the Hero's main focus was set to escape.
The earth shook, in a rhythmic thumping as the Rahi got back to its feet and make three bounds after the mech, the gaping maw open and descending. Then the creature gave a strangled sound, suddenly jerking to the side and away from Stormer and Macku, the sound of an even larger impact sounding of metal on metal. A deeper roar sounding, thunder deep and in comparison to the mutated creature, the second one sounded purely predator.
Stormer was nearly thrown off balance as the creature grew closer, but kept his footing and, even with the great beast being distracted, didn't stop to look back. If he had to know what was going on, he figured Macku would be the one to point it out on the way.
"Hewkii!" The Ga-Matoran cried, sounding relieved, but her grip on the mech didn't waver.
"Macku run!" A deep voice yelled, a snarling growl laced in the voice, and from the sound the speaker was big. "Both of you get to the Suva!"
The veteran bot didn't need to be told twice, since he'd pretty much been trying to pull that off already as it was. "I'm not sure who your friend is, but I owe him a thank you later." He remarked grimly, optics scanning around for an idea of where they were supposed to be going. "Macku am I going in the right direction?"
"Yes, ahead, fallow the elemental glow- wait, you can't-" She pointed forward, "It's the rounded thing ahead with blue lights!"
Giving the faintest of nods, the mech did his best to speed up, though he couldn't go as fast as before due to the added weight of carrying Macku. "Got it." He responded, taking note of the glowing lights, though he also made sure to keep an eye on the surroundings just in case there was something that could potentially get in his way or make him trip on the way there.
Something big came swooping overhead, there was more of a sense of movement and mass dropping behind and almost around Stormer. There was a wet thumping as two very large hands curled around both, lifting Stormer, and in turn Macku up and into a swirling wind.
"What the-" Stormer started saying, almost moving to react, but stopping himself before any such actions were done. Instead, he continued to hold onto Macku, trying to get a better view of what, or who, had just picked them up. The tone in his voice, however, was more than enough to imply he didn't take kindly to surprises when he was focused on other things.
A deep, almost armor vibrating deep rumble, a growl- no a purr came from the being holding the two, "Easypeace little brother, this is a ToaHero not Rahibeast, we will protect you," As he spoke in a strange rhythmic flow of alien words, almost like a song as it- he, loped with far longer strides to the Suva temple. And as soon as he was in the light, even dim, the robotic like giant stooped, green armor glowing brightly.
The veteran just studied the being closely, trying to make heads or tails of just what he was looking at, as well as, perhaps, what the being said. Part of it he understood, but the linked words were making it take longer for his processors to work through. Eventually though, he had it figured out reasonably enough, and gave a faint nod. "Alright. ... Thank you."
The being lowered them to the ground, dropping Stormer but catching Macku and letting her off his hand with gentle care and a green, one red, orange and white eye winking before rising back up and turning to charge back to the sounds of the fight in the dark.