As promised to a few of you, here is the official announcement of ...

Due to a set of unfortunate circumstances (that may have perhaps been unavoidable, since we are online), I was hired on to keep on giving after BZPower's Secret Santa (protip: we should make sure the staff turn it into an annual thing).

Of course, there was only one route to take - write an epic! This particular epic will star a select cast of characters created in part by certain BZPower members. Gathered together by an insane Great Being, they will find themselves in a deadly race to find the Mask of Life, hunting down a mysterious and deadly foe before they can end the newly reformed world....

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Of course, what better way to start it all off than to introduce you to the Mad Great Being herself?

ARAINA

"The Mad Great Being"

Long ago, the Great Being Araina helped her brethren to build the Matoran Universe and create the Matoran. Unfortunately for her, towards the end of the project she had the misfortune of coming into contact with the Kanohi Ignika, Mask of Life - the Mask cursed her, causing everything that she came into contact with to suddenly spring to life. Deemed as mad by the other Great Beings, she was locked away within an ancient fortress deep within the jungles of Bota-Magna.

There she remained until sixteen years ago, when she was freed by a mysterious robotic warrior; she has roamed the planet of Spherus-Magna ever since... until now.

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FROM THE PROLOGUE:

He coughed. “You… said something about a Great Being inside of me?”

They shrugged, waving the issue away. “Oh, yes. That nutter. Really, if any of the Great Beings deserved to be called ‘mad’, it’d be him, not me. He managed to override your coding by essentially inserting a small portion of his own soul into you. Made you stop being you and start being him. And then when you broke through, came here and stopped him. Unfortunately, he found a way to transfer his thoughts into you as memories to preserve himself, because both of you are too clever for your own goods. You’re a ticking time bomb.”

“Thanks,” he muttered. “I’m really feeling your appreciation.”

The near-blinding grin he received in response suggested that the Great Being seated in the cell with his staff had long since lost the ability to perceive sarcasm. “Thank you! I do appreciate you! That’s why I brought you here, of course. Because you’re you, and that means you’re lugging him around too. Or, you know, a part of him. It works!”

“What works?!” he cried. “Why did you call me here?!”

“To let me out, of course,” the Mad Great Being said, sounding confused. “Did I not explain it already? You have a bit of a Great Being inside of you. Just grab the bars, picture him in your head, and he’ll be deleted in exchange for freeing me!”

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STAY TUNED!

Tomorrow I'll introduce you to the first member of the Mad Great Being's team - and I might have a way for some of you to get involved as well!

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