Brutaka's Game Ch 18

Sarah's eyes slowly opened. Despite the room being dimly lit, her eyes were nearly blinded. It took a while for her sight to adjust. Moving only her head, she scanned her surroundings and found herself in a hut made from seaweed. A lantern nearby held a glowing jellyfish inside.

For a long time she didn't move and contemplated over what had happen. She was interrupted when Eric walked in.

"Glad to see you have a pulse." he joked.

She said nothing and sat herself up. "What happened? I don't remember falling asleep."

Eric began to dig through his medical pack. "That's because you passed out. Perhaps the result of an adrenaline crash. Anyway, you're safe now, and in case you're wondering: we're in Ga-koro."

She stared at the ground as she pondered. "How's Takanuva?"

"He's out cold, but doing fine. He's in the hut next-door with Lewa."

Sarah's head jerked up and she stared him down with wide eyes.

"Lewa? Lewa's dead. I saw him get killed."

Eric looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "No, he's alive. The other Toa found him barely breathing with stab wounds all over and a bullet in his side."

Sarah immediately jumped to her feet and ran out the door before Eric could protest. She was so caught up in wanting to see Lewa that she didn't notice the water and fell in. The other Toa heard the splash and looked at her. Sarah surfaced and gasped for air. She then saw the Toa staring at her.

"Is Lewa this way?"

Gali smiled and nodded. Sarah took a deep breath and swam to the hut. Once there she pulled herself out and entered. Takanuva was sound asleep, snoring loudly while Lewa was in a comatose-like state. She quietly walked up and knelt beside his bed. It was quiet for a long time before she softly spoke.

"Lewa? Lewa, are you awake?" When she got no response she held his hand and went on. "Lewa, you were right. You were right about Mark, the Toa, and us. You were right all along and I didn't listen. You almost died because of me." She laid her head on his chest and silently shed a tear. "I'm sorry Lewa. Please forgive me."

As she began to cry, a hand gently touched her head. She looked over and saw Lewa with his eyes half open and a small smile on his face.

"Lewa?"

"There's no need to be heart-sorry. It wasn't your fault."

Sarah couldn't fight the urge to crack a smile. "How are you doing?"

"Sure-fine. How long have I been deep-sleeping?"

She shrugged. "Hard to say. I've been out for a while myself."

Lewa lifted his head up and saw Takanuva. "What happened to him?"

"Lets just say he saw Mark's ugly face."

His eyes widened. "The Makuta got him?!"

"Yeah, but he's all right now thanks to Eric."

His face was lit up in shock. "You mean Humans and Toa are-"

"I guess." she shrugged.

He gave a light sigh and softly smiled as he closed his eyes. "Thank the Great Spirit." He whispered. He then appeared to be falling back to sleep.

Sarah stood up and was about to walk out when Lewa called to her again. "Do you have your flute?"

Sarah stopped and stared blankly at the door before looking over her shoulder. She shrugged.

"If you find it, could you play a sing-song for me?"

She nodded and proceed to leave the hut when she noticed her backpack from the corner of her eye. She dug through it until she found her case.

When it was all assembled she did a quick warm up before closing her eyes and blowing in. Despite the volume, Takanuva remained sound sleep. Lewa slowly moved his head back and forth to its melody.

From the outside, the other Toa, along with Martoran, heard and came over to inquire of the sound. When she had finished playing, Sarah looked over and found Lewa asleep again.

"Great. Two platoons of Rahkshi wasted." grumbled Ruunaja.

"I'd have to disagree." smiled Mutran. Despite the defeat, he managed to hold a proud posture.

Ruunaja paced back and forth. "What I can't figure out is how Sarah escaped while surrounded by Rahkshi. It's like they allowed her to-" he stopped and spun around. "You!"

He marched up to the floating antidermis that made up the essence of Teridax. "You ordered the Rahkshi to be 'passive' on both her's AND B.J.'s escape!"

Teridax lashed out with mental energy. "Of course I did." he hissed. "Success of our plans fall on the shoulders of the Toa Nuva. I'm not going to let them get massacred by some insignificant organic Rahi. Besides, now that they have 'defeated' you and gained a new ally, their false sense of victory and invincibility has been restored."

Ruunaja clutched his fist. "We could've at least brought some of them with us for experi-"

"Already ahead of you." smirked Mutran. "I managed to sneak five in and blamed the Toa for their... demise. Even with the new alliance, they'll still think they're dead."

