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The Leonn Files: Entry #2 Subject Matter: It's HAPPENING! Entry: "Everything's finally come together. As you know, I successfully met with Nidhiki (though in an odd manner) and his associate, Nuju. I am as of yet unsure of their motives, but that isn't my business, is it? In any case, the portal's up, and Metru-Nui's about to fall. I'd almost say it was a pity, this place (despite its heresy) has its charms. But, alas, freedom comes first, does it not? In any case, here is another, admittedly short, dossier I've compiled during my transit to Po-Metru. More to follow, obviously!" ~L.A. #1 Alias/Name: Nidhiki (Turaga Nidhiki if you want to be all formal) Appearance: Short, like most Turaga. Proud looking, Noble Shelek, dark green and black armour. Only interruption to his otherwise solid paintjob is the scar across his face. I can only deduce that's from his brotherly battles recently (I can relate). Armaments: Nothing but his staff, as far as I can tell. He was fiddling with a candle when I met him, though. Personality Quirks And Modus Operandi: He acts like the absolute epitome of a Toa of Air. Non-serious, impatient, dangerous (though in this case his recklessness resembles something more malevolent than simply being sloppy). Even as a Turaga he acts like he still runs around like his souped up vigilante brethren, and this is somewhat amusing when you take into account his newfound affiliation with us. Not to say we don't have our own fair share of Toa recruits, but nine times out of ten (as I'm sure you'll know intimately) they either have to coerced or have to be unstable and/or have a greatly fractured moral code. Nidhiki seems to fall somewhere on the latter, but without knowing his story this is largely speculation. I'd absolutely kill for an interview with his former Toa brother when you inevitably seize the coliseum, by the way (You know how good I am with prisoners~). #2 Group Name: The Cabal (Work in progress) Consists of: Stannis (A Po-Toa), at least one sniper, an Onu-Toa, and an unknown large mish mash of other species and individuals. One of them is a huge robot of some kind. A good deal of them were Disc Hunters, offered a ride by Stannis to the Coliseum. They possess an airship that they've likely commandeered, and are currently using to get to their destination. Background: Largely unknown, but they weren't always so annoyingly big in their number. Due to Vyarik's initial confidence I can imagine he and Waveahk suspected there'd be less of them, and since a lot of them were carted onto Stannis' "Boat To Justice" their number grew anyway. The Cabal were responsible for Vyarik's tragic injury, as well as mine and Waveahk's near burial in the sands of Po-Metru. I'm still not sure what became of Vyarik, he had a fairly nasty wound and was talking extremely strange (though that could be attributed to the mild shock of having a bullet wound in your shoulder). Stannis stands out from the rest for actually engaging Vyarik in his increasingly tiring moral debate that had me and my Steltian compatriot soon bored out of our minds. Whilst the vindication of my vendetta theory was very fun, Vyarik's ideology was tiringly contrarian and seemed to serve nothing but to justify his quest for revenge against Stannis. I've still no idea how badly the Dark Hunter must have been beaten to warrant this extreme reaction, but again, Stannis seemed all but happy to engage him on this. As my lovely employer, you have correspondence with many agents such as myself, so it'd be extremely appreciated if you could forward on any information on this Stannis fellow when you can. He seems to have attracted quite a crowd, and I've no doubt that he might prove an obstacle to you or any of your colleagues when you assault the coliseum. Just an idea. END ENTRY.

