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Brutaka's Game 2: Ch 13

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Brutaka’s Game Ch 13

    “No! You can’t be here!” gasped Sarah.
    The Makuta chuckled. “Yet here I am. Isn’t this great? A Vicious monstrosity, who thinks he’s a Toa, a bunch of soldiers equipped with advance technology, and a little brat and her pack mule all on the same island. It’s too good to be true!”
    “Hey!” barked Janet. A vine wrapped itself around her mouth. She jerked her head around trying to shake it off.
    “How do you know about the soldiers?” Sarah asked in horror.
    “By accident.” he shrugged. “I will admit, they really know how to put up a fight. Shame they don’t know how to give up.”
    Sarah felt her heart sink. “What did you do to them?”
    “Nothing much yet. A few killings, torture, and a mutation, but once I capture them I’m going to show them the famous hospitality that we Makuta give.” he smirked.
    At that point her fear evolved into anger. “You monster!”
    He laughed. “Flattery won’t get you anywhere.” He grabbed her and sat her upright next to a tree. “Now I’m curious: How do you know about them?”
    Sarah’s eyes widened. She couldn’t tell him about the ‘game’ she’s been dragged into. “I picked up word and wanted to investigate.” She felt worried as his mask lit up with amusement.
    “Oh really?”
    Suddenly, Sarah felt her mind forced open. She screamed while her paralyzed body could do nothing to relieve the pain.
    Ruunaja placed a finger on his chin while in thought. “Well I'll be. The Shadowed One wants to recruit you. I suggest accepting, they have good health care benefits.” he joked "But on the down side I'd have to kill you out of principle... And you’ve been educating yourself of our world. Very smart of you. Oh and it looks like you have a thing going on with Lewa.”
    “Shut up!” she cringed. Her screams became more agonizing as he dug deeper.
    “Where is it…. Aha!” He got his answer, but the expression on his mask said it wasn’t what he expected. “Wait, that’s him!? Brutaka!?” He then busted into laughter. “Well that explains everything. You’re his puppets. I can’t believe he’s still around.” He chuckled.
    The girls were a little scared when they realized he knew who their kidnapper was. Ruunaja didn’t have to try hard to figure out what they were thinking and smiled. “In case you didn’t know, he used to work for us. I haven’t seen him in a while. Maybe I should visit sometime, bring you two as house warming gifts.” he mocked. He then straitened himself up. “Now, although I enjoy family reunions, I have some soldiers to catch and you’re going to help me.”
    “As if.” Sarah spat.
    He smirked. “I wasn’t talking to you.” A devilish smile stretched across his mask as he glared at Janet.
    Janet moaned realizing she probably wasn’t going to enjoy what he had in store for her.
    “And what about me?” asked Sarah.
    “Have you forgotten all the trouble you’ve given me? You’ll fight back every step of the way, so I’m leaving you with a babysitter.” He turned to a bush behind him and signaled with his finger to come forth. There was a high pitched screech, followed by rustled leaves. Ruunaja observed her wide-eyed expression and laughed.
    “I take it you’re familiar with the Visorak.”
    Sarah’s short breath and rapid heart beat was all he needed for an answer. She felt her hands twitch.
    “Don’t bother. By the time you’re able to move again you’ll be wrapped in a warm, cozy cocoon.”
    “You wouldn’t dare!” she yelled.
    “I would.” He then turned to the green, spider-like creature. “Take care of her for me and wait for my return. Then you can do what you want to her.”
    The spider chirped in excitement. The chirping grew louder and seemed to come from every direction, until the girls saw multiple Visorak moving in. Sarah could only manage a few twitches in her arms and legs in a horrible attempt to run away. A Visorak descended from above and snatched her off the ground.
    “No!” she screamed.
    The spiders rushed over and began weaving silk around her. “Janet help!”
    Janet shook her head while trying to break free of the vines.
    “Oh she will be helping you. She just won’t help ‘you’.” The Makuta began to change form. His body glowed brightly, forcing the girls to close their eyes. When they could see again Ruunaja had taken the form of a Human. A very familiar Human.  
