Lego owns Bionicle and the name Ketongu. Hasbro owns Transformers and the name Xanthium. Galem owns the characters: Tali, Ava, Amber, Iris, Diego, Alyan, Adhira, Valera, and Kasar.
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Chapter 17: Hiding
After Ops had finished climbing up the tree, he carefully sat Tali on the branch against the trunk, before then walking to and perching next to Slash. All three allies tried their hardest to stay quiet as possible as they watched the Makutacon, KillShot, pass by underneath them, adjusting the firepower to his multi-cannon to the firing pace of a single round per second. Ops tensed when he noticed this, realizing that this Makutacon was smart. He wasn't sure how much ammo this Makutacon had in that oddly shaped gun, but Killshot was certainly doing his best to conserve his ammo. That, and possibly that this guy could aim a lot better than the other Makutacons. Sure, the Makutacons knew how to use their guns and elemental powers, but they weren't always too good. That just made this guy all the more threatening.
For a second, Ops began to feel like he had just entered this war all over again. The first time Ops and his team had met a Makutacon had actually been in this exact same forest, and they had been pretty unprepared then. If it hadn't been for Armor, saving them when he had, they may not have made it out of there alive. Now here Ops was again, hiding and severely unprepared. 'Deja vu can be really sick sometimes'. Ops thought.
Slash waited until KillShot was too far away to possibly hear them before quietly ordering: "Everyone stay quiet. Make a wrong move, and we'll be dead before WE know it".
Tali bit back the urge to groan as the tension made her muscles tug and pull on her wound, making the pain flare up again. 'I really hate this.'
Ops turned his head to Slash, an eyebrow raised. 'The way Slash talks about KillShot...' It was like the Toabot had actually encountered this one before, and the hairs raising on the back of his neck was not a very good indication on their chances of survival. "You KNOW him"?
Slash frowned at the Makutacon's distant back as he replied: "The fudge nugget killed most of my uncles. So yeah. I'd say I know him pretty well".
Tali tightened her grip of Ops' arm as a wave of fear washed over her. A Makutacon who had murdered so many of Paradox's brother's ?! That was enough to make the Toa Rahayu of Water tremble. Ops noticed Tali's watchful gaze of the con and pulled her protectively close. He didn't care how dangerous any Makutacon was. If they posed a danger to anyone he cared for, he was going to protect them. But seeing as they probably wouldn't last very long in this case, Ops knew that he was going to have to strategize his next move carefully. Especially if he wanted to get everybody out alive.
"So how do we get past him"? Ops asked him.
Slash doubted there WOULD be a way though. If they made the slightest of noises climbing back down the tree, which would pretty much be caused purely by walking across all the fallen leaves, KillShot would definitely notice. Even if they were lucky enough to get away, they would have no idea of knowing where KillShot was. HE could be anywhere as he was wasting time thinking. Regardless, they were trapped, and if they were ever going to get out of this forest to warn the other Toabots of an imminent attack, there would be only one way out: to fight and hope at least one of them made it.
But before Slash could tell his friends that, he felt his GPS/Tracker vibrate in his leg slit. Slash raised an eyebrow as he took out the device and gazed at it, knowing that the only reason this thing ever went off was if there were friends or enemies nearby. KillShot's was always masked, hence his massive kill count, so it couldn't be him. Upon seeing just who was on the device however, Slash immediately looked worried. "Oh no".
"What "oh no"?" Tali's voice wavered a bit. What else could possibly go wrong now?! Seriously? Can the universe give them just a slight breather?!
Slash frowned as he explained: "Three signatures. Edward, Alyan and Green. But here's the weird thing: Edward and Alyan's signatures are farther away from Greens. And from the looks of it, Alyan and Edward are traveling together".
At the mention of her teammate being with a known enemy, Tali's heartlight sank. "What?" She whispered, more to herself. "No, no, Alyan. Please tell me you didn't..." Her voice trailed off as her mind refused to believe that he had, in a sense, betrayed her. It was like the archery course all over again, only this time there was no physical arrow or wound, but she felt the pain in her heartlight all the same. She wanted to cry, to scream, to beg Alyan to come back, to let him get killed by a Toabot, to hug him, to strangle him, to kill herself, to pound Edward into a pulp. But all she could do was grip the branch she was sitting on as her emotions played ping pong in her head and heartlight.
Slash quickly placed his device back into his leg slot, glaring into nothingness. "That fragging spawn of a glitch". Slash muttered angrily as he unseathed both of his wing-shaped twin swords from the magnetizer on his back.