IC: Vashni and Arkius - Morpheus Vashni let out a curse as things didn’t go as smoothly as she’d hoped. This wasn’t going to be an easy one. She pointedly ignored the voice as she leaped off the ground she stood on and flew towards where the ‘Arkius’ had disappeared. In the dreamscape she could fly because well, it was a dream. Even as quickly as the toa of psionics had flown out of the sinking ground, she now found herself in an environment entirely unfamiliar to the grey and black vistas she’d been met with before. Now she stood in the midst of a dry, sporadically grassy savanna, and as she took this change in scenery in, she realised she was standing in a village of thatch huts. The village was on fire. Behind her she could hear cries and the sounds of running, and indeed as she turned around she could see insectoid beings, entirely organic, running away in panic and fear. A pair of them, one large and one small, the smaller looking less developed than the one holding its small hand, had trouble running due to the smaller one’s stature. But… as she looked upon them, even as she knew in her mind and her soul that these beings were of no threat to her, that they were frightened and powerless in the face of whatever threat was consuming this village in fire she only now realised was spreading around her, she also felt an anger toward them. A deep hatred toward them enveloped her mind, a hatred that knew them to be evil. That knew them to be vile and monstrous and to be standing in the way of her own progress… her people’s progress. But she knew these thoughts were not her own. These feelings alien to her. What- “You there! Why do you allow these mongrels to escape?! You have your orders, soldier, carry them out!” Were Vashni to turn around, she would see the imposing form of Arkius, not the emaciated cretin she had laid eyes upon before, but a glorious and towering image, the toa of earth clad in gold trimmed heavy armour and wielding a massive axe, larger than she’d seen him wield in reality. The massive toa, his mask crowned with golden adornments looked upon her with expectation and disappointment in equal measure. Vashni tried to shake off the foreign emotions, it felt a bit unnerving to have her feelings manipulated, was this how other people felt when she used her powers on them? Well, that was something to ponder later. This dream clearly had some sort of agenda or objective and she needed to break it. Vashni turned to face the imposing Arkius and made herself look defiant as possible. She wasn’t a particularly intense person by any sense of the word but she did her best. “The #### you just say to me?” “I said carry out your orders, soldier.” Arkius started, before his judging eyes narrowed. “Or are you one of the insurgents? I’ve already made enough examples in the past, psion, I should hope I don’t have to make another one today.” The golden glad toa raised his axe and aimed it at the toa of psionics, his mask starting to glow, before a yell sounded out from somewhere beyond both of them. “Stop! No!” Vashni could hear in a eerily familiar voice, one she quickly realised belonged to Arkius, yet had a markedly different tone to it… one she found far more familiar than the tone of voice of the Arkius before her. And indeed, what she saw was a far more familiar visage of Arkius bursting through the fires enveloping the village, wielding his trusty axe and looking between both Vashni and the gilded Arkius. “None of this is real!” He defiantly yelled at his gilded mirror image, before turning to the toa of psionics. “You! I’ve seen you before! Are you the one doing this?! Who do you work for?!” There was confusion, fear, and panic to his voice. If Vashni had to guess, this was probably the real Arkius. Vashni put her hands up slightly as she looked at the real Arkius. “I’m not the one causing this, we’re in a dream, your dream. I entered your dream in order to help you wake up. You were seriously injured and Toa Stannis healed you, but you haven’t woken up yet.” “My dream?” Arkius asked, bewildered as he looked around at the fire and destruction, and at the monstrous gilded tyrant standing before the two of them. “How can this be my dream? None of this is familiar to me! I have never… I...“ “He’s not waking up. Not yet.” The other Arkius said, the commanding and malicious tone of his voice contrasting the fearful and passionate tone of the real one. “You’re not getting out until we’re all getting out.” The towering toa, whom Vashni and Arkius both realised was even bigger than the real one, raised his axe over his head and slammed it into the ground, shattering the entire ground around them, plummeting them both into darkness… Before they both then found themselves in Metru-Nui, though even as the landmark coliseum stood above the skyline in the distance, they realised they were not in a part of the city they found familiar in the slightest. “Wh-where are we?” The confused Arkius asked, looking about at the tall metallic structures and the matoran passing by, though as the two toa looked upon the myriad civilians, they realised they weren’t all there, more figments, ghosts, than proper visages of their smaller brethren. “I’m...not sure.” Vashni looked around carefully, she was only a recent visitor to Metru Nui herself so she wasn’t super familiar with it, but this was off. “I don’t think this exists in the real Metru Nui…even discounting the ghost people…” In those very spoken words, Vasni came to realise that the ghost matoran walking about their daily business were beginning to take on a clearer form, one that had metallic colours and a burnt orange secondary on their diminutive forms. The hallmark colour scheme Fe-Matoran. But from the abundance of Fe-Matoran in this place, the unfamiliar architecture of the area that seemed heavily to lean into metals, and the lack of any other obvious elements of matoran, one might almost think that this was a district of iron matoran… a district Vashni and Arkius both knew did not exist in the real Metru-Nui. Such thoughts of the real and unreal were interrupted, however, as they both heard Arkius’ voice in the distance, carried over the gradually loudening clamor of city life. From around the corner, Vashni and Arkius saw an almost identical Arkius emerge, walking side by side to a toa of stone that was entirely unfamiliar to the both of them. The two toa didn’t seem to have noticed Arkius and Vashni yet, as they were engaged in dialogue. “Let’s follow them, I think it might be important.” Vashni said, it was clear that they needed to do ‘something’ in order for Arkius to actually wake up, and this seemed like the only option available at the moment anyway. Vashni started to follow the two unfamiliar Toa, gesturing for Arkius to follow as well. Arkius nodded and followed along. As the two tailed the pair in front of them, they soon realised they were headed to a chute station up ahead. Following the Po- and Onu-Toa in, Vashni and Arkius whizzed through the familiar energized protodermis tubes, trying their hardest to keep up with their quarries, but realising soon enough that they’d lost them. Then the chute ended, the two toa sent flying out of the broken containment field, landing safely on the ground far below, unharmed due to the simple fact that they were in a dream and knew as much. Unharmed was not a word they could share with what they saw around them. Where as before the city had been in perfect condition, now