    “What do you think?” he smiled.
    Sarah was speechless. She wasn’t staring at a Makuta anymore, but herself. The replica toyed with his hair.
    “What’s the matter, never seen yourself in a mirror before?" What’s worse is he sounded just like her.
    “Why?” she gasped.
    “Why not?” he chuckled. “I need to get the soldiers on my side. I can’t do that as a Makuta now can I? A little disguise is all I need to get them to do what I want. Oh and since you won’t be using that anymore I’ll take it.” He grabbed her backpack and put it on. He then walked towards Janet. The vines unwrapped themselves and she took a deep sigh of relief, but when Ruunaja offered his hand she took a step back and shook her head. What bothered her was his smirk that followed. He grabbed her firmly by the wrist and pulled. His small, feminine appearance was deceptive at showing just how strong he really was.
    She quickly found it pointless to try and pull herself free. All she could do was look back and watch what was happening to the real Sarah while being dragged by the imposer.
    “Have fun with your new friends.” smiled Ruunaja.
    “You won’t get away with this!” yelled Sarah.
    “What ever.” he grunted.
    She was about to yell back when one of the Visorak spun a web around her mouth, muffling threatening screams and pleads for help. More Visorak approached. She was finally able to move her head around and observed almost a dozen of the spiders enclosing. The webbing around her grew tight, forcing her to put a little more effort in her breathing. As they finished spinning the web, she began to fully comprehend just what was going to happen. Tears began to roll down her cheeks. There was no chance of her getting out of this as a Human and probably less likely to get off the island with someone other than a Makuta. She choked on her tears as she realized one more important fact: that she failed.


    For three hours Janet kept quiet as she followed the Makuta, disguised as Sarah, deeper into the island. She had difficulty catching up with him, or should she say ‘her’, and tried her best not to fall too far behind or be shocked again. To her surprise he stopped.
    “Tired already?” he teased.
    Janet silently nodded. He sat down on a fallen tree and gestured for her to come sit. She was hesitant for a second, but walked over and sat down. Immediately she felt his influence over gravity pull on her. She couldn’t move herself off the log. Silence swept over and Janet tried hard to avoid any kind of visual contact with Ruunaja. But a troubling question kept nagging at her.
    “You can ask me.” he smiled. Janet looked at him in shock. “I’m a Makuta remember?”
    She gulped. “Wha- What’s going to happen to Sarah?”
    Ruunaja had a sheepish grin. “Well, the Visorak are going to let her settle into her cocoon and when I give the order, give her a little pinch of venom. After a short while, she will emerge out of her cocoon as a beautiful Hordika. And don’t be jealous, once I have the soldiers captured you’ll become a Hordika too.” 
    All though she didn’t know what a Hordika was, she still looked at him with disgust. “Sarah was right, you are a monster.”
    “Ha! Is that all she ever says about me?”
    “No,” she spat “She keeps saying how ugly you are.”
    He laughed. “So she does think of me. How sweet of her.”
    Suddenly they heard a sharp snap and froze. Then a branch from above rustled. They looked behind and up to see a large, brown Rahkshi-like creature, with blue eyes glaring harshly at them. If it wasn’t for Ruunaja’s gravity powers Janet would’ve gladly jumped out of her seat. Her attention was then caught by a brown blob behind the tree. She leaned over and nearly dropped her jaw at the sight of a U.S. Marine.
    “Oh my gosh, they’re here! They’re actually here!” thought Janet.
    The false Human noticed the Marine and smirked. “Is he with you?” The brown creature nodded. He then looked at the soldier. "And are you the only Human left?"
    The Marine shook his head. "No."
    He gave a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."
    "Who are you?" asked the Marine.
    "Sorry, I'm just a little excited about you being alive after all this time. I'm Sarah and this is Janet. We're here to bring you home." He said warmly.
    Janet gave him an uneasy look. She tried to speak, but was horrified to find that when she opened her mouth no sound came out. Whether it was shock or another one of the Makuta’s strange powers, she didn’t know, but she needed to warm them some way or another. She gazed at the soldier with watery eyes that plead for help. It caught his attention, as well as the strange creature. The reptilian being jumped off the branch and approached them. It stared Janet down in suspicion and gave a low growl.
