Unseen Chapter 5
Entry posted by bonesiii
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Today the Bones Blog brings you Chapter Five of this Bionicle Paracosmos blog-exclusive "Adventure Mystery" short epic, which serves as a slow-reveal of the winner of the Monster Mystery Art contest.
In and around the apparent cavern lair of the Unseen Monster, I was busy triangulating the source of a wide-range power nulling field that blinded my Soulsong sense…
Two borders found, one to go.
Hujo had carefully snuck along one of the broken chute tunnels, and found the edge of the nulling power. The trip there and back had been uneventful… but still spooky. The only light source in the tunnels was his staff.
Now he ventured into the opposite tunnel.
The parts of the defunct chute that were in the cavern still held a mostly intact hollow tube of crystallized protowater. But right where the chute entered the rock tunnel and inside the tunnel, falling debris – presumably during the Great Cataclysm – had broken all the sections. So the floor of the tunnel was now littered with broken glass-like shards, dirt, and rocks.
Every few meters one of the old magnetics projector rings encircled the cave. These were the most dangerous parts; the crystal tube sections just inside the metal were intact, leaving jagged round knife-crystals sticking out both forward and backward in the tunnel. The jagged rings reminded Hujo of giant shark mouths, wide open to eat him.
Hujo had been using his blue flames both to light the way and to partially melt these knife-edges and the other broken shards, creating a heavily textured but safe path to walk on.
Every few seconds, he glanced back at the dim entrance to the cavern. It wouldn’t do to be snuck up on in here.
Every minute, he made a firecage and slipped far enough into a trance to try his soulsong sense.
Finally, he found the border.
Fifty regular steps out, he thought, scratching his findings onto a tablet map. He did some quick math in the margin and found his answer.
The origin of the nulling field was in the chute station tower in the center of the cavern.
The tower was a bit frightening too, with several rooms and broken open walls, but… at least it wasn’t the pipes.
Atop the Coliseum, in the Turaga Meeting Hall, where moments ago, Turaga Dume activated something in a secret panel of the meeting table… then walked up to a potted plant and smashed it…
“Are you going insane?” Surkahi chastised the fire elder. The shapeshifter had heard the Unknown’s accounts of Dume’s downward spiral over past months as he faced oncoming disaster after oncoming disaster, underscored by the imminent death of Mata Nui.
“I’m as sane as you,” Dume spat back. “And I’m the only one who has a plan. This beast is out there terrorizing my city, eating my people, and what use were you? What use are the Unknown? I have a secret of my own, and it alone can save us now.”
Surkahi didn’t waste time reminding him that Hujo had a chance of stopping the Unseen, or that the Toa Nuva or Inika had a chance of saving Mata Nui.
He just got to the point. “Then tell us how.”
“You are all fools! You cannot understand.”
“Try us,” Turaga Nokama said, but she said it softly and respectfully. Surkahi wished he could convey so much emotion and wisdom in two simple words.
Dume actually paused at that. “Bah.”
“You hold an interesting artifact,” Surkahi said. “I’ve never seen any record of it. It’s obviously a key, but to what? And why is it in two parts?”
“It should be in three parts, but this city of fools let the Trickster get the third piece,” Dume said.
“Alright, what do the first two parts do?”
Dume said nothing for a moment… he just glared. Not at Surkahi alone… at everyone. “Do you mean to stand in my way if I don’t explain?”
Surkahi held his gaze now. “Dume, you have stood in the way of my people and your people as they tried their plans, claiming they wouldn’t work, and you were wrong.”
“I am ruler of Metru Nui—”
“In the thousand years I led Ta-Koro,” Vakama interrupted, “which is admittedly nothing compared to your honorable reign… I found that sometimes trust and respect were impossible if I did not—”
“No time!” Dume interrupted back, pushing past Surkahi. He hobbled over to the table.
Surkahi saw with surprise that it had changed shape. Not in the way a shapeshifter could, but more hidden panels had opened. On the sides of the blacksheen table, all around it. And out of these new openings, metal spokes were slowly moving out. Handles – turning the entire table into a giant version of a sailing ship steering wheel on its side.
There were eight of them.
“Turn it! Quickly!” Dume said. He grabbed one spoke and started pushing. The table didn’t budge.
Surkahi and the other elders just stood there.
“Will something bad happen if we do this?” Surkahi asked.
“More pointworthy,” Matau added, “Will badstuff happen if we don’t?”
“Yes!” Dume said, looking at Matau as he strained against the iron spoke. “Very bad and very soon if we don’t act! I think it’s why the Trickster is here! Hurry!”
Grudgingly, the other Turaga Mata and Surkahi moved toward it. “Not you, Surkahi! It must be all Turaga! Takanuva, you!”
The elder of Light looked surprised for a moment, then hobbled over, and took the eighth spoke. Together, the eight Turaga pushed with all their might.