the city stood in flames, the sky orange from the intense glow of the city burning, the coliseum in the distance visibly damaged. Just ahead, Vashni and Arkius could see the Onu-Toa’s doppelganger cradling the broken body of the toa they’d seen before, grieving audibly. “This… this is surreal…” Arkius commented as he looked around himself. “I’ve never seen that toa in my life yet… as I look upon him-” There was a tone of confused grief to the toa’s voice. “As I look upon him I… I can’t help but feel sad for some reason, more than I ever have for a comrade fallen on the battlefield.” Vashni looked at Arkius, sensing the grief that he didn’t even understand himself. “It must be something deep in the recesses of your mind. You feel a great sadness despite not even knowing the Toa, it must represent something to you in some way, perhaps something you’ve forgotten or repressed.” Vashni was searching for something, anything to explain why they were seeing this. It was from Arkius’ own mind, so if he didn’t know the Toa before them, then they were merely a representation for something that had affected Arkius deeply. The other Arkius now raised his head, looking at the two toa with grief-stricken eyes. “You’re more fortunate than you can ever realise. You don’t remember this… you don’t remember the atrocities committed here. You don’t remember what that made you… what that made me. You need to go, before the others find you.” Gently placing the Po-Toa’s head on the ground as he stood up and away from the corpse, the other Arkius approached his real counterpart and Vashni. “You’ve forgotten everything and it should stay that way. It’s better that this all remains forgotten. Let me get you out of here.” The real Arkius looked upon his doppelganger with a mixture of shock, confusion, and dread, but also a sense of longing he clearly didn’t understand himself. “But… you’re me? As I am now?” “No. And I won’t answer any questions you undoubtedly have, that’ll only help them to return.” As the other Arkius now walked off, he beckoned the real one to follow, his eyes only momentarily drifting over to Vashni with a sense of grief. Vashni sighed, delving further into these memories seemed like a bad idea all around. It was possible it could also damage his mind if they did so like this. She didn’t want him to wake up completely broken, she’d probably get the blame for it as well. “What do we need to do here to fix all this?” She directed her question to other Arkius this time. “Follow me.” He simply said, now faced away from the two of them and walking off. The real Arkius turned to look at Vashni, concern clear on his features. “What do you think? Should we?” “Yeah, I think we should.” Vashni said with a nod, starting to follow. Arkius sighed and nodded, following as well. As the other Arkius led them through the broken streets and rubble of shattered buildings, they soon found the dream shifting around them. Ruins of a once great city shifted into a dry desert with tall mesa cliffs in the distance. As the two of them neared the cliffs, Arkius and Vashni could see a gaping hole in the ground ahead of them. Before the two of them realised it, however, yet another Arkius walked out from behind a dune and grabbed the other Arkius by the neck, lifting him up into the air. Unlike the Arkius she knew and his doppelganger, this one was wearing silver armour over his regular black, and the mask he wore upon his face was oddly shifted. “You’re not breaking him out of here. You know what has to happen.” The other Arkius, held by his neck, coughed and looked down upon the silver clad Arkius, his face contorted with the pain of being throttled as he spoke with a strained voice. “You… can’t… we’re… better off… dead…” “NO!” The silver clad Arkius threw the doppelganger into the ground, stomping on his chest to hold him there. “YOU!” He then bellowed at the real Arkius, ignoring the psionic toa next to him. “You have forgotten things you need to know. I will show them to you, and you will know what your true legacy is! You will know the face of your past!” Well, this was a predicament. Vashni looked between the two fake Arkius and the real one, looking a bit irritated as she did. This was a lot more than she bargained for just trying to wake someone up. “Arkius...could you make up your mind on whether you want to remember your past or not?” Arkius looked between the surreal display of himself pinning himself down, and the toa of psionics standing next to him, sighing. “I… I didn’t even know I had a past I’d forgotten before now. I can’t…” Before the real Arkius could trail that thought any further, his doppelganger very suddenly and violently threw off the silver clad Arkius, before the ground beneath Arkius and Vashni suddenly began to tilt. “What you’ve forgotten is best left buried! Trust me! Trust yourself! I won’t let the horrors of the past define our future!” Pinned against the earthen wall that now swung like a rotating platform, Vashni and Arkius could only watch as the two of them were slammed into the pit in the ground, falling once more into darkness, only this time there was no visage that replaced what had come before. Vashni and Arkius found themselves free falling in nothingness. “Uh… do you think there’s anything you can do here?” Arkius asked, looking up at the toa of psionics from the nothingness they were falling toward below. “Well...I can certainly try.” Vashni invoked her elemental powers and suddenly they were on a rather sunny and pleasant beach, it wasn’t one that Arkius had ever visited himself, that much was clear to him. “Well look at that, it worked.” “Oh… well… this is rather nice.” Arkius looked around at the pleasant vista, though soon doubt and concern became apparent on his features once again. “But what about waking up?” “Right, it’s easier for me to focus when I’m not floating in a void, here…” Vashni put a hand on Arkius’ face and closed her eyes, concentrating intently as she attempted to force him to wake up. Arkius closed his eyes too, and as Vashni concentrated on waking him up, he began to feel a pull on his body, as if he were free falling, but far more visceral and real than before. Opening his eyes, he could see the beach receding out of view, and an inky blackness crawling over his dream once more. Then, as he turned away from Vashni to see where he felt himself falling, he felt his whole being stop. There was a face there in front of him, a toa of earth of similar stature to himself, wearing a silver Pakari, emerald green eyes staring at him behind the masks’s eye holes with an expression neither of them could read. “Wh… what is-” Arkius began to speak, but before Vashni could hear the rest of it, she felt herself rushing forth as if she was falling again, whizzing out of earshot of Arkius while feeling the immense and dominating presence of something far beyond her racing up behind her. IC: Vashni and Arkius - The Taku And then she snapped out of it, finding herself once more in the cargo hold of the Taku. A moment later, Arkius snapped awake with a start, looking about himself in panic before sighing and lying back down in relief. Lying there, he reached a hand up to his face. Although Stannis had done his best to heal him and remove the shrapnel, the Onu-Toa could feel something was off. One of his eyes was gone, the whole thing grown over with scar tissue. “That’s… going to take getting used to.” OOC: Many thanks to Snelly for the jam.