    “Home huh?”
    She nodded. Making sure Ruunaja wasn’t looking at her, Janet mouthed out a sentence. The Marine gave her a confused look. She mouthed out the words again, this time trying to punctuate. ‘HELP ME’. The Marine's face showed concern. The creature then faced the false human.
    “All right then. They can go home. Just not with you!”
    The powers Ruunaja had on Janet suddenly vanished, as a five foot, clawed blade was thrust into his gut. He gasped and squirmed, in an attempt to sell herself as a real Human.
    “Xipher what are you doing!?” yelled the Marine.
    Xipher ignored him and raised the Human in the air and up against a tree. “You think you can fool me!?” he roared. “No illusion can hide your scent!”
    Ruunaja stopped his charade and looked straight in Xipher’s eyes. At first he chuckled softly, then it grew louder and deeper until he transitioned into his real voice. “Well isn’t this fun? This is the best game of cat and mouse I’ve played in a while. It’s my turn to play the cat.” smiled Ruunaja.
    Xipher hissed in anger. “First you’ll have to retreat to your mouse hole!” He drew his claws out of the Makuta.
    Janet saw a greenish-black substance pouring out of him. Ruunaja fell to the ground and tried to stop the bleeding. Xipher struck another blow at him, this time in the chest. The Makuta screamed. More and more of the substance bleed out.
    Ruunaja looked at himself and cringed his teeth. “This isn’t over!”
    Before Xipher could strike a third blow, the Makuta teleported. His claws hit the tree right where the impostor’s head would’ve been. Xipher roared in anger. Janet was still trying to take in what just happened, when she exhaled a deep breath. Xipher’s ears picked it up and he looked at her with an unwelcome look. He growled heavily and readied to pounce. She stood up and shook her head.
    “Wait, I’m not-“
    He roared and pounced at her. She screamed and threw herself over the log, “I’m not with him.” She cried, and sprinted to the Marine.       The Marine grabbed her by the arms and held her tight. Thinking that he was trying to feed her to the creature, she fought him.
    “Hey, hey, it’s all right. We-“
    Xipher grabbed her by the shoulder and ripped her out of his hands.
    “Xipher, stop!”
    Again he ignored him and threw Janet thirty feet, knocking the wind out of her when she landed. While she tried to get up a heavy object pushed down on her back and pinned her to the ground. She looked over to see Xipher's foot on her. He raised his blades in the air and growled.
    “Where did he go?”
    She could only build enough courage to stutter sounds.
    “Where is he!?” he roared.
    A shot suddenly rang behind him. He stopped and looked at the Marine, who had his gun raised high in the air. He stared at Xipher as though he was going to ground him for the rest of his life. “Enough!” he yelled “You can tell people apart from their scent. Does she smell like a Makuta to you!?”
    "I know she isn't Makuta. But she has to be involved in his schemes.” he grumbled.
    “I’m not.” She panted. “I – I didn’t have a choice. He ambushed us while we-“
    The Marine cut her off. “Wait a minute, ‘Us’?”
    She nodded and began to choke up. “Sarah, th- the one he disguised himself as. She’s being held by a bunch of giant spiders. I think they’re called Viso- visor-“
    “Visorak?”asked Xipher.
    “Yeah.”
    Xipher sniffed the air around him and turned to his right. “I’ll get her. Scott, babysit the girl.” He ordered before running off.
    “Now hold on-“
    Xipher kept running.
    He gave a disappointing sigh, and turned to Janet. “You all right?”
    “Just a little shaken.” She stumbled up on her feet and walked to him, where she was embraced with an arm around her shoulder.
    “Don’t worry it’s going to be all right.”
    “How would you know?” grumbled Janet.
    Scott smiled. “Because you're with a Marine.”