And the wheel finally began to turn, clounterclockwise.
In the air over the Silver Sea, off Metru Nui’s southeast coast…
Taureko and Mohrook flew on Jhianau’s back towards the city. They had journeyed over a lot of ocean in the past hour, and had passed through the sea gate into Metru Nui’s dome.
The invisible bird was a spectacular sight – a statement that was only noncontradictory when you touched the bird.
Jhianau was totally colored translucent white, with white energy flowing out in waves from every feather, and across Taureko and Mohrook too – who were also now translucent to each other. Elegant white feathers formed three crests from the back of the head down the longish neck, from a medium-length white beak, and two eyes that were distinguished only by shining more brightly white.
The wings were a blur – hovering silently.
Taureko found the experience of being invisible thrilling. Especially when he spoke – he discovered that he could mentally decide whether to speak so only Mohrook heard him, or speak to the outside world with a voice that seemed to come from everywhere, not just his mouth.
“Where do you think we’ll find Hujo?” the Ko-Matoran spoke, using the ‘omnivoice’ method because he found it fun.
“He could be anywhere,” Mohrook said. “Investigating. We should go to the Coliseum. Ask the Turaga.”
“Coliseum it is.” Taureko manuevered the reins to aim Jhianau at the Coliseum, and the bird gladly obeyed. The bird even gave a caw that made Taureko feel like it understood. It had been here before, after all, bunking in the Gukko nests of the tall tower.
Minutes later, they arrived, and Jhianau settled down in a Gukko nest. Taureko and his Onu-Matoran friend walked through the hallways to the throne room.
Dume wasn’t there. Probably in the meeting room.
So they went there.
Indeed, all eight Turaga were there. Taureko tilted his head at the sight of them turning the round meeting table on metal spokes. “What’s going on?” he asked Surkahi, who was standing near them.
“Dume hasn’t explained yet,” Surkahi replied. “Welcome back to Metru Nui, Taureko and Mohrook. I hope you’re not here for pleasure… kind of a bad time.”
Taureko waved his concerns aside. “Caroha herself sent us, as did Ito. We know about the Unseen. And we have news from Ito, for Hujo.”
Surkahi looked like he understood. With a guarded expression, he asked, “Does Ito say the missing Matoran are alive?”
Mohrook was the one to bring relief to the room. “They’re alive. But maybe not for long.”
Taureko explained about the Freer organization they had formed.
Finally, the table clicked to a halt. “That’s it,” Dume said, standing back. The other Turaga followed suit.
“What was that for?” Taureko wondered aloud.
“That,” Dume replied, “bought us some time.”
Back in the defunct chute tunnel, I was heading back to the cavern, my eyes on the dim circle of light ahead, when I saw…
An eclipse.
Hujo froze as he saw it – a dark shape had just slid silently over the dim light of the cavern. Against the brightness of his own flames, Hujo could now no longer see any light at all there.
Something was coming.
Hujo was still somewhat in his trance. So he sensed the soulsong. It was the Unseen.
And then it wasn’t.
There was no song.
The nulling field was moving. With the Unseen. Oh no…
Loud crunching. The sound of glass breaking, again and again. Heavy thumps.
And a slight wind in Hujo’s face.
The Unseen was running at him. Fast.
Scared, Hujo energized the tablet into his energy pack, and swiveled the Blue Fire Staff to aim down the tunnel. Commanded three bolts of blue fire – a perfectly normal attack for him, essentially the minimum of his power – to fly.
Time seemed to slow down as the three perpetual bolts of Blue Fire that spun in a circle between the prongs of his staff changed.
The front of the three – the biggest, doubled in size. So did the next smaller one, and the next smaller one. Then each split in half, and a split second later these three new bolts were flying down the tunnel, a bright blue cast light flying with them along the cave walls.
Hujo waited for the light to shine on the Unseen. Running was an option, but first he had to stand strong, and more importantly see his enemy.
One bolt like this would probably not take it down, but he purposefully kept his power low to test the enemy, and have the maximum advantage later when he brought more power to bear. The flames flew true…
And then the large lead one shrunk. Fizzled.
The other two followed suit.
All three winked out.
In that moment, Hujo felt a terror unlike any he’d been able to imagine. His heart’s beating gained in strength as fast as the flames fizzled, his eyes dilated, and his very sense of balance tilted.
And for once, the Jahurungi did not stop to even think the obvious conclusion.
He was too busy bursting into a run, keeping his eyes on the broken glass littering the floor, leaping over the glass knife-rings every few meters, glancing back. Running.
In under ten seconds, he was running as fast as his rebuilt Matoran legs could, and the Edge was still gaining.
The nulling field was strongest near its source. The Unseen was the source.
And no power Hujo had could ever harm it.
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Next Chapter: 6
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