Chapter 3
In his day, Pohatu had come up with some pretty crazy ideas. When he was part of the Toa Nuva team, usually someone else, Like Tahu or Kopaka, came up with a better idea, but when Pohatu was alone, he did things his way. He’d done everything from tricking a group of Skakdi into thinking he was one of them to stealing a boat full of powerful Dark Hunters by hiding in a whale. And sometimes his crazy ideas had actually worked.
But everything Pohatu had ever done paled in comparison to Nacia’s plan.
Nacia made the plan sound so simple. “We use the powerful engines this star has to tear the outer walls apart. A few Toa of Air can allow us to breath in space until we get outside the field that blocks teleportation. Then, those who can teleport will get us safely to the planet below.”
Of course, in order to do that, Nacia’s group of rebels had to take control of the Red Star’s main engine room. Then they had to figure out how to use the engines to knock out the outer walls without killing everyone on board (a few Iron-Matoran believed they could do it). And they also had to get past those the Kestora had under their control, who greatly outnumbered the rebels.
“Our only hope of pulling this off is to free the revived from the Kestora’s command,” Nacia said. "The problem is, even if we wreck the computer that manages the dummy devices (This was what the resistance called the control implants), the Kestora will use another computer to take back command. And as soon as we try anything, we reveal our location to the Kestora.
"We can’t possibly take out all of the control computers before they stop us. On the other hand, if we can take out the automatic switch that would reroute control from one computer to another, we could at least delay the amount of time before they regain command of the revived. And that amount of time might make all the difference to our plan.
"Unfortunately, the Kestora have backups for everything. Including the switch that reroutes control. And the device that reroutes that to the back-up has a backup too. But only one. Our best chance lies in knocking out both of the secondary rerouters.
"Now, the Kestora aren’t stupid. The secondary rerouter is heavily guarded, and the backup secondary rerouter is mixed in with the primary rerouters. We have no way of telling which one’s the secondary backup.
"Here’s where you two come in. You have powers no one else here has. Kopaka’s Nuva Mask of Vision can see through things that block the view of normal X-Ray vision, and you both have that delay ability. Pohatu can also pass through any wall. Plus, you can both share your powers with those nearby. But our biggest advantage is surprise – the Kestora don’t know what you’re capable of.
"The hardest part of this mission lies in coordination. Both the main secondary rerouter and the backup have to be taken out at the same time for this to work, plus we need to take out the control computer at the same time. Unfortunately, the Kestora have taken all of our telepaths, and it’s not like we can use time as the basis when we can’t see outside. However, there’s something else we haven’t tried. We have a handful of disguised Av-Matoran on our side. According to Pohatu, a Toa can form a mental link with an Av-Matoran. We didn’t know this before, and the Kestora certainly don’t know.
“So,” Nacia concluded, “Any questions?”
“Just one,” Pohatu said. “Anyone ever tried asking the Kestora nicely?”
Kopaka never imagined he’d be working with Dark Hunters and Skakdi. Of course, no matter what the revived beings had wanted in their lives, here they all wanted the same thing: to go home.
This turned out to be both a good thing and a bad thing. They all wanted the same thing, but they didn’t necessarily agree on how to do it. According to Nacia, she had put forth the idea of fixing the sendback device, but much of the resistance didn’t have the patience for this idea. If the Kestora couldn’t fix it, why would the resistance fighters be able to? Reluctantly, Nacia had put forth her current plan. Destruction was something everyone could understand, and they were happy to comply.
Pohatu had made the argument that his mission was more dangerous then Kopaka’s. Kopaka had responded that he had the more unruly fighters on his team. Keeping them in line would be a difficult mission in its own right.
Kopaka and Pohatu both had the task of addressing their troops of the missions. Kopaka was sure that Pohatu would give an energetic speech that would make his troops ready to die for his cause. Kopaka preferred to keep things simple.
"No doubt you’ve heard of our mission, but let me explain exactly what it is. With my Nuva Mask of Vision, I can allow all of us to see through the field of primary rerouters and find the secondary rerouter. Our task will be to destroy it.
“I will not lie to you: This will not be easy. Even if we can reach the field of backup generators undetected, destroying any of them will send up alarms everywhere. Team 3 will hopefully be able to free our allies, but they won’t make their move until we make ours, so we will have to fight our way out of this situation. It will not be easy.”
“No, it won’t be easy,” a Dark Hunter called Marker replied, “but it will be fun.”