'That guy dares to go turncoat on us'?! Slash thought ragefully. 'The people who have had his back ever since the first day he had joined us'?! He guessed Xanthium was right when he said he was going to tear the Toabots apart, and it was kind of scaring that his plans were working in that department. But regardless, it was clearly Alyan's choice to betray everyone who cared about, and surely he knew that it was going to break their heartlights and just didn't care. For that, he was going to make SURE that Alyan would pay!
Without even thinking, Tali found herself glaring at Slash sternly as a leader would their subordinate and speaking to him in such a stern tone that she didn't even know she had. "Slash, no! I forbid you from harming Alyan. Do not forget that he is just as skilled in the sword as you are, even more so, despite being blind."
Slash turned quickly in Tali's direction, glaring down at her for trying to defend the afthole as he responded: "He's a TRAITOR Tali".
Ops quickly got between the two, glaring back at Slash as he explained: "That does NOT mean we have to kill him".
Slash nodded. "I agree. I'm not going to kill him". Slash glared down at nothing below them as he continued: "I'm gonna make him wish he was never born. I'm sorry guys, but this is infuriating". Slash finished as he tightened his grip on his swords and prepared to jump down before a familiar voice stopped him.
"You know what is REALLY infuriating?" Tali froze at the displeased voice and looked up in it's direction to see its owner, Toa Adhira, glaring daggers down on all of them, her sapphire eyes ablaze with an anger that smoldered under the surface. Growing up, Tali had heard stories of the famous glare that could get both Tahu and Kopaka to shut up but never could understand how someone could give that intense of a look. Well, now she did...cause she was experiencing it first hand, and didn't like it. "Listening to you jumping to conclusions about your friend and teammate." Tali gave a quiet sigh of relief and relaxed a little when she noticed that the Vo Toa's attention was focused more on Slash than her and Ops.
"He's betrayed us". Slash quietly snapped at the Guardian Toa. "The very fact that he could easily kill Edward proves that, and I highly doubt he's been taken hostage".
Noticing the anger that continued to rise in the Toabot, Ops attempted to place a servo on his shoulder and said: "Slash, calm down".
As a friend of the Toabots, Ops had decided a while ago that he would always be there to help them in whatever way they needed, hence why he was wanting to help Slash. After all, the Toabots had done so much for them now, so they deserved his help as far as he was concerned. Plus, if Slash let his anger get too out of control, KillShot would surely find and kill them all.
But Slash yanked his shoulder out of the Autobot's reach and responded bitterly: "CALM DOWN"?!
"ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU!" Adhira snapped, unknowingly causing Tali to cringe a bit, as she focused her attention on the young Toabot. "You say Alyan is a traitor and yet, I see a young Toa who is walking down the same path that I and my brother made many years ago." It was true. Alyan's betrayal rang so familiar to Adhira that she felt more compassion than anger.
Slash cast a glare at Adhira. "You know what I just saw"? Slash asked her. "My father and my older sister and my brother in law all being trapped by my younger brother who, surprise, is a lying, backstabbing Makutacon! As if THAT wasn't bad enough. Tali's also hurt, we nearly died, KillShot is looking for us and the others don't even know that the Makutacons have a WWII worth of supplies, ready at the say of a word! And I'm sorry if I seem like a careless dirtbag, but I am hurting inside"!
Slash widened his optics in surprise after blurting out that last part. Of course it was true that he was hurting. Anyone in his situation surely would be. But to hear himself say it out loud, it only made his situation all the more painful and unbearable. Slash couldn't stop the waterfall of tears erupting from his optics, or his fall to his knees as everything hit him all at once. 'First Xanthium, then Orange, and now Alyan'? Slash thought as he buried his sobbing face into his hands. 'Who else intends on betraying us? And when will this all end'?
"We are all hurting, Slash." Adhira said, the anger gone from her posture and voice, as she knelt next to Slash. "You are not the only one. But whereas I doubt you can do anything about Xanthium, you can do something about Alyan. And it's not to beat him into a pulp." She chuckled a little at that last part, her words said in half jest.
Slash finally lifted his face to the Guardian Toa, but not with the interested or hopeful look she had been hoping to see. Instead, the Toabot was gazing up at her with eyes full of fear as he spoke: "What if there's no point in it"?
Ops tilted his head at slash, an opticridge raised as he asked: "What do you mean "no point"?"
Slash turned his head to face the Autobot. "Ops, you SAW what they had down there. Maybe this means..."
