Drums In The Deep-Ssc9

[VBBN]

Quote; "They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes, drums... drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow lurks in the dark. We can not get out... they are coming."-Fellowship of the Ring------------------------------------------------------------------Toa. What did that word mean? Was it to describe the bravest of heroes? Was it a symbol of victory, of good, of light? Or was it a name given to those who put themselves it danger's path and show no fear in stopping it? To some, it is a word that means a guardian, who will protect them. To others, the word is an enemy. And to a rare few, the word is nothing. It has no emotion associated with it. It is empty, shallow, and cannot stop them. ***Vakama entered the chamber, a dully light dome made of hardened sand. He moved slower than he ever had. His days were running out. He looked up to see a small group of matoran, sitting around a small fire, looking up at him with anxious eyes. Vakama smiled. There was nothing more he enjoyed now than to pass on tales of past to the new generations of matoran. He peered to the right as Toa Hewkii, macku, and Toa Tahu entered the dome as well. Hewkii and Macku had agreed to be with eachother for the entirety of their lives. When the Toa Nuva were to become turaga, Macku would become the next toa of water, to fully complete her life with hewkii. Tahu attended all of Vakamas stories, as when vakama was gone, tahu would take his place as the storyteller. Every Toa Nuva would become the storytellers of their respective regions, it was tradition."Gathered friends..." Vakama began "Welcome again to another legend of the Bionicle. This legend, is different than any you have been told before. it is always one of the last that we turaga tell, for it is a legend of a great war. But this war is far worse than any you have ever known. Worse than the brotherhood of makuta war, worse than the dark hunter's struggle against the toa, worse than the great battle against teridax himself." He stopped, a moment of thought overwhelmed him. "You have been told about the war the toa had against the dark hunters. That, my friends, was nothing. That, was 300 Toa Defending Metru Nui, fighting useless beings who could barely stop a Kikanalo. This legend, is about the true army of the toa. One thousand strong. it was formidable force, and as it was known, the army of the toa was called The One Thousand. This, was the army that was made by the great beings to protect mata nui. They were supposed to live on, each giving their power to new matoran every cycle, so that we were always One Thousand Strong." Vakama said, as he sat him self down in front of the matoran, the fire warming him as he prepared to tell the cold tale."What happened to them!?" A small blue matoran named Heeka gasped. A crimson matoran sitting next to him smacked his kanohi."Wait for him to tell the story!" He whispered, then the both of them looked back at vakama. Vakama laughed, and proceeded onward."What the great beings did not anticipate, was that another universe would become involved with ours. A grand army was scouting universes, using dimensional abilities that even the great beings did not know existed. They were looking for something, and to this day no one knows what. They were known as The Plague...***A figure clad in navy and golden armor, weilding a powerful sword and mask that resembled a kings crown, stood before his army. His name was Flaudis, and he, like the other 999 beings who stood in front of him, was a Toa. He inspected the massive army of toa, everyone of them extremely powerful in some regard. Some toa Were smaller, meant for stealth operations, whilst some were massive brute toa, meant to use pure strength. Some had powers over fire, Some had powers of invisibility, electricity, magnetism, every power a toa could have. Some hovered over the others with flight capabilities. some were male, some were female. "We are The One Thousand!" Flaudis yelled, his voice booming over the army. Flags were raised, bearing the symbol of The One Thousand. Today was a day for the army to march around the island of Jixia Nui, what would later become metru nui. At least, that is what the citizens of Jixia, also known as Jixians, believe. In truth, The One Thousand was going to investigate a strange occurrence. A scouting toa said he had seen a strange opening in the sky, like a small black hole, forming, but didn't dare go near it. Since then, cities have been demolished everyday. The Jixians have been told it is the will of mata nui that those cities be rebuilt. The Jixians who lived in those cities stay there to rebuild them, and barriers have been place so no outside can see the cities being rebuilt. Yet, the cities are not being rebuilt. They are a wasteland, set aflame, the inhabitants shattered, stabbed, broken. It was not Mata Nui's will; it was an extermination. The toa had to lie to avoid mass panic.Flaudis motioned for the army to move forward. The cities were going down one by one, in a straight line. Whatever was taking them down, was moving in one direction. The One Thousand were going to stop it right in it's tracks. One thousand beings, the most powerful force in the entire mata Nui universe, all moved at one. ***4 Hours laterA purple toa named Argen approached the green Toa Kela."I can't do it anymore," Kela began, her soft voice sounding saddened, "Too many Jixians are dying. They are my friends, Argen- It is our job to protect them, and what do we have to show for it? Cities burned to the ground, the Jixians torn into pieces..How can we call ourselves protectors!""Sometimes, things have to happen in order for a proper outcome to persue, my dear sister. There is no way one can save the work of an army. An army that must be built, gathered, and moved. We will stop the threat, we are The One Thousand. They died, for a noble cause. Now it is up to us to make sure what they did does not go to vein." Argen saidOff to a corner of the crowd were 6 toa clad in chrome black armor. they were the Toa Neera, a team of assasins who mastered at stealth technique and spinjitzu. The leader of the toa himself was named Neera. Each team of toa under The One Thousand was named after the leader of the group. Neera himself had the power of sonic flight. "I'm tired of walking" He grumbled. his short temper usually got the best of him during battle. He jumped, doing a back flip; and as he did so, wings flipped out of his sides, guns appeared over his shoulders and his body morphed into a sleek jet-looking shape. He shot off, a loud sonic boom erupting over the barren field. Two nearby toa fell down, knocked off their feet from the small wave of dust that had been kicked up when he left. "Where is he going?" A light blue toa