IC: Skyra - Chute System - Skyra gave a apologetic shrug to the Matoran as they whizzed past him and got on a chute. Being quite familar with how the chute system worked herself, Skyra took the controls on the chute and launched it at full speed towards Po-Metru. "I disabled the safety on this thing so we're gonna get there just a biiiiit faster than usual!" She said with a huge grin on her face.

IC: Amatarkonen - Po Metru He watched in shock as the vahki's face disintegrated. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad to have someone like Thom around after all, assuming he stayed loyal. All around him, wepons flared. HE drew his own Nynrah rifle, firing into the oncoming swarm. He took a few high-powered hits from the stun staffs, but his armor protected him. Their shots were little more than a minor annoyance to him. Already, the twisted remains of vahki littered the streets, and still more kept coming. He watched as one of his brusiers fell to the ground, slashed from behind while wrestling with half a dozen units at close range. The must press forward, or the vahki would overwhelm them with sheer numbers.

IC: Ardoku - Ga-Metru "Then let us not tarry. Come, brother!" The two toa swiftly made their way through the eerie streets of the district of water, occasionally coming across damaged and destroyed vahki littering the streets with mechanical detritus. Eventually, the two of them reached the point where the bridge to the Temple met with Ga-Metru, arriving in time to see but not to stop a strange toa wearing a half robe and wielding both powers of shadow and light against the mechanical protectors blockading the bridge. "Hark, brother, another toa. But not one of our own. Looks like the Legion has toa in their ranks after all." The twilight toa finished tearing through the vahki and the kraahu, then advanced across the bridge to the Great Temple. "Come, brother, we mustn't let the Legion desecrate another temple." With that, Ardoku sprinted, hastily making his way across the bridge after the traitorous toa, arriving to find the toa of twilight inside with some matoran who looked upon him with confusion and hope. "Everyone, clear out, this one has taken out the vahki guarding the bridge, he is not one of our own!" Ardoku turned to Skorm with a wrathful glare, drawing his blade. "Why?! Why would you work with them?! Why would you help those who slaughter our own people and desecrate our places of sanctity?!" @Keeper of Kraata @Toru Nui

K

IC: Taja | The Coliseum Years of intense study had left the skies imprinted on Taja's brain. She could no more forget the shapes of the constellations that forget her own name, and she would sooner cut off a hand than cut even a single star from her memory. So as she gripped Ga-Metru's Great Disk in her hands and watched a Matoran violently become a Toa, throat dry and palms a little sweaty, her mind returned to the strange sights she had seen. She remembered the movement of Lhikan's and Nidhiki's stars; and she recalled how Turaga Dume's star had vanished only to periodically reappear. Such abrupt movements heralded times of equally sudden and drastic change. Again, she found herself thinking the same treasonous thoughts she had first harboured on a bridge in Ko-Metru: Can Dume be trusted? Rumours whispered that the Toa Mangai had attempted to betray the city. But as the scholar looked at her Turaga, an old man in charred robes who clutched the Disks like a drowning man holds on to a lifeline, she wondered if the rumours were true. Caught up in an adventure, she had briefly forgotten that Dume's star was flickering like a sputtering candle. Perhaps he was the one who couldn't be trusted. Her heart beat so loud she half-thought everyone else must be able to hear it too. As ever, the stars were willing to speak to those who would listen, but Taja had run out of time. Had she another hour with Nixie, she was sure that they could get closer to the truth. Perhaps she was misinterpreting the stars—she had certainly made mistakes before. She wished she could speak secretly with her allies... but she doubted they would understand anyway. It would be all star-speak and prophecies to them.