Kopaka glanced at the group of fighters in front of him. "Well, for this group, yes, it will be fun.
“But I think Pohatu’s team will have more fun.”
Chapter 4
Once, years ago, the Toa Nuva had been given the task of retrieving the powerful Staff of Artahka. It turned out that the staff had been stolen by the Dark Hunters and was hidden in their fortress on Odina. To retrieve it, the Toa Nuva had to break into that fortress, which, as they soon discovered, was under the control of The Shadowed One, the Dark Hunter Leader. The walls themselves moved against the Toa, herding the Toa wherever the Shadowed One wished.
Luckily for the Toa, The Shadowed One had sought an audience with the Toa. This was because the Staff of Artahka had been stolen from the Dark Hunters by the Brotherhood of Makuta spy Roodaka. The Toa Nuva had gone on a wild goose chase trying to get it back, only to be embarrassed when a lone Order agent got it first.
Looking over the defenses that lay around the room housing the Secondary rerouter, Pohatu realized he’d rather try and break into the Odina Fortress when the Shadowed One was having a bad day. The defenses were bad enough, but some really powerful revived beings were also guarding the room.
It seemed no one had ever thought to guard from an attack from below, though.
Not that they needed to. The walls in this place were made of the same material that the Great Spirit Robot had been made out of. It proved to be impervious to all powers, and even the strongest being on board couldn’t put a dent in it.
Then Pohatu Nuva came along.
A Mask of Speed allowed the user to move at blinding speeds. The Nuva Mask of Speed was even faster, plus it had another ability: it allowed the user to vibrate their body at the right frequency and pass through materials – including, as it turned out, whatever the walls were made of.
“Remember,” Pohatu said to the Toa of Iron and Magnetism under his command, “your goal is not to sabotage, but make it look like you’ve sabotaged. Leave the sabotage to me.”
“Can you pull it off?” a Toa of Iron asked.
“I’m sure Kopaka would tell you how much I love breaking things,” Pohatu said. “And I’m good at it, too.”
The trick would lie in timing. Pohatu’s move would need to be made well before Kopaka’s, and once Pohatu made his move, he’d inform Kopaka of when it was time to strike. They only had one chance to pull this off, so Kopaka would have to hold his team in position, ready to strike, and convince them not to strike until the right time.
“I still say Kopaka got the easy job,” Pohatu muttered.
It seemed like an agonizingly long time before an Av-Matoran voice in Pohatu’s head said Team two is in position.
“Lovely,” Pohatu said. “Now it’s our turn. Let’s go, troops! No one move until I say, or you’ll just smack into the wall.”
Pohatu activated his mask of Speed, and his body began vibrating. He reached up and pressed his hand against the ceiling. When he felt his hand begin to press into the wall, he smiled. That was the easy part. Now Pohatu had to do something he’d never done before. He shared his Mask Power with everyone else in the room, and soon everyone was vibrating. Then, maintaining the vibration, Pohatu activated his stone Power. A stone pillar began lifting the group towards the ceiling, and then through the ceiling.
Pohatu had explained to his troops that this was not going to be an enjoyable experience. Whatever these walls were made of, the material resisted against Pohatu. It wasn’t enough to stop him, but it felt like he was constantly being slammed against a wall.
When the Toa’s heads pierced the bottom of the floor, the Toa had to grit their teeth and make their move. Rapidly, they took out the defenders who were inside the room. They had the advantage of surprise: no one expected this move.
Pohatu gave a sigh of relief when the team made it all the way through the wall, and he heard other Toa do the same. The hard part was over. Now for the fun part.
“Go crazy,” Pohatu said.
The effect was shocking. Almost instantly, the team turned from serious warriors to crazed Brakas Monkeys. Toa ran around, smashing everything in sight, some of them laughing like maniacs. Pohatu wanted the Kestora to think they were maniacs, that the craziness on the Red Star had gotten to them. Hopefully, they’d never expect what Pohatu was about to do.
To anyone looking, Pohatu appeared to be just standing there. What he was really doing was using his power over stone to set up a massive expansion of stone in the Secondary Rerouter, enough to wreck it and render it useless.
The team couldn’t remain undetected for long. Soon enough, a group of Kestora and the revived beings under their control barged into the room. These fighters were ready; they wouldn’t go down as easy as the earlier ones had.
But I bet they aren’t expecting this.