asked as he walked."To scout ahead." An orange Toa neera replied, as he looked at the light blue toa with his one good eye. His other had been shot out in battle.At that moment, Toa Neera came back towards the army, spiralling out of control. He slammed into the ground, and transformed back into his humanoid form. he stood, brushing the dust off of himself, as a fellow toa of stone held him up. "What happened?" Flaudis asked, as he approached Toa Neera. Neera looked up at him, not saying a single word. Yet Flaudis had to do nothing more than look at Neera's eyes to see the fear that encompassed them. "Silence!" Flaudis yelled, and the entire army fell silent. That is when they heard it. Drums. Long, heavy drums. A translucent yellow toa leapped over the other toa and shot forward, using his power of speed to get over to the edge of the cliff in the distance where Neera had gone. "Dear...mata Nui..." he said, edging back. Flaudis made his way over to the Toa of Speed and looked onward. he put his hand on the Toa of Speed's shoulder. "And so this is what we face" he said quietly.Down the cliff, in the massive valley of sand, stood ten thousand beings. No, not beings, monsters. Every one of them was different. Some were tiny, smaller than even a fikou spider. other were massive, as big as the colesium that was being built in the center of Jixia Nui(Later to be the metru nui coliseium) They were vicious, and looked as if they had come straight out of a nightmare. They had jagged spikes erupting from their bodys, chains dangling from all over. Capes, broken masks on sticks, everything about them was gruesome and horrific to look at. Above them flew massive beasts being ridden by even more gruesome monsters. Some had humanoid figures, others had massive claws or crawled on a multitude of legs.Flaudis turned towards The One Thousand. "Today, we face something that we know nothing about. We will fight strong, and show no regret. Toa...to victory!" He yelled, and raised his sword. The toa yelled, flags raised, and they charged down the cliff. ***Ooranus stood, at his full 10 foot height. He was broad, with massive spikes coming out of every part of his armor. His mask was long and sharp, with cold, white eyes blaring through it. He was a warrior of the grand army known as The Plague. he was also the first to notice the oncoming army of figures rushing down the cliff towards him. He growled, and let off a roar that alerted the entire Plague. All of them focused on The One Thousand. Then, they began to move.***It only took a moment before the two armies barreled into eachother. Swords clashed at first. Larger toa ran through, knocking down many of the plague as they did so. Elemental powers were thrown across the army, yet The Plague did not seem to fall. They moved in, large spiked maces, clubs, and swords so treacherous they could make a makuta look like a fikou. Ooranus jumped, and landed in front of Argen and Kela. Argen threw a blast of plasma at Ooranus, but it simply fell off of him like water. Kela attempted to cause a whirlwind to knock Ooranus off of his feet, but still he stood. At that moment, Argen and kela leaped back. Ooranus' chest had opened, with sickly tentacles emerging from it. They shot outward, grabbing onto Argen. They tore through his armor, and drained his elemental energy. His lifeless body fell to the ground, and Ooranus took form once again, but now he had the power of plasma running throughout him. Before Kela could react, a sniper blasted her foot with shadow. She struggled to stand, falling to one knee. Ooranus walked over to her, and lifted her up by the throat. "Nothing stops The Plague. We will find our objective. You will fall." He dropped her, and fired a small beam of plasma at her chest. She lay there, the plasma slowly killing her. She cried.In what had quickly started, quickly ended. The toa were demolished. Only a few still stood. Neera flew over to flaudis and transformed. His arm flipped into a laser rife, and fired at a small Plague runnign at them. The plagues arm fell off, but still it continued running. Flaudis swung his sword, tearing the plague into two. It still attempted to crawl at them, until Neera fired again, finally eliminating it."What will it take with these things?" Neera asked, not even noticed that almost the entire One Thousand had fallen. At that moment, a large brutish figure with black and gold armor walked over to them. This one, was different from the rest of the plague. He wore a tattered cape, and stood with a sense of nobility to him. Yet, one of his hands was a massive pincer, and he looked as if half of him had been mutated into something of a different form."I wish to speak to the king of this army!" Flaudis yelled, readying himself for combat."The King?" The creature said, and began to laugh. He threw his fist forward, bashing Neera to the ground. He then turned to Flaudis and grabbed him with his pincer. "I AM KING" he growled."What do you want with our planet?" Flaudis asked, struggling."We are searching for something. We will search every universe, and we will find it." The king said."Why must you kill cities to find it if you don't even know where it is!" Flaudis yelled, getting frustrated at his position. "Ah, it is much more complicated than that. Our mission is to seek, but our purpose is to inflict fear. To Find the happiness in worthless beings like you, and cast it into a mocking light. We then take that happiness, and use it against you. We smash it like glass, and crush the remains into dust. Like everyone else, you die." Flaudis dropped to the ground, lifeless.***The Jixian stood in the grand castle of Jixia, watching the Plague move in. He quickly scribbled on a tablet, chronicleing a tale for the legends. They began to break into the castle. The final words the jixian ever scribbled, were "They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes, drums... drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow lurks in the dark. We can not get out... they are coming."***Vakama stopped talking. He looked up. The matoran were scared. the tale had frightened them, to know that those who they looked up to for protection had fallen so easily. Hewkii held macku in his arms as she cried. Even tahu stiffled a shocked expression."How did they stop The Plague?" Heeka asked. "Legend says The Plague found what they were looking for and retreated to their universe, never to be seen again." Vakama said as he stood. The matoran exited the chamber, but Vakama asked Tahu to stay. "What is it, Turaga?" Tahu Asked, kneeling down to vakama."They didn't find what they were looking for, Tahu. Nokama and Nuju read the stars and..." he stopped to look tahu in the eyes."And what?" Tahu asked, already knowing what the answer would be."They are coming here."