After all that had happened, Xanthium's betrayal, the resources the Makutacons currently possessed, and everyone else turning their backs on the Makutacons, what if there was no longer any point in fighting? What if the Toabots were never going to win this fight from the beginning? What if the Toabots were no longer fit to protect the earth from the Makutacon's unforgiving hatred? 'What if the Makutacons have actually beaten us this time'? Slash thought. 'And what if this time, we won't be able to fight back'?
Adhira's eyes glew brightly in rage as she realized what he was getting at. "Alright, that's it!" CRACK! Tali winced and yet stared in shock. Adhira, the kind, loving, caring, fun Adhira Metru, had just SLAPPED Slash across the face! Tali struggled to let her mind wrap around that as Adhira continued to lecture him. "Do you honestly think shear NUMBERS will win a battle? Yeah, they help, but if they are fighting for the wrong thing, they will fail! And last I checked, there are more with us than there are with them."
"No there's not"! Slash responded. "They've got more than last time. WAY more". Sure, they had a lot of Toabots, Toa, and Autobots, but their forces weren't even a fourth as big as the arsenal the Makutacons. Slash glared then. "And why did you Jack slap me"?
"I cannot believe you. Have you forgotten that being on the Lord's side means you have a whole host of angels round about you? And I'm not talking a few hundred. Try the ancient Roman army times a hundred and you're about a tenth there. Also, I slapped you because you weren't listening to a word I said and you were about to say something that shouldn't be said. You were starting to speak doubt and unbelief, the language of a quitter. And I refuse to let you quit now, Slash. If you want to help your family, you need to have the heart of a champion. That means talking faith despite the circumstances. Do you understand me?" Adhira lectured sternly, reminding Tali of the videos she used to watch of Optimus when he had to lecture a soldier.
Slash looked down, disappointed in himself as he responded: "I... I can try".
As grim as their current situation was, Slash knew Adhira was right. If Slash allowed himself to continue thinking like a quitter, the doubt would spread to all of his friends and he would only give the Makutacons what they wanted in the end. Or even worse, he would probably have given up and let KillShot do what he had come here for, preventing any chance of the Toabots knowing about the soon to come attack. If they were going to win this battle, they were going to have to stay hopeful and faithful that God would provide a way of victory for them, so as to spare the life on this earth, and protect it from the vengeful rage of the Makutacons. So from here on out, Slash would at try his absolute hardest to keep his faith and move forward, stronger with each step.
Suddenly remembering he had been smacked earlier, Slash rested a servo on his cheek, only to instantly pull it away. "AAAAAGH".
Ops immediately gave his friend a concerned look. "Are you OK"?
"No". Slash painfully responded.
Adhira deflated a bit as guilt replaced her anger. She hardly slapped anyone. It was more for when someone was going on with a pity party and they weren't THAT hard. So to see Slash cry out in pain from the pound she inflicted on him made her sad and upset at herself for not controlling her strength better. "I hit you a bit hard, didn't I?" She stated sadly as she knelt in front of him. "Here, let me see."
Slash let his hand down then, hissing a bit as a large dark purple hand-shaped mark was revealed. Ops widened his eyes upon seeing the mark, and fought off the urge to laugh as best as he could. The urge went away when he figured he wouldn't want to have been slapped in the face that harshly either. 'To think I thought mom's spankings would be the worst thing I could endure before I joined the Autobots'. Ops thought humorously.
"Remind me never to tick you off". Ops said to Adhira.
Adhira chuckled as she pulled out a small container from her subspace and opened it. "Thankfully, the only other time I got that mad was with my brother." She looked at Slash calmly as she scooped out a good amount of ointment in her fingers. "Now hold still, this might sting a little."
Famous last words.
Slash simply shrugged as Adhira's hand neared his cheek. "Nah, I think I can handle a little-"
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KillShot observed and listened to his surroundings closely, in an effort to find the targets whom Xanthium has sent him to assassinate. 'Or at least stall them for as long as you possibly can so that they will never get back to their precious base on time'. As Xanthium had also told the Makutacon. Regardless of what it would eventually come down to, at least KillShot would get to shoot at something. While he was loyal to the Makutacon cause, and to both Killer and Xanthium, guarding them both 24/7 with no risk towards their lives whatsoever was boring.
