Seeing Tressra’s unconscious body on the operating table made Koinoor sick on the inside. He had expected a squad of rookies and a professional bruiser to be more than enough to retrieve a rock and kill a Glatorian and some rogue Toa of Earth. By some miracle, four out of ten died and Tressra was badly injured, and all that was gained from it were the bodies and whatever loot within the cave the Glatorian was using. It hardly helped to ease the loss.
Dark Hunters are definitely not to be underestimated, he thought to himself. As the medic skittered up to the table and began to cut at her with a sick smile on her face, he made his leave. He couldn’t keep watching his friend being gutted like fish.
“That’s just weak of you,” the lightly armored being leaning against the doorway mocked. “For a man who can control one’s body like a watermaiden controls the sea, no less.” Koinoor scoffed.
“Shut up, Tarooka.” The Vortixx felt a hand on his shoulder as he passed his equal.
“I get it,” Tarooka continued. “You care for the brawler, and I respect that. But you’ve pulled countless men and women inside out, practically swimming in their insides. How does a surgery make you squeamish?” Koinoor sighed.
“I already told you countless times,” he answered as he shrugged off Tarooka’s hand and walked away. “It’s because I care for her more than others. You know that.” Tarooka pushed himself on his feet and followed.
“And I’ve already replied countless times,” he mimicked, “that I don’t understand what difference that makes. Blood’s blood, shrapnel’s shrapnel and gut’s gut. Just because you care for something doesn’t mean that you can’t stand seeing them in pain.”
Koinoor didn’t bother to argue. He had done so before hundred times, yet Tarooka - somehow - couldn’t grasp or refused to learn the concept of love or compassion. He wasn’t like that before they were “volunteered” for the warrior program back on Frostlands, obviously. That’s what you get for trying to dampen one’s morality.
Entering his throne room, his throne unceremoniously occupied his other equal.
“Ah, there you are,” He was called to by the red-armored, masked man who stood up soon as he noticed him.
Koinoor walked up to his seat as Tarooka leaned against the pillar at the base of the stairs. “What is it?”
The being laughed as he gave his leader room. “Koinoor, my dear, I take it that you’re still upset over the Dark Hunter situation? You’re usually rather kind for someone who dreams of controlling the world.”
“Ruling the world, Meltora,” Koinoor corrected as he sat down. “And yes, more so than I thought I would be. It’s not very often when eleven trained men get defeated by two.” Meltora chuckled.
“I told you not to underestimate,” he said as he wiggled his finger. “You should have had sent Tressra before cutting ties with Kupar, like I told you, and ensure that the assassins you sent were veterans.” Koinoor closed his eyes and sighed heavily.
“Yes, yes, errors have been made,” Koinoor admitted, rubbing his forehead. “For an elderly Frostlander, Shadowed One makes sure his forces are more than capable of fighting five-to-one. And neither did I expect him to send debt collectors over a few thousand widgets...” He could practically feel his fellow Vortixx smirking at the base of the stairs.
Tarooka suddenly snapped his fingers, amplifying the sound with his powers. Koinoor and Meltora looked over to see an agent slowly walk towards them, holding something in his hands.
“Ah, yes. I almost forgot why I came,” Meltora said as he descended the stairs. Koinoor crossed his legs as he watched his “brother” waltz over to the giant with a Kualsi. The towering being gave his superior a large, opal-shaped object in rags. Holding it out to Koinoor, Meltora set the rags ablaze with his powers, revealing the blue, crystalline power core beneath.
Koinoor quickly stood up and descended, his eyes trained on his property.
"I told you he’ll recover it,” Meltora teased as Koinoor took the crystal. The masked titan walked out of the throne room as Meltora signaled for him to leave. “You worried yourself over nothing as always.”
A smile crept on Koinoor’s face as he inspected the power core, feeling it’s energy. Neither the Dark Hunter or the thief have tampered with it, meaning they don’t know how it worked or what it was made for. He looked up to Meltora.
“Give the man a bonus to his payment,” Koinoor ordered, walking past him out of the room. “I’ll be returning this back to it’s place...”
Meltora looked on as Koinoor left with a smile on his face, glancing over to Tarooka who had sat down on the stairs before leaving the throne room himself.
It wasn’t an impressive hideout. There was a ragged cloth hanging in front of the cave, and a broken torch stance lying on the ground nearby. The cave itself was in a small natural maze of valleys, barely big enough for a Toa to walk through.
Bedrock studied the entrance quietly. “So what do you do if someone approaches your hideout?” He asked. “Kill them?”
“Probably would,” Salas answered, entering the cave and beckoning Bedrock to follow. “But no one ever comes here.”
As Bedrock followed her, he saw the stolen goods Salas was talking about. Cheap jewelry, weapons, pieces of armor, helmets and shields long obsolote and couple Kanohi neatly hanging on the walls of the spacious cave.
“So yeah,” Salas broke the silence, “I just took the things that looked pretty. Doubt they’re all valuable.” She strutted towards the end of the cave. “Come, there’s something I wanna show you.”
“It’s not the value that’s important, it’s the amount you managed to get undetected.” Bedrock said to her, following behind and eyeing the items around. “We Dark Hunters usually only take what we’re assigned to steal, not what looks nice.”
“Right, right,” Salas nodded. “Would The Shadowed One let me keep things that he doesn’t need but I want?”
“We have couple scavangers among us,” Bedrock answered, recalling the time when he and Gatherer we’re on a mission and found an intact batch of Fohrok drones. It took them several weeks to disassamble them and ship the parts to Odina in one piece so that Gatherer could use them in his suit. “He lets us keep what we find long as we won’t deviate from our mission. I used to collect Kanohi myself, but that all stopped when Makuta took over our Universe.”
“Sounds like a nice boss,” Salas sarcastically commented.
“You’re making a lot of assumptions right now,” Bedrock said, not catching the sarcasm.
Salas giggled at Bedrock’s reaction. Reaching the end of the cavern, she opened up a large chest and practically dove inside of it. Standing up, she pulled out a blue crystal size of her head.
“I’m pretty sure these things are worth a lot,” she told Bedrock as she held it out to him. “That “Koinoor” guy had bunch of big brutes guarding a room full of them.”
Bedrock took the crystal from Salas and held it up. He could feel it flowing with power, but it didn’t feel natural.
“Did anyone see you take this thing?” Bedrock asked.
Almost on que, a squad of Steltians and a Vortixx with Kanohi Huna’s appeared behind them, weapons out in silver and bronze armor.
“Time to die, thief.” The female Vortixx in the middle unsheathed her sword, and Steltians behind her followed suit. “No one robs Lord Koinoor and lives to tell the tale.”
“...Yeah, they did,” Salas took out her spear. “They were really, really mad.”