IC [Zataka, Coliseum - Dume’s Office]: Zataka tried to picture the Turaga as a younger man: A Matoran in a far away place, working in sweltering heat. She couldn’t place where, but she was certain it wasn’t Ta-Metru - or anywhere in the city for that matter. But which part of the universe might host such industry to produce smells like that? Xia perhaps? Or Arthaka? Or maybe the order had an armory forge hidden away somewhere. She tried to grasp at the truth, but the more she tried the further it slipped away. Some things just couldn’t simply be read by listening to someone’s thoughts and asking the right question. But this was not just mental strength...there was something at work here. As if Dume himself had trouble recollecting his own memories. Interesting... She stood quietly, watching the Turaga unite the great disks, before turning to the Cartographer and...the warlord’s eyes narrowed as the Matoran was flung across the room, already growing into his new form. She knew of Toa stones - even before finding Dume’s secret stache. Passed down from generation to generation, as one hero got old and gave up their power, another would rise to take their place. But this one, embedded into the old man’s necklace, did not lose its glow once that power had been bestowed... “Where did you get that?” she asked. There was concern in her voice.

Made an article for Kanohi too.

Just added a profile for Pardehi. Thinking of doing the same for all my characters. Edit: Added profiles for Tugarak and Amatarkonen. Should I also add a profile for the Ripple?

IC: The Cartographer - Dume's Office The Cartographer replied to Dume by reaching into his pack to withdraw the disc from within it. As he gripped the familiar shape of the Great Disc in his battered hand again, he couldn't help but feel a compulsion to retain it - to withhold it from the Turaga before him. He and his friends had fought tooth-and-nail, and made many a sacrifice to bring these discs to Dume. But, a means to an end, as the Cartographer knew that the Turaga could do far more with these discs than a mere Matoran mapmaker from Ko-Metru. He smiled, and extended his hand with the disc cordially to Dume, slightly bowing as a sign of respect. "Forgive us for the tardiness; it's been a long journey, elder." The Cartographer's voice was as cool and smooth as the winds of Ko-Metru itself. "We answered the call, my friends and I. We fought hard, and have sacrificed more than I ever thought 3 Matoran and a Turaga could." He hesitated, again his mind drawn to the trials these discs represented, of the bond between this odd group that the disc forged. "So, here are your discs. What can we do to help?" Fa'amatai - Coliseum The guttural shriek reverberated off of the cold, filthy, muck-soaked rough stone walls of the lower Coliseum, ringing and deflecting from every surface until met with a shriek of the same pitch. The two cacaphonous signals united, simultaneously canceling each other and boosting each other to an incredible pitch that began to peel the very layers of grime from the stone walls. Fa'amatai the Untethered lumbered precariously down the hallway, moving like a being that hadn't yet learned to work its' legs; and yet, somehow appearing more menacing than any creature more composed. He could sense the closeness of the brood brother now, he could feel his breath in his chest, and he could see through his eyes as though they were his own. Fa'amatai the Untethered was both one and all, beginning and end, everything and nothing. OOC: @Unreliable Narrator GIB STONE @Nato the Traveler consider Fa'amatai with you now, feel free to bunny him if need be!

IC: Mazor-Ko-Metru "Well, not much, I showed them the cube then they dismissed me." He saw Pridak pointing towards him. He leaned over to whisper to Irna. "Something has been drawing me to Metru-Nui. I'm hoping I can learn more while I am here."

Announcements: There is a wikia page on fandom for the Six Kingdoms game. You can look at it and add your own content here. If you want to add your own characters, please just follow the examples given on the wiki. It's my hope that between the end of the month and the beginning of the next game we'll have a super useful resource for moving into SKE2. It would be ridiculous of me to not mention or address the fact of the current covid-19 pandemic. I just want to take a moment to say I appreciate you all and I hope SKE can be a place of fun and humor during these tough times. If you ever need to chat, I am available in PM or on Discord. That said, it's been an awesome journey and I thank you all for continuing to make this story go on. <3 Dark Hunter Hit: Kill Dume Kill Nidhiki Steal the mask of Creation from Barraki Pridak Last Week's Summary: Ga-Metru and Ta-Metru great disks were found! All Great Disks have been found. Congratulations to both teams for last week's successes. Look further back in the OOC thread for breakdowns on the puzzles, or check the wiki (pending their upload). Metru-Nui's forces from the Silver Sea were brought home for the final defense. The Barraki opened a portal to Metru-Nui and moved their forces directly to Ko-Metru. All Metrus are now under assault by the barraki. Kalmah: Ta-Metru Takadox: Ga-Metru Carapar: Po-Metru Mantax: Onu-Metru Pridak: Ko-Metru Ehlek: Le-Metru The Untethered Vyarik summoned their revenant kin to the Coliseum prisons Dark Hunter Raz attempted to capture Turaga Dume, but the arrival of Zataka and Sans & Co. stopped him. The Wandering Taku continued their journey to the Coliseum, delving into Nuparu's memory crystal to learn more about the machine they saw at the beginning of the game.