At that point, Ruunaja grinned.

Sarah walked beside Lewa along the coast. They traveled to a massive cave, where Matoran built canoes at the entrance. The other Toa conversed with Eric, B.J., and Mr. Petrik.

"So this underground city is supposed to be your home?" asked Sarah.

"That's what the Turaga-elders told us."

"Do you have to leave now? It's only been a week since we finally became friends."

"I know it's sudden, but the Turaga-elders say that this is our real home and that we must return. Are you sure you don't want to journey-sail with us? Metru Nui is suppose to be a happy-nice place." He paused. "When it gets fixed."

Sarah rubbed her arm, while her eyes looked in the other direction. "That sounds nice, but we need to find a way back to our home. Besides, I don't like living in the city. It's too.. crowded."

"But how exactly are you going to travel-journey home?"

Her mind was blank. "I don't really know."

"Well, if you do make it home, I made you this to remember us by." He held out a necklace with a white stone. In the center of the stone was the the symbol of the three virtues in black. "Until then you and the others are can always come visit-see us."

Sarah was almost speechless. "Thank you," was all that could come out of her mouth. She reached into her backpack and pulled out her flute case.

"Here. I want you to have this."

"Your flute?"

She nodded. He opened it and saw the three pieces inside, sparkling as the sunlight hit it. He closed the case and held it tight against his chest.

"I will always cherish it." He held out his fist.

It was a few seconds of staring before she remembered what it all meant and bumped fist with him. When they began to walk to the others, two tennis ball sized rocks landed a few feet in front of Sarah. She yelped.

"Sorry," yelled Nuparu as he and Kongu ran towards them. "I was just testing Kongu's new weapon design." He held up a contraption with a very familiar object.

"Wait a minute, that's my-"

Janet spotted the contraption from behind Sarah and cut her off. "Oh my gosh, is that Sarah's bra?!"

Sarah's face began to blush.

"No," said Nuparu "it's a slingshot. Unlike most that shoot one melon, this one shoots two at the same time."

Janet burst out laughing, while Sarah's face turned bright red. Sarah pulled the two Matoran aside and tried to explain everything to them and convince them not to make more of them. After several minutes, Nuparu reluctantly gave her bra back and she quickly put it in her backpack. Janet snickered as she did. Sarah gave her a cold glare and walked away.

Lewa followed her. "What was all that about?"

Sarah grumbled under her breath. "You don't want to know."

An hour later, the last of the canoes sailed into the protodermis sea. Toa and Humans all exchanged waves of goodbye until the boats were out of view.

B.J. let out a sigh.

"So, what happens now?" asked Mr. Petrik.

"I'm not sure." the pilot replied. "For now we could move into one of the villages."

"Ga-koro, Le-koro, Po-koro, or ... Onu-koro?" asked Eric.

B.J. cracked a smile. "How about Ta-koro?"

Eric gave him an unamused stare. "Too hot."

"Ko-koro."

"Too cold."

"Ga-koro?"

"Just right." interjected Mr. Petrik.

B.J. smiled. "Ga-koro it is."

Sarah, Janet, Caitlin and Ashley walked along the beach. Despite the Makuta being gone, Sarah was still cautious and carried her new M-16 everywhere she went. She knew it wouldn't stop one, but she wasn't going to go down without a fight. As they approached the entrance to the Matoran universe, their conversations came to a halt.

"Hard to believe its been three weeks." said Caitlin.

"Yeah," replied Ashley. "Think they miss us?"

A male voice spoke from behind. "Why don't you go find out?"

The girls yelped and spun around. Sarah aimed her gun and was about to fire when she recognized the not-so-friendly, yet familiar face.

"Mr. Brute. I was wondering when you were going to show up." she spat.

"Pleasure to see you again." he smiled. "And congrats on making it this far in the game. Now you're ready for part two."

Sarah was flabbergasted. "Excuse me? Part two? You never said anything about there being two parts. You said we needed to survive everything."

"Yes but you haven't done that yet now have you?"

"We faced Rahi, nearly got ourselves killed by Toa and killed Rahkshi. I personally walked out of the Makuta's lair alive! What more is there to survive from?!"

He gave a smirk and pointed to the cave.

"Oh no," said Caitlin, "we cant go in there. The Turaga forbade it. Said it's too dangerous for our kind."

"Exactly."

Though Sarah was good at holding in her emotions, her face easily showed anger.