At Pohatu’s signal, the resistance fighters charged to the defenders and Kestora. Or rather, through them. Passing through the walls of the Red Star was a slow, difficult, and painful process, but passing through living beings was easy. Before the Kestora and their puppets knew what was going on, Pohatu and his team were out the door and had scattered.
“Find them!” a Kestora ordered.
Oh, you’ll find some of us, Pohatu thought, and you’ll fix all the sabotage my friends did. But you won’t find what I did. Not until it’s too late.
Chapter 5
An hour later, Kopaka breathed his own sigh of relief. His warriors were raring to go, and it wasn’t easy to keep them at bay for a full hour. It had only taken Kopaka and his team a minute to find the Secondary rerouter, so Kopaka spent most of the time just sitting still, waiting.
Finally, the Av-Matoran relayed Pohatu’s signal. “Go!” Kopaka said.
Snipers made their moves, firing, all of them firing at one of four rerouters. One of these was the hidden Secondary Rerouter backup, and one of them was the Primary rerouter. In seconds, all four machines were wrecked.
Alarms went up all over.
It’s done, Kopaka “said” to the Av-Matoran. Now it was time for team 3 to make their move and destroy the control computer. The Kestora would soon manually reroute to another computer, but for a few hours, they would have no control over the revived beings.
Pohatu and Gali once took out a whole squad of Skakdi in about an hour, Kopaka thought. I’d hate to see what Pohatu and a group of Toa can do in that much time.
The arrival of revived puppets took Kopaka out of his thoughts. Kopaka couldn’t do what Pohatu had done, running through the attackers and hiding. Kopaka’s group would have to stand and fight.
And fight they did. Blade against axe, Elemental blast against power blast, Mask power against magic power.
Kopaka stood at a disadvantage. These fighters knew each other, and could tell who was an enemy and who wasn’t. Kopaka hadn’t been here long enough to recognize friend from foe.
But he did have one advantage: he could see the control implants. He singled out a single Toa with a control device and targeted her.
The Toa of Water was tough, but she was no Toa Nuva. Kopaka took her down pretty easily. Then, using his Ice blade, he dug the control implant out of her body. He tried crushing it, but it proved impossible. Finally, he gave up and tossed it aside.
“One down,” he said. He got up and singled out another target.
Pohatu went from running at top speed to coming to a screeching halt, stopping a few feet from the Turaga. It wasn’t that the Turaga had scared him; no he knew this particular Turaga based on the stories the Turaga Metru had told.
“Lhikan?”
The Turaga didn’t say anything. Instead, he threw a fireball at Pohatu. Pohatu narrowly dodged.
“Hey!” Pohatu said. “You’re a hero! You’re better than this! Fight it!”
If Lhikan understood Pohatu’s words, he didn’t show it. He hurled fireballs at Pohatu as fast as a Turaga of Fire could. Pohatu blocked with blasts of stone.
“Fine,” Pohatu said. “I apologize in advance for this.” He ran.
Turaga Lhikan was only caught off guard for a moment, but that was long enough. Pohatu ran behind him, and grabbed the Turaga with his climbing Claws. The Turaga couldn’t turn to aim at Pohatu, but he flailed wildly.
“This will hurt you more than it does me,” Pohatu said. And then he activated his Mask Power.
For the second time that day, Pohatu had to do something he’d never done before. He shared his mask power with the Turaga in his claws, careful not to give the Turaga a frequency that would allow him to escape the Climbing claws. In seconds, Pohatu reached the right frequency, and the dummy device began to fall out of Lhikan’s body. Finally, it fell loose, and the Turaga went limp. As the device fell, Pohatu gave it the most powerful kick he could muster. To his surprise, it shattered.
Pohatu tossed the limp Turaga over his shoulder. “Let’s get you out of here,” he said. “And everyone else, too.”
No sooner had Pohatu finished his sentence then three Toa of Plasma ran around the corner. Pohatu braced himself for a fight, but it never came. The Toa stumbled and fell on their faces.
“Huh,” Pohatu said. “Either you all suffered an aneurysm at the same time, or our friends knocked out the computer.”
“Now for the really hard part.”
Chapter 6
Kopaka was not surprised to see Pohatu carrying a Turaga on his shoulder. “Found a friend, did you?”
“Yep,” Pohatu said. “Turaga Lhikan. I just freed him from Kestora control.”
“That’s great,” Kopaka said, “But things are about to get harder, and you can’t fight with a Turaga in one arm.”