    “So this is what it feels like to be a bug.” Sarah thought to herself. Even with all of her effort she could barely wiggle inside her cocoon, which felt more like a coffin for her. What troubled her was that so much time had passed and the Visroak hadn’t injected their mutating venom into her. Instead some were resting, while others either battled each other or went out to hunt for more game. One of the spiders looked like it was loosing patience. It approached her, showing off its pincers. Another one got in its way and threatened to bite.
    As they quarreled, she still felt the Toa stone necklace underneath her shirt. The little amount of warmth that radiated from it gave her a small sliver of hope. Perhaps if the Toa are now comfortable around Humans then she might not have too much problem being a Hordika. Then again their ‘relationship’ was hostile when they first meet.
    A low bellow echoed from the distance that got all of the Visorak’s attention. They hushed and listened. At first all they heard was silence, but they soon heard something running through the brush and it was moving quickly towards them. Some of the spiders weren’t sure what to make of it, while the rest had their Rohtuka spinners glowing, ready for a confrontation. The brush shook as something large raced in their direction. Suddenly a large, brown Rahkshi-like creature roared as it leaped over the last bush and onto a Visorak. It staggered back in alarm and screeched. The creature drew its clawed blades into the spider. The spider’s scream was silenced and it collapsed to the ground dead. Some of the other Visorak took a step back in surprise. But their confidence returned and they began firing their Rohtuka spinners.
    Sarah could only see most of the fight though the opening in her cocoon, but to her surprise the creature was very agile for it’s size. Its thin, long limbs didn’t look like they could do much, but she was blown away again as it grabbed a spider by the leg and flung it forty feet at the small horde, knocking three more out of the fight. The creature dodged and knocked out every spinner that whirled at him. One by one the Visorak were slain until only three were left. They made a mad dash for escape, but it was futile as it leaped on top of each one and ripped them open. It looked around and observed the carnage it brought. Then it roared at the sky in triumph.
    A quick sigh of relief escaped her breath until she realized she faced a new problem: the creature now had its eyes on her. She didn’t know who she's worse off with: The Visorak or that thing. It growled as it approached her. When its face came within a foot of hers it sniffed the air. Then it took a step back and drew its blades. Realizing it was going to be the end, she closed her eyes and tried not to shed a tear. She felt the blade go through the webbing and thought it was over. But it wasn’t. In fact she felt herself fall from the cocoon and into two large hands. She opened her eyes and looked up. The creature looked at her and surprised her one more time when it spoke.
    “Are you all right?”
    She took a moment to recollect herself. “Yeah.”
    “Good,” he growled.
    She then noticed that he was looking at something. She looked down and realized he was looking at her necklace. After a brief moment he shook his head as if to break away from a trance and looked back at her. “You better hold on.”
    “Why?” She got her answer when he began to sprint. She clung on to him for several minutes until she felt more comfortable.
    “Where are you taking me?”
    “To some friends of yours.” he replied “Now shut up, I’ve already had two, long months being with annoying people.”
    She wanted to snap back a sarcastic remark, but seeing what he can do, she decided to keep her mouth shut. After a period of watching the forest move past her, Sarah dozed off to sleep. His movement while running imitated the feeling of being rocked. Suddenly that motion stopped. She opened her eyes and looked round. It pleased her to see Janet was alive an all right. She was even more pleased to see a Marine. Xipher put her down and she walked up to the man.
    “You’re a little out of your element in that uniform wouldn’t you say?” she smirked as she looked up and down his outfit.
    He looked at himself then back at her and shrug. “There’s not much I can do about it. This isn’t exactly the middle east.”
    After chuckling she looked around. “Please don’t tell me you’re the only one left.”
    “I’m not. Janet here had been telling me about you and your friends on some island paradise. Think you can get us off this rock?”
    Sarah smiled. “Well that’s what we’re here to do.”
    Xipher growled in response. “Hold on, I’m not willing to just hand them over to you two just yet. I want answers.” His ears raised up, followed by his head. He looked around, then back at Sarah. “But this isn’t the place to talk. You’re coming with us.”