I hate you

IC: Zecrillia - Great Furnace Exit OH GOOD. Zecrillia breathed a massive sigh of relief as soon as the emergency exit shut behind them, trapping the worst of the heat back inside the building. They were outside, there were no zombies in sight, she wasn't quite burned to a crisp, and... She had the Great Disk in her hand. The Vortixx woman dropped her gaze to look at it. Such a small thing, just like any other Kanoka... its incredible power only betrayed by the little number '9' at the end of its digit code. Amazing to think that this was what was going to potentially change the destiny of Matoran civilisation simply by being found. Though she heard the Swordsman's question, Zecrillia didn't immediately have any answer; she continued to turn the disk over in her hands, looking at it. Her chance at fortune; like she'd said, some Matoran somewhere would pay handsomely for this. And yet, after the work they'd put into reaching it... she almost didn't want someone else to take the credit for the find. It was hers and the Swordsman's, and she balked at the idea of a Matoran claiming that they had been the one to put in that effort, no matter how well compensated she might be for facilitating that lie. "I don't know. Do you suppose old Dume would provide an alternate reward for someone who had no use for Toa power?" IC: Varxii - Marching Through Ko-Metru Well, she guessed she was staying to ransack Ko-Metru. It wasn't a question of want or desire, because Varxii had honestly no desire at all to trash the gleaming white towers in anything but honest, open combat; certainly not in the slaughter the Barraki were proposing. The Vo-Toa's stomach had got worse and worse as she had listened to the warlords making their announcements, heading out to divvy up the city as if it were already conquered and all that was left was the formality of deciding who took what piece, and leaving no illusions about the grim fate that awaited any Matoran unlucky enough to fall in their way. The hypocrisy of the Barraki curled through her gut: their offers to their soon-to-be victims of spoke of freedom, but it was a 'freedom' that dictated to them what they could and couldn't believe leaving no room for personal choice. That was no freedom at all. She wished she could do something, some good in this awful situation; but never had she felt so helpless. But her staying with the Ko-Metru attackers wasn't even a question. The fact of the matter was that she was subservient to Pridak, and Pridak didn't trust her. He kept her on a short leash, and wasn't going to be willingly letting her stray far from his sight; even if he was distracted now, even if she managed to lose herself momentarily amongst the ranks of one of the other Barraki's soldiers heading out for a different Metru... how much good would that do her, in the long run? What was she supposed to do; turn traitor and make a one-woman stand against an entire army? She'd tried that once. She'd been quite literally pounded into the ground. If she'd thought such a stand would do any good, she might well have done so. But what was one Toa, even a Toa who had used to be so supremely confident in her abilities, against a whole army? She wouldn't even slow down the Barraki's advance if she chose to make a stand here and now; she would just be another statistic in the list of casualties of war. And she feared dying. Or, no, that wasn't quite right. Under normal circumstances, Varxii knew no fear of death; but these last few days had been anything but normal. And knowing that, if she did die, her body would pick itself up as one of those shambling, dead-eyed corpses... that scared her. So she marched unwillingly behind Pridak. Not knowing what she was hoping for, what she was going to do... only knowing that when a moment came, no matter what form it took, she would make sure she was ready to grasp it with both hands. IC: Jabali - Dume's Office "I... I think so, yes. Or, they had at least found where it was hidden. I think there was a puzzle... it was buried, and they were digging for it... I stopped paying attention, honestly, when I realised you were in danger. I don't really--" Get this whole fuss about the Great Disks, she'd been about to say, before realising that she was in danger of rambling. Not only that, but she was treading dangerously close to telling the respected Turaga exactly how big a load of Muaka-bait she thought the whole Great Disk quest was; and when Dume was the one who had instituted the hunt in the first place, that would likely not have gone over well. Jabali clammed up as Dume hurriedly led the way to his office, scampering along at his heels, and finding... First of all, the towering woman who had also been part of the race to protect the Turaga earlier... evidently had a bone to pick with Dume. Oh boy. And in her hands was... Jabali's mouth felt suddenly dry. She'd not really been sure she believed that Toa stones would be readily available for those who had found the Great Disks; and now she was being proved wrong. Right here, in probably just a few moments, Matoran were going to become Toa right before her eyes, and she... she... she felt small in comparison. She had never wanted to be a Toa, never nursed any dreams of being a hero, so there was no sense of jealousy. She just felt very, very inferior. She didn't even try and answer the Turaga's next question directed to her; how could she? The others in the elevator had been utter strangers to her, she had no idea who they were or what they would be doing; fortunately, Zataka spared her the need to answer. Everything was moving too fast. In a matter of mere moments, she was learning that the Barraki were in the city; that the beloved Toa Tuyet was dead; that the famed heroes Lhikan and Nidhiki were murderers... The office was getting crowded as several more Matoran, plus Toa and Turaga arrived. Jabali didn't even try to speak up, too much was happening, and she wanted little more than to retreat to the quiet of her sculpture field where traitors and Toa Stones and assassinations didn't mean anything and the most she had to worry about was keeping some rowdy carvers on schedule and keeping an eye out for minor trouble like sandstorms and wandering Rahi. This was far, far, FAR beyond her paygrade.

