Part 23

Takatahi and Uhuru decided to wait to for the other Toa by staying where they entered the core from "Hey, are you sure it's safe to just be waiting here instead of finding the others?" asked Takatahi "It's going to be a risk to stay down here, but we must wait until the others have reached the dead end of the core, this way they know we're telling the truth" responded Uhuru "How do you know the others are leading into a dead end?" asked Takatahi "I know this because all the paths in the cor eventually lead to dead ends and if Flying Robot Manatee fell into the core of Manateeland, that must mean it at the exact center or core of the entire island" said Uhuru "So Dinis and the others are just walking through core almost as a maze that leads to no where?" asked Takatahi "Yes, that's exactly what's happening to them because of the path they're taking" said Uhuru. Meanwhile Dinis, Vapous and Hiari were at the fire village part of the core, they could start to see that their path was getting less dim due to the lava that occasionally started to leak in the direction they were heading in through the rubble covered ceiling. "Hey is it just me or has the ceiling down here been getting less and less stable and also less and less blocked with rubble?" asked Vapous as he started to get annoyed from having to worry if lava was going to drip on him "It's because it the village of fire, lava is in the village of fire what did you expect to leak down here?" responded Dinis "Well, since the ceiling was covered up in so much rubble, I thought there might be nothing leaked on us from the ceiling" said Vapous "I think the mask Uhuru found might be the key to finding Flying Robot Manatee" said Dinis "What proof besides that mask do you have to verify that?" asked Hiari looking a little bit skeptical at what Dinis was saying "We're in the part of the core that's underneath the village of fire and we've already been through all the other villages that are part of the core, maybe there's a place we're heading that'll let us use the mask I'm holding onto as a key or something to awakening Flying Robot Manatee maybe" said Dinis trying to figure out a good use for the mask he was holding onto. Dinis, Vapous and Hiari reached a dead end "Looks like we headed into a dead end like Uhuru said we were" said Hiari "Wait look over there, it's another path" said Dinis as he was pointed towards where they just were that was a feet away. "I think Dinis is right because I can see another path, but it looks a little bit darker than the dead end we're in now" said Vapous as he was where Dinis was pointing. Dinis, Vapous and Hiari then walked towards the path Dinis was pointing to and then they walked straight forwards, then they walked right and then they walked upwards, but to their surprise it was also a dead end "Looks like the direction you were taking this entire time was a dead end" said Hiari with a smug tone in his voice. The mask Dinis was holding onto began to briefly vibrate in his hand, this time it also vibrated Dinis' entire body in the process and made him dizzy. Hiari and Vapous saw Dinis as his entire body was vibrating while he was holding onto the mask, Hiari then ran up to Dinis and grabbed the mask out of his hand and threw it towards the ground. "That mask seems to have some bad luck to it" said Hiari "Hey do you want me to slice that mask into pieces with my water blades?" asked Vapous "No don't!" shouted Dinis "If that mask has so much bad luck to then why didn't the ceiling also vibrate?" asked Dinis "It didn't vibrate because the ceiling has become less and less stable" said Vapous "Come on let's walk back to where we entered the core and find Takatahi and Uhuru and tell them they were right" said Hiari. Hiari and Vapous were about to began their jounrey back to the surface "Hey Dinis, come on are you coming or are you just going to keep staring at that mask" said Vapous. "I'm not staring at the mask, I'm staring at this" said Dinis as moved a foot or 2 towards the sides to show Vapous and Hiari something on the wall of the dead end. It was a carving of Dinis' Kanohi mask of fire, Hiari and Vapous both looked so stunned that they almost looked paralyzed at Dinis' discovery. "You were right all along then" said Vapous as he and Hiari just stared into the carving that was on the wall "What could this mean?" asked Hiari wondering why there would be a carving of Dinis' Kanohi mask of fire on the wall of the dead end "I think I should put the put on the carving" said Dinis as he placed the mask on the carving on the wall, the ground and ceiling began to vibrate and the rubble from the ground began crumble "Quick! We have get of here now before we're turned into rubble" said Hiari as he about to rush out of the dead end of the core through the ceiling "No, this might be where Flying Robot Manatee's body is located" said Dinis as he seemed intrigued by his own theory about the mask he held onto. Vapous then sliced through the rubble that collapsed on him and sliced it into dust. The dead end Dinis, Vapous and Hiari were began to elevate up into the surface while the rubble that was collapsing on them started to fall into the core. The soil like rock wall that the mask was placed on stood out almost immediately and Dinis said "Where's Flying Robot Manatee?" Dinis, Vapous and Hiari were in the village of fire as they were wondering where or how to find Flying Robot Manatee, the demon like being Pateri began to appear where they were standing, the Toa didn't see him because they were too busy looking the ground of the village of fire to see where Flying Robot Manatee's body might be. Vapous was the first of the 3 Toa to see Pateri approaching them and when he did he ran as fast as possible towards Dinis and Hiari and yelled "It's not safe here, we've got some dangerous company!" Hiari and Dinis saw Vapous and he was yelling to him as he was running away from Pateri. Dinis and Hiari stared at the being Pateri that was chasing down Vapous and started to stop searching the ground for Flying Robot Manatee and began running to where Vapous was running in order to stand together against the demon like shadowy being Pateri.