"You sleazy scumbag! Do you have any idea what you have been doing for the last two months?! You've been playing with our lives! There were innocent people who died on that plane and more died here because of you! Now you want us to go out and risk our lives again!? The answer is no! Take us home. NOW!"

Mr. Brute stared at her through his sunglasses and shook his head with a smile.

"You'll go home when I say you will."

Sarah became cross. "Why you-" she raised the butt end of her gun and whacked him in the head, knocking him straight to the ground.

The girls stood back, slightly intimidated by her action. As Sarah breathed fumes, her rage quickly transitioned to shock as Mr. Brute began to glow. She then noticed a mask on the ground, broken in two.

"No," was the only word that escaped her mouth as he grew into a twenty foot tall robot.

"You- you're one of them," she gulped.

The tall, blue and gold robot looked down and smiled.

"What was your first clue?" snapped Janet.

She, Caitlin and Ashley made a break back to the village. His mask glowed and a vortex appeared underneath the girls. Sarah's heart skipped a beat as they fell in, then she heard another vortex open a few yards behind her. All three screamed as they fell out of it and onto the sand. She faced the giant robot and fired the gun at his legs. Another portal opened in front of her and swallowed the bullets. As it closed, he reached down and picked her up by the waist and removed her gun. Sarah couldn't help but scream.

Instead of being angry at her attempt, he smiled. "You know what I like about you?" he asked as she squirmed in his hand. "You're unpredictable in a predictable way."

At that moment she stopped and looked at him. "Who are you?"

"My real name is Brutaka." he smiled.

"Why did you send us here? Why not just place us in a lab for your Makuta friends?"

He chuckled. "You seem to be mistaken. I am not affiliated with the Makuta. As for your other question: I did it for amusement. When you live a life and duty in secrecy on an island that doesn't exist, things get very boring."

"So you've been playing with our lives."

"I like to call it 'experimenting'. Organic creatures verses bio-mechanical beings with supernatural powers. Makes for a great show and as long as I have the 'key' to take you home you will keep the show going."

She glared at him before lowering her head and submitting herself. "What's part two?"

"That's the spirit." He smiled and put her down. "Shortly after dropping you all here, I quickly discovered the Makuta's presence. Realizing the possibility of you being wiped out by them, I eventually teleported another group of Humans into the Matoran universe. They seemed to be the same nationality, but all wore the same clothes and armor."

Sarah wasn't sure what he was describing. Seconds later, her eyes widened. "You teleported American troops here?!"

He shrugged. "I was being generous. Their ship was plummeting into enemy territory, so I gave them a second chance to live."

Sarah looked over her shoulder and stared into the cave.

"You have one month to find the survivors and bring them back here alive." He then pulled out a map and gave it to her. "This is where they are." he pointed to a small island south of a large continent.

Janet looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you sharing this information? Unless-"

"There's no free lunch to this is there?" interrupted Sarah.

He smiled and nodded. "This map is the only help you get. No supply depots like what I've done here. Once you go through that entrance you're on your own." A portal opened behind him and he stepped in. "Oh and one more thing. Come back empty handed and you don't go home."

They watched the portal close with a distinct pop. They were silent for a long time.

"What now?" asked Caitlin.

For several seconds no one answered. Then Sarah began walking back to the village.

"You heard him. We bring our troops home."

The Shadowed One walked down the hallway in a hurried manner. There was no alarm, no signs of any intruder, yet somehow two of his Hunters had been killed inside the stronghold. He turned at a corner and found the two bodies. A third was sitting next to a wall as a healer tended to his wounds. Other Hunters gathered around to see what was going on.

"What happened?" hissed the dark leader.

"It's hard to explain." said the surviving Hunter. "We were standing guard when a portal opened up. It only stayed that way for a brief moment. We didn't see anything come out, but before it closed, those two were on the ground dead and I have a stinging pain in my arm."

The Shadowed One raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.

"I swear it's the truth. Ow!" He yelled as the healer pulled a small metal object from his arm.

The healer looked at it in curiosity, then gave it to The Shadowed One. "What do you make of it?'

"Copper?" he asked as he observed the crushed bullet.

"The other bodies have the same metal inside their wounds."
The Shadowed One pondered over it before giving the bullet back to the healer. "Send a message to all the Hunters: Keep an eye out for anyone that can kill with mere pellets of copper. If found, bring him to me alive by any means necessary." He then turned around and went back to his throne. "Who ever did this will feel my wrath!"