Bratik picked up a chute speeder at the nearest station and re-ran the same route he had taken before. He wasn't exactly sure which support ring hid the toa stone, but he had a general idea. He kept looking up and almost ran into other crates because of his preoccupation with the support rings. After a little while in the chutes, he came across the enclosed portion of the chutes and started to go back. He gunned the engine of the speeder and began to make some progress, though slowly, against the moving protodermis. As Bratik's eyes scanned the supports, his heart sank. The "Toa Stone" was just an emergency light. He slammed his head down in frustration on the speeder controls and spun hard right towards another large crate. Bratik's quick reflexes kicked in. He jumped clear before the collision but the speeder was finished.
"All this for nothing" Bratik sighed.
He hitched another ride on a crate and got off at the armory entrance. He warned the operator about the damaged speeder and told him to keep a look out for it as it passed by. Bratik walked into the armory and heard the sounds of a battle below. When he got there, he was surprised to see that all the commotion was caused by a little canine rahi. Kovorix was out cold on the ground somehow and the Artakhan Guards still standing were finally bringing in repeller shields to protect themselves and to keep the rahi contained. Bratik unsheathed his sword and ran into the fray. He soon found out that this rahi was armored in xian protosteel and had very quick reflexes comparable to a toa wearing a Kakama (mask of speed). However, the rahi was getting nowhere against the repeller shields and when he tried to jump over them, the matoran simply lifted the shields and hit it, repulsing the rahi's energy back into it. After that the rahi just circled around inside it's ring of captors. Bratik grabbed a stun staff from the room and gently tapped the rahi, electrocuting it into unconciousness. Kovorix was just rousing when the matoran were putting the suprising little rahi into a portable stasis tube.
"He surprised me with a blast of energy I stead of trying to pounce on me like I thought he would" Kovorix explained. "Scrappy little guy wasn't he?"
"Yep, but he didn't know how to handle the repeller shields." Bratik said "Rahi aren't the brightest tools in Makuta's box. Speaking of, how'd Makuta get that in here?"
"It had the earmarks of treachery" Kovorix said gravely. "It seems that someone here has given up hope."
...To be continued
