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.
“You’re tougher than you look, I’ll give you that.” The assassin’s claws easily cut through the walls of land that the Toa of Earth raised in panic and the armor and weapons he threw at her with his telekinetic powers. “But I’ve fought Dark Hunters, Rahkshi and Toa alike when you were nothing but a petty Matoran slaving his life away in the fields,” she said, catching a sword Bedrock threw at her and crushing it’s blade.
“Salas!” Bedrock called out to the Glatorian, doing his best to dodge the bruiser’s attacks. “I need your help here!”
“On it, on it!” Salas nervously waited for a weapon she stole from some Vortixx to load. Finally loaded, she fired it at the bruiser...
...Who promptly stepped out of the way, hitting Bedrock in the chest with an electrified lightstone and blinding the entire cave.
“Ow, ow, ow...” Salas stumbled and dropped the Lightstone Rifle. The bruiser failed to cover her eyes, and tried to stand still. Bedrock fell on his back unconscious.
Her eyes adjusting, Salas dashed for the bruiser her spear drawn. Half-blind, the bruiser caught the spear before it connected and broke it. Salas threw the stump of the spear at the bruiser and looked for another weapon to use.
“You’re just making me mad, thief.” The assassin stood up and advanced on Salas with her blades drawn. Salas dodged just in time to see an irritated bruiser punch the wall where she had just been standing.
“You broke my spear! Do you know how long I’ve had that?” Salas asked, pulling a large shield off the wall. The bruiser said nothing, and punched the shield. The blades pierced it with ease and almost gutted Salas.
“A WHOLE YEAR!” She let go and pulled another weapon off the wall. This time, a Thornax Launcher. “Do you have ANY idea how mint it’s condition was when I found it? It was like we we’re MADE for each other!” Salas said while she loaded the Thornax Launcher and fired.
The hulking brute tore the shield in half and freed her claws. A thornax hit her shoulder, tearing open one of her pauldrons.
“You mean stole it?” She asked with irk, removing the ruined pauldron as she kept up her advance and took a swing at the thief. Salas dodged in time, but she dropped the Thornax Launcher, which the bruiser promptly crushed under her foot.
“Actually,” Salas tried to keep up the conversation to distract the bruiser as she pulled a lance off the wall, “I did find it on my own. Well, from a dead body, but... still.”
Bedrock pulled himself up, with a splitting headache. He had read a long time ago back on Odina about light-based blasts capable of harming beings like him, but he’s never been hurt by an actual attack composed of light.
“And that was just an electrified lightstone, too,” Bedrock thought. He shuddered at the idea of running into an actual Toa wielding the element.
Brushing aside his thoughts, Bedrock took the crystal he had dropped off during the fight and charged at the bruiser with his mace. As she turned, the mace struck her in the eye and sent her on the ground.
“LET’S GO!” Bedrock pushed Salas, and ran for the exit. Without saying a word, she picked up her lance and pulled a Kanoka Launcher off the wall, then ran after Bedrock.
The bruiser stood up, clutching her ruined eye. “You’re NOT getting away.”
“You wanna bet?” Bedrock channelled his powers through the Protosteel mace and struck the ground near the entrance, causing the entire cave to collapse right on top of her.
As the noise quieted down, Salas angrily hit Bedrock.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” She grabbed him from the throat. “I LIVED THERE!”
“The Dark Hunters will provide you with living quarters,” Bedrock addressed her, pulling her arms off him. “And considering what just happened, losing an old cave is the least of your problems.”
“That “old cave” was my home for several years! When you lost your home and everything you owned after joining, did you just walk it off?”
Bedrock’s face darkened, staring down at the Glatorian. “I can’t say I have. Have you lived in a village where our former friends treated you as a tool after becoming important?”
Salas went quiet.
“I thought so. Now if you don’t mind, I have a mission to accomplish,” Bedrock said as he walked away. “You’re coming with me, since I can’t drop you off at the base just yet.”
“Right, right...” Salas picked up her lance and Kanoka Launcher, following Bedrock. “So, uh, what is your mission? Don’t think I’ve asked.”
“There’s this object called “The Makoki Stone.” At some point, we sold all the six pieces it was composed of to the Makuta,” Bedrock explained, finding the Spikit and the Baranus Chariot intact, albeit messy. Looks like they defended themselves from the assaillants and the assassins gave up halfway. “Somehow, it landed in the hands of the Turaga of Metru Nui and for one reason or another, The Shadowed One wants it back."
“What’s so important about this stone?” Salas asked as she climbed on.
“It’s an encyclopedia about the Brotherhood of Makuta, written by Toa,” Bedrock climbed on and whipped the reins, signaling the Spikit to go.
Salas was befuddled. “Wait, there’s an entire brotherhood?”
Another Steltian crashed against the blades and armor hanging on the walls of Salas’s cave from Bedrock’s telekinesis. To them, it was supposed to be an easy and simple mission- Find the thief, kill her, retrieve the stolen property. Chances of her having someone to back her up were slim.
“So,” Bedrock strolled towards the Vortixx lying on her back, the Steltians hurriedly backing down to gain distance. “I’d suggest you leave before things get dirty. She’s with me, now.”
The Xian growled under her breath, trying to pull herself up. The second she took her attention away from the Toa of Earth, he grabbed her head and kneed her in the snout. With a sickening crunch, she fell back down on her back as Bedrock let go of her.
“Jeez, Toa!” Salas said with genuine concern over the mess as she pulled her spear out of a whimpering assassin’s throat. “I LIVE here!”
The attackers froze when they saw their leader bleeding on the cold, stony ground, trying to claw her caved in nasal cavities open. The Toa of Earth coldly stared at the gasping woman, until he stomped her neck and killed her instantly. Taking his eyes off the corpse to her subordinates, Bedrock savored the fear in other assassins.
“Well, well, well,” He walked over the body, his eyes flashing from emerald green to scarlet red. “Looks like your leader doesn’t teach his men to control their emotions.”
“Lord Koinoor isn’t as savage as The Shadowed One, Dark Hunter.”
Most of the assassins turned towards the hulking, cloaked Bruiser. Some bowed down while others looked her pass.
Bedrock’s eyes widened. “How do you know that!?” The Onu-Toa readjusted himself for a better position.
“Hey, uh, I can see where this is going.” Salas tried to break up the upcoming fight.
“Doesn’t matter,” the Bruiser said, throwing back the hood of her cloak, revealing her aged, frowning face.
“Guys, I’m SERIOUS, I live here,” Salas tried to reason. “Can’t you take this outside??”
“Well,” Bedrock smirked, ignoring Salas. “You’re not leaving here alive to tell anyone.”
“I mean, it’s a small cave, okay??” Salas backed away in cover, knowing that the fight was inevitable. “You couldn’t fit to fight appropriately.”
Bedrock’s eye twitched.
The Bruiser cracked her knuckles, the assassins covering her sides. “Stand down,” she told them. “I’ll handle him. Return to Koinoor.” On que, the assassins retreated, disappearing into thin air.
“Is anyone listeni-”
Bedrock turned to face Salas, who was hiding behind a rock. “WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP??”
Using this as a time to strike, the Bruiser dashed at the Toa of Earth as he looked away, blades extending from her gauntlets.