“I probably could,” Pohatu said. “But I’m gonna hide him somewhere safe and pick him up on our way out of here.”
Pohatu ran off, no doubt to do just that. Kopaka, meanwhile, ran at normal speed; whatever was blocking teleportation into and out of the Red Star also kept Kopaka from switching among the Masks on his Suva. He was stuck with the Mask he’d been wearing when he got here, the Mask of Vision, his Mask of Speed laying uselessly on his Suva somewhere.
Kopaka finally found Nacia’s team. They were taking down the powerless Kestora with ease.
“Kopaka,” Nacia called. “I need you to help me find us the quickest route to the Engine room.”
Kopaka nodded. Nacia knew this place better than Kopaka did, so Kopaka shared his power of X-ray Vision with the female Toa of Fire.
It only took her seconds to find what she was looking for. “This way!” she called out.
The resistance warriors followed her through the winding passageways. Kopaka almost wished Pohatu were there to send the group through the walls. Then he remembered what Pohatu had said about the agonizingly slow process of going through the walls, and realized it might not be faster anyway.
Few Kestora tried to stop them. The Kestora were realizing the futility of fighting against the resistance, and were instead trying to regain control of the revived, now lying unconscious across the station.
“Here’s hoping that takes them a really long time,” Kopaka muttered.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be taking a long time to reach the Engine Control Room. Finally, Nacia reached a pair of massive doors. They were open, but slowly closing.
“Hurry!” Nacia yelled.
It was hopeless. The group would never make it in time. The doors would close, and the group of Resistance warriors would be unable to get into the Engine Room. They had failed.
Suddenly, Kopaka felt a burst of speed. He glanced behind him and saw Pohatu running behind them, giving them all a boost of speed. They could reach the doors well before they closed.
Then Kopaka saw something that made his heart sink.
The Revived beings who had been under the Kestora’s control were all getting back to their feet. The Kestora were back in command.
“Go!” Kopaka yelled. Pohatu pushed his Mask of Speed to the limit, but someone was fighting back. It felt like they were running through molasses. There was no time to figure out who was responsible for the slow-down field. The Resistance fighters pushed as hard as they could, running through the massive doors to the Engine Room that were almost closed by now. At the back of the group, Kopaka slipped through the doors seconds before they closed. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he remembered Pohatu.
Kopaka whirled around and looked through the doors. On the other side, he saw Pohatu surrounded by hundreds of armed, powerful warriors. He could see it, but there was nothing he could do.
“No!” Kopaka cried.
Pohatu wasn’t going to make it.
Someone was slowing him down. Or slowing time itself down, it was impossible to tell. Pohatu wasn’t going to make it.
And neither would Kopaka.
Kopaka was too far from the rapidly closing doors. The only hope he had was if Pohatu sent a blast of Stone to push him forward. He could do that. He could save Kopaka.
Or he could push through the wall beside him. The reawakening puppets were focused on trying to stop the Resistance, and by the time they noticed Pohatu, he would have gotten to the other side of the wall.
He could save Kopaka. He could save himself. But he couldn’t do both.
He’d spent too long focusing on too many things at once. If he tried to run through the wall and push Kopaka at the same time, he’d lose his hold on the other Resistance warriors, dooming them all. He had a choice to make, and it wasn’t even a choice.
Pohatu threw a stone blast, pushing Kopaka forward through the doors. He watched the doors close behind Kopaka, sealing the Resistance warriors inside. And sealing Pohatu outside in a room full of armed enemies.
“Farewell, brother” Pohatu said, as he prepared for the fight of his life.
Chapter 7
Kopaka sent blast after blast at the doors. When that proved ineffective, he struck it with his Ice Blade. Then he turned his Midak Skyblaster against it, firing until his blaster ran out of power.
“Kopaka, stop!” a voice called.
Kopaka didn’t listen. He tossed his weapons aside and turned his fists against the door until several pairs of hands pulled him away.
“Kopaka, stop!” Nacia’s voice said. “You can’t get through that door. I’m sorry.”
“Then open it!” Kopaka said.
“You know I can’t,” Nacia said. “Those doors are the only things keeping our enemies out of here.”
Kopaka wanted to argue, but he knew she was right. Their was no way he could help Pohatu. Pohatu was on his own, and he’d live or die on his own.
The Resistance Fighters had already take out the Kestora in the room. Luckily, the Kestora were paranoid, so no revived puppets had been in the room.