Whoo, feels good to post again! Sorry for the low output lately, life is getting pretty hectic what with everything going on right now.

Creepiest part of Bionicle for me, ever since I was a kid, is right after the Battle of the Kini-Nui in MNOG when you have to go through a completely abandoned Onu-Koro to get to the opened sundial room, the golden mask inside of which now nowhere to be seen. It's creepy for a number of reasons, after Maku wakes you up no one will have a proper conversation with you, if you click on them you just get a sentence or two long text bubble. There's a general feeling of being in the quiet before the storm. Miles below the surface of Mata-Nui, the Toa are about to fight an entity so powerful that merely stepping into his inner realm was enough to dissolve the Toa-Kaita. Stuff like this is why I love 2001, but admittedly without Templar to flesh out and embellish the relatively simple story, Bionicle very well could have just been another forgettable line like Robo Riders/Throwbots.

IC: The Cartographer and Co. - Dume's Office As the door opened, revealing the illustrious grandeur of the office of Dume Himself, and the sweltering heat, a wave of emotion crashed over the slight Ko-Matoran who now stood in the doorway. The mouth hole of his mask opened wider than it ever had, and a sigh of relief the likes of which he had never before uttered left his lungs with great ease. Even in the first days of the plan, when leaving the life of a Cartographer behind to undergo a whirlwind adventure across the Metrus, the Cartographer, the nameless Matoran, never ever thought he would have been able to see this through to the end; and he knew that he definitely wouldn't have made it were in not for his new friends Sans, Waif, Zataka, and most importantly - his best friend, the Alpinist. Even in the middle of his euphoria, the Cartographer turned and smiled to his friends. Each one in turn looked a little worse for wear than when they'd began; and although he could not see it, the Cartographer knew that he was probably the worst looking out of them all by now. His arm burned from his encounter with the Abomination what seemed like years ago in the Hideaway back in Ko-Metru, and it seemed he'd gained more and more scars on each step of the way. And yet, physically exhausted and beat, the Ko-Matoran felt a sense of pride and accomplishment he thought was reserved only for Toa, and heroes. He smirked. Sans, Waif, and Alpinist had all become heroes in his eyes, moreso than any of those told in the fables passed down generations. The fables of the future would now speak of the accomplishments of his amazing friends. The Cartographer turned his attention back to the task at hand, as the mission was not yet over, though it felt as though the worst was over. Before him stood the man himself, Dume in the flesh, and he had yet to address him. "Mr. Dume, sir," the Cartographer's voice broke, out of a mixture of pride and shyness all in one blow. "We may not be much more than a Turaga, and some Matoran from Ko-Metru. But we're here, we've answered your call. My friends here have made incredible sacrifices to be here today, and to inform you that we have something to aid in your battle, sir." ----- Fa'amatai, the Untethered - Coliseum Depths A chain. Dense loops of hardened steel, each bound to each other like a constrictor to it's prey, an intertwining of fates. The eyes betray, the ears betray. The chain, the chain. It rattles and clanks; and even the most focused are driven to madness by the syncopated beat of the leash dragging on the ground. But a chain fails in it's own restriction, for a chain always has an end. Within the realm of impossible color and shapes out of nightmares, a Toa with a black shapeless void for a head could be seen tugging desperately at a chain; black, sickly, with seemingly no end. A pair of sickly yellow eyes suddenly revealed themselves in the black void where his had once sat. They opened wide, and quickly narrowed, betraying a host now imbued with the power of... something. He pulled again, this time as though his arms had the strength of the thousand chains. The tether exploded violently into an indescribable mass of shape and color of foreign design, and the Toa shrieked. In the shadowy depths of the Colosseum appeared a peculiar Toa. Lying in a pool of black ooze, the body seemed to have no head. Yet, as it began to rise, it was clear that a head was not required for this beast to function. Rising to its feet, it let out a wet, guttural roar from the stump where it's head once sat, and began to lumber out into the hallway...

