Chapter 12: The black valley
Chapter 12: The black valley
Tupua seemed now eager to lead them to Ta Aro and nothing would have been able to hold him back in Le Aro. Normally the Toa would have never allowed it that Matoran risked their lives in missions like that but Tupua had proven them enough that his powers were beyond those of normal Matoran.
They were now only a few hundred meters away from the volcano they had seen on their arrival.
“This part of the island we call the Black Valley”, the Demon explained.
“Looks like the Mangai, the volcano where I live”, Tahu commented.
“But in opposition to the Mangai this one showed his last activity hundreds of years ago. Afterwards Ta Aro was built in there. The black rocks are formed like a giant maze, a citadel no one can take. Hopefully our prisoners are there where I believe they are.”
There was depressing silence around, not a single living form where the black rocks started. It seemed as if first the volcano and then the Ikuta brothers had erased live there forever.
“Depressing, huh?”, Pohatu said just to break through the wall of silence but no one answered.
Then after several minutes Gali spoke up. “Where do you think they will be?”
First the Spectre hesitated but then he answered, “You can hardly get into Ta Aro but you easily get out. The time when I could visit this village without danger I have found a teleportation gate that brought me to a kind of power station. That would be the only place you can’t get out that easily. Each room could be locked up and as long as they’re empty you can use them as prison cells. The way is hard to describe and even I don’t know it exactly anymore.”
“Oh great”, Tahu muttered.
They soon stood in front of some tower-high black rocks.
Tupua waved them to a narrow crevice. “This is the only way you can come in through. Not very comfortable for enemies because only one at a time can come through”, he paused for short time before he continued, “But no big problem for the Ikuta or the Nektann. The Ikuta can fly like Rahkshi. The Nektann crawled over those walls like Fikou. But now there’s no time to lose. Every second counts.”
~~~***~~~
The Toa were used to fighting their way not stealth but they had to keep cover as good as possible. Thousands of Nektann were patrolling and not only the easy ones they had fought in Le Aro. Each one of them could have called the Piraka or the Ikuta. The Toa never had met one of those Piraka but is seemed better to never make acquaintance with them.
In Tupua’s opinion the enemies seemed better to defeat if the Toa knew everything about them and so he whispering started explaining every Nektann they saw.
“The little grey ones are called Guards as you sure know, those olive ones are Scout Nektann. This white one with the red stripes is a Healing Nektann. As his name already said he can only heal the others but not fight. Beware the Defense and the Debuff Nektann. They’re light grey and have something like harpoons on their backs. They can only harm you if they’re in front of you but with their harpoons they can pull you nearer than you want. Do you see those red ones? Those are Combat Nektann. Only fight against those, if nothing else is possible. The same counts for Master Nektann. They’re yellow and we’re lucky we haven’t met one yet.”
The six heroes had never seen the grumpy Matoran lively and excited like this before. But only until…
“Can’t you just shut up?”, Tahu muttered, “Are we on a rescue mission or are we doing Nektannology?”
“This could be necessary one day”, the Spectre complained.
“Why should I care, if this thing in front of me is red or green, Debuff or Defense, when it wants to kill me? As long as I survive the battle I don’t care.”
Tupua was silent and remained it the rest of their way.
The others knew that it was wrong the way Tahu treated the black Matoran but no one wanted to speak up. The situation was too strained. You never know how an exerted Fire Toa could react.
It took half an hour of rock climbing and trying not to be seen by anyone until Tupua reported, “It’s here.” He nodded to a small side corridor.
A small room was carved into the rocks, with a grey and white target butt looking thing lying on the floor. Nothing else was in there, except the usual lightstones on the walls.
“I’ve always used this thing alone so I don’t know if it could transport us all”, the Spectre worried, “But we can’t risk going one by one. If there are enemies patrolling on the other side, we’re doomed.”
“So let’s just try out”, Tahu shrugged. “What could go wrong?”
“Oh, there’s much that can go wrong that way”, Gali said, “but I don’t think anyone of you wants to hear that.”
The ruby Toa waved it off. “This platform is big enough for us all to stand on. So, why shouldn’t it be for us all to be teleported? We aren’t here to give up in the last moment because there’s something that could go wrong. If it was like that we shouldn’t have come here in the first place. Let’s move on.”
“As the great leader wishes”, Onua sighed and earned a suppressed grin from Tupua.