It was times like that where KillShot had really grown to miss the planet he and his race had been exiled to. At least there he was prompted to have fun in killing many Toabot fools who had dared to oppose him or do as much as step into a battlefield where he was rumored to be. 'Much more to do then'. KillShot thought. If it wouldn't alert those Toabots to his presence, he would've started shooting all the trees in this forest just to keep himself entertained. 'Just as long as I have something to kill, it'll be satisfactory. Now if only my Toabot brother were here as well, so I could properly finish him off. His single, orange eye gleamed at the thought of one day seeing his brother again and shooting him in every spot left unguarded by his armor piercing bullets. 'It would suit him right for daring not to join my side. I did bully him through most of his childhood anyways. It would serve him right to fear and obey me, even if I cannot be obeyed by any other Makutacon soldier'.
Suddenly his train of thought was interrupted by a loud: "AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH"!
KillShot quickly turned his head in the direction of the shout, noticing multiple birds flying away from a tree just about a yard away. KillShot blinked a bit at first, wondering just what had caused the Toabots to be so stupid as to rat out their own location. KillShot chuckled darkly then. Regardless as to what this reason was, the waiting and looking around was finally over. KillShot cocked his multi-cannon, his grin growing wider as he said to himself: "Now the fun begins".
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"Easy, Slash, easy!" Adhira nearly yelled as she struggled to both apply the healing ointment and calm the screaming Toabot down. "Just calm down and it won't hurt so much!"
Slash blushed immediately after hearing what Adhira had said. "I'm sorry, I just... I don't know".
Ops gently massaged his ear antennas, casting a bit of a glare at the Toabot as he commented: "Slash, I think you nearly murdered our eardrums".
"Never knew you could scream so loud, Slash." Tali muttered, shaking her head to get rid of the ringing in her ears. Her poor ears had survived everything from yelling drill sergeants to freaking air horns in her ears to blazing alarms at base. But this...that ear piercing scream...she wasn't sure her ears could survive.
"I for one would like a funeral bought and paid for. FOR said eardrums". Ops joked.
"I was half expecting it." Adhira chuckled as she dipped her hand into the container again and raised it to her mouth so she could breathe on it to warm it a bit. But she did make a mental note to have a medal made as the "Loudest Screamer" award for Slash when they get home.
Before Slash could question Adhira on as to why she was "half expecting it", he spotted something walking towards their tree. Slash widened his optics the second he spotted the Makutacon approaching slowly with a murderous glint in his single eye. 'Why didn't I think about him before screaming'?! Slash thought to himself. 'We were just talking about the guy a few minutes ago'!
Without even taking his optics off of the slowly approaching Makutacon, Slash quickly spoke: "Guys, KillShot's coming".
The ointment container clinked shut and was gone faster than the blink of an eye before Adhira stood and positioned herself between the group and the approaching Makutacon. She met KillShot's glare with her own, her wings raised in a threatening way, her element crackling across her min and feathers. KillShot simply stopped a few feet away, then looked her over observantly, trying to find any weak points he could take advantage of. 'She's not wearing too much armor over her min, so there IS that'. KillShot thought. With there being less armor on her than that of most Toa, that left her shoulders, knees, shins, neck, and upper arms exposed to attack. 'How interesting'. KillShot thought. 'Perhaps she thinks herself to be invincible? If that is indeed the case, perhaps I will go for her shoulders first'.
"If you're looking a fight, Con, I will gladly oblige." Adhira snarled, her eyes narrowing dangerously at him as she scanned him over for any possible weak points, her mind already creating back up plans for the back up plans for the back up plans.
KillShot responded with a sick grin in response to the Guardian Toa's challenge. A challenge of which, the Makutacon was more than willing to accept.
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Biomarvel740: Slash's response to Ops asking if he was okay is a reference to the ABC comedy hit series: The Office when Pam slapped Michael. What Adhira said about numbers only helping a bit in battle was a Narnia reference and she pretty much quoted Elisha in 2 Kings. Slash's outburst is also a reference to a Walking Dead game YTP. Though I cannot remember the name of said YTP. Also, their fight will not be in the next chapter. Instead, we will see how Z does with his mission.
Galem: I still can't get over Ops' quote of their eardrums being murdered. Lol!
Z: Wait a minute! I'm finally getting a chapter?! YES! Finally! lolololololololololol!
Biomarvel740: 9.9 Yes Z. You're getting your own chapter.
Galem: (chuckles) He's like a kid on a bad sugar rush.
Z: Both mentally and physically. XD
Biomarvel740: No kidding. lol! (to the readers) Anyways, what did you all think of the chapter?
Galem: Please leave a review to let us know or pm either of us if you have any questions.
Biomarvel740: We thank you all for reading-
Galem: and please...
Biomarvel740 and Galem: Have a God-blessed day! XD :D