    Scott climbed on his back while Xipher carried the girls in each arm and ran. Sarah occasionally looked back to see if anyone was following. After a good run and a climb up a towering cliff they arrived at a makeshift campsite. There were at around a dozen Marines sitting around a camp fire. Their faces were tired and weary, showing they went through some pretty horrible stuff recently. The few Matoran that were with them looked like they went through much worse.
    “Xipher!” cried a female voice. Another one of Xipher’s kind came up to him. She was white and smaller in size. “Thank goodness you’re all right. We heard the gun go off and-“
    Xipher raised his hand and cut her off. “Saber, everything is fine. We're just bringing home some… ‘guest’.”
    Saber looked at the two newcomers. “You two are small for Humans.”
    “Not small, just young.” corrected Janet.
    One of the Marines came up to them. She was about to speak when she saw Sarah and stopped. Her mouth gaped halfway open.
    “Sam, are you okay?” asked Scott.
    “Uh what? Oh, oh yeah. I’m fine, it’s just-“ Her mouth was left open as she tried to find the words to finish her sentence. “I- I know you.”
    Sarah squinted at her in confusion. “Excuse me?”
    “I know you. You’re that girl. The one Ruunaja attacked in a cave. You were covered in bandages.”
    Sarah’s face lit up in shock. “How do you know that!?”
    All of the soldiers turned at looked to see what the commotion was about.
    “I-I got a glimpse into his memory when he tried to interrogate me.” She put a hand on her shoulders. "It's kind of a long story."
    Sarah was speechless.
    Not wanting to wait any longer, Xipher cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind Sam, these two owe us some answers.”



    Janet stayed close to the campfire and made sure that there were enough Marines between her and the worn out Matoran, and above all: Xipher. She didn’t mind Saber. As for the Matoran, they didn’t keep their eyes off her. Whether it was because they were suspicious of her or didn’t like the way she looked she couldn’t tell, but it made her uncomfortable.
    Sarah more concerned about Xipher. Between her and Janet, Xipher has stared primarily at her. She was busy recalling events and didn't want to bring it up, so she occasionally glanced at him in hope of figuring out why he was giving her such a cold, hard glare. She finally put the pieces together and realized that while he was looking at her, he wasn't focused on her face. His line of sight appeared to be a little lower, so she looked down. There wasn't any food on her shirt, just the necklace.
    Then it donned on her. Without turning her head, she looked at Xipher and touched the necklace. His spikes folded down. There was something about the Toa stones that made him uncomfortable, if not upset. She tucked it under her shirt.
    "Are you sure this 'titan' will keep his promise and send us home after this is all over?”
    Sarah faced her, almost as if she just snapped out of a trance. She paused for a moment. “I hope so.”
    “That’s great,” murmured Josh “A giant sends two kids out to ‘rescue’ us on the hope that he might take us home.”
    Janet folded her arms. “Hey, even if he doesn’t keep his word at least we’ll all be able to survive together.”
    “That’s not very comforting.” said Scott.
    “I’m not finished yet. The island we’re staying at is practically paradise. It has everything, a jungle, desert, mountains, you name it. And there’s a village in each area you can stay in.”
    “As if the Matoran would ever let me live with them.” spat Xipher.
    “Actually the Matoran went back to Metru Nui. The villages are pretty much abandoned now.”
    Xipher 's ears shot up and he straitened himself up and listened more intently.
    “There’s plenty of land, lots to eat and no sign of Makuta anywhere.” smiled Janet.
    “At least since the Matoran went back to their true home.” Sarah added.
    “Can we please get back on topic?” interrupted Sam. “What about these Dark Hunters? Can we trust them to get us there?”
    Sarah answered. “I wouldn’t trust them at all, but we can’t get anywhere without them. In fact the ship leaves in two days.”
    “It’ll take a day to get to the ship.” grunted Xipher “I suggest you all get some sleep. The sooner we’re off this rock the better.”
Yeay, BG, and M.I.A. finally converge into one story. :la:Don't worry, we haven't seen the last of Ruunaja. :evillaugh:

Ch 12: [link]
Ch 14: [link]
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Battledroidunit047's avatar
Ruunaja must be getting sick of his plans being thwarted. He'd better quit while can.