They were all outside with Pohatu.
Well, not all of them. A portal appeared inside the room, and a Toa of Air stepped through. Then he began opening more portals, allowing more beings in.
“Nacia!” a Toa called. “We’ve got a problem!”
“Not for long,” Kopaka said.
The Toa Nuva of Ice was powerless against the doors, but a Toa of Air was something he could handle. With a battle cry that sounded alien on his lips, Kopaka slammed into the Toa of Air. As the Toa of Air lost focus, the portals vanished.
A mini-cyclone sent Kopaka flying, but he regained his feet and turned toward his foe. The Toa of Air vanished from view. This shouldn’t be possible; he clearly wore a Mask of Dimensional Gates. The old Kopaka would have puzzled over this even while fighting, but the current Kopaka was focused only on the fight.
Kopaka sent a blast of Snow outward, revealing where the Toa of Air was. The Toa of Air turned visible again, only now he looked like Nacia. Kopaka wasn’t fooled; Nacia didn’t have a Mask of Invisibility.
Kopaka tried to send a blast of Ice to freeze the Toa of Air, but he had spent too much of his power on the door. The Toa of Air shrugged off the Ice blast. This fight would require a different strategy.
Belatedly, Kopaka remembered that he had thrown aside his weapons. His Midak Skyblaster and Ice Blade were lying around, and the Air Toa was between Kopaka and his weapons. All Kopaka had was his elemental Ice Power, or what little of it he had left.
Get ahold of yourself, Kopaka, he berated himself. Don’t let Pohatu’s sacrifice be in vain. You can do this.
Once again, Kopaka sensed the gears of his mind turning again. In seconds, he had an idea.
Kopaka charged toward the Toa of Air. The Air Toa fired another mini-cyclone, and Kopaka skidded to a stop. At least, he made a show of skidding to a stop, but since the floor was suddenly frozen, he didn’t stop at all. Dropping to his back, he slid under the cyclone blast.
Satisfied that Kopaka was down, the Toa of Air shapeshifted back to his normal appearance and began opening more portals. He didn’t see Kopaka sliding toward him.
Kopaka rammed into the Air Toa’s legs, knocking him down. The Toa of Air landed roughly on top of Kopaka. Kopaka held on to his legs and located his blade. Grabbing it, he jabbed it into the Air Toa’s leg. Roughly, he ripped out the dummy device.
To his surprise, the Toa of Air didn’t go limp. Rather, he got to his feet and sent all of the Kestora puppets he had brought into the engine room back out of the room. Now the resistance was free to focus on getting out of here.
“We’re ready!” a voice called from the Engine controls.
“Air Toa, be ready!” Nacia called. She turned toward the Toa of Air who Kopaka had just freed. “Do you know what to do?”
The Air Toa nodded.
“Let’s do this!” Nacia called.
Then the world shattered.
Chapter 8
Slowly, Kopaka opened his eyes.
He was laying on the ground in a forest somewhere. Glancing around, he saw an all-too-familiar winged hunter: Gaardus.
Suddenly, he remembered. He remembered the air rushing out of the Red Star into the vacuum of space. He remembered the Toa of Air trying to control the air, while the Toa of Air with the Mask of Dimensional Gates started sending people to the planet below. He remembered Gaardus appearing out of nowhere, grabbing him. Then he’d blacked out.
Again.
“I see you’re awake,” Gaardus said.
“You…” Kopaka muttered. “I thought you’d be miles away by now.”
Gaardus shrugged. “You wrecked the Red Star. I felt I owed you something.”
Kopaka felt a sudden chill. “And… Pohatu?”
“Couldn’t find him,” Gaardus said. “I saw you, so I grabbed you and left.”
Kopaka’s heart sank.
“The other guys that were there wound up someplace I’ve never been, so I can’t teleport you there,” Gaardus said. “But I can get you as close as possible. Getting back, though, is your problem.”
Kopaka sighed. This was the best he could expect from Gaardus.
Gaardus grabbed Kopaka and teleported to another location, still in the forest. “The guys from the star are that way,” Gaardus said, pointing North. Then he vanished.
Kopaka set off, walking north. He would find the revived beings, and he would find out if Pohatu had survived.
If he had, Kopaka would not leave without him.
And if he hadn’t, Kopaka would finish the mission that he and Pohatu had been on.
It was all that Kopaka could do.