IC: Lhikan | Coliseum Prisons Despite the eerie howling of the new prisoner, Lhikan kept a calm demeanor. He nodded as Waveahk expressed his concern. His eyebrows furrowed as he thought about the implications of what he could guess might be going on. Dark Hunters and undead monsters were being placed in prison, the alarms were sounding, and vahki seemed more hostile than usual. “It’s as I feared then,” Lhikan said after a moment’s pause. “All I’ve done for nothing.” The vahki patrolling the halls shuddered then fell. Sparks flew from the back of its neck and an aged turaga of green and black with lime joints stepped from the shadows. “I guess we’ll just have to fix things ourselves,” Nidhiki replied with a smile. “Hello brother, enjoying life behind bars?” Lhikan growled, slammed his hands against the wall as he paced like the caged animal he was. “I’m going to kill you the instant I can get out of here you traitor.” Nidhiki tutted and looked toward Waveahk as he spun an access keycard on its lanyard around one finger. “Well, you seem like a big strong Steltian. Mind helping me with a little errand? I need someone who can do the heavy lifting.” IC: The Barraki | Metru-Nui Mantax reached the edge of Onu-Metru within an hour, the region of Earth bordering the North side of Ko-Metru. His army did not need to take the chutes. Rather, he led them in a violent parade across the icy bridges of Ko-Metru until they reached the point where ice and snow gave way to compact dirt and stone. “At last,” Mantax muttered to himself as he surveyed the myriad platforms and service stations spread across Onu-Metru leading down into the earth to the known universe’s largest repository of matoran civilization. From the back of his kikanolo he felt the wind whipping up from the great canyons of Onu-Metru. He pulled his lance from its place on the saddle, feeling it fit comfortably in the crook of his armpit. Raja shook her head, the bells on the kikanalo’s horn tinkling softly. Even the rahi knew the massacre to come. “There will be no Question,” Mantax shouted to his army. “The Question was given years ago. The matoran already gave their answer. Let them die with honor.” And then he rode into the Archives, the shouts of his army behind him bolstering his resolve for conflict… Ehlek rode through the chutes enjoying every moment of the protodermis on his skin. His species were aquatic by nature, and being able to swim through the current made him think of home. Metru-Nui would become part of his home when he was done with it. He and his army arrived in Le-Metru quickly, forcing their way into the chute station before the vahki could subdue them, and with concentrated bursts of electricity the warlord found he could shut down the vahki’s internal clockwork components by destroying whatever gave them energy. He would have to meet whoever developed the vahki when the war was over. He wanted to know how they worked, and how he could make more. They seemed so efficient and useful. Why waste what works? “Le-Metru, you are mine now.” Ehlek said over a PA system once he’d had the time to hack into the channels and override the emergency radio broadcasts. “You can be mine peacefully or you can die. The choice is yours, because you have free will.” Takadox found himself infuriated by the vahki in Ga-Metru. They were immune to hypnosis! The nerve of their creator making something that Takadox couldn’t manipulate. Ga-Metru’s populace, however, was perfectly willing to bend the knee at the slightest eye contact. He didn’t even need to speak! They just feared him and complied with his every whim. In fact, Takadox thought a cheese plate and something nice and cold to drink might be nice and the friendly Ga-Matoran from the colleges left as little more than burning rubble seemed more than happy to fetch and serve. “You know,” Takadox said as he spat out an olive pit and reclined on the sofa four matoran were trying to hold aloft. “Pridak might have overestimated the matoran. They seem so nice and peaceful when I finally get a good look at them.” Takadox looked over at Skorm, who’d stayed by his side during the initial conflict as they entered Ga-Metru. “I’m tired from the journey and need to rest my feet. Would you be so kind as to go destroy the Great Temple in my name?”

In my experience they did. They were just far too weak compared to the old (and now current) socket design.

IC: Ardoku - Coliseum "Yes. Lets not delay any longer then. Good luck, everyone. May Destiny be on our side today." With that, Ardoku began making his way to Ga-Metru.

IC: Rose - Coliseum Parade Grounds "I'd like that," she replied to Skyra. Rose took another look at the group of soldiers and felt...doubt? No, that couldn't be right, but as she stood there ready to face the League, something in her was telling her all the ways this could go wrong. All the ways they could fail. And what of her own judgement? If they did fail, it could very well be her own fault, all those lives lost... Rose imagined the warlords standing proud over rubble that was once Metru Nui, the bodies of civilians and her allies scattered at their feet, and a blood-red sky above them. It looked like her home...the destruction, the desecration, the horror... "Perhaps...one district at a time isn't such a good idea," Rose said. She pointed at Tekmo and Ardoku. "You two--head for Ga-Metru. If they go to the Sculpture Fields to do what I think they're doing, they'll head there too to blaspheme the Great Temple and destroy its Suva. Not only that, there's a protodermis purifier and Kanohi stored there." The Ta-Toa looked over at Oreius. "And where are you heading?" @Snelly@Onaku@Toru Nui@Eyru

IC: Ardoku - Coliseum Parade Grounds "Well then we'll have make sure that place is still around when this is all over." Ardoku quipped at Skyra, a half-smile on his lips and an all too clear tension to his eyes. "We should get going, don't want Carapar to wait too long. Wouldn't be polite." IC: Arkius - Morpheus Arkius looked up at Vashni, his eyes sunken underneath his mask, the mask she'd seen him wear before. The eyes that met Vashni's were frantic and wild, there was a fury behind them that didn't seem to match what Vashni had seen of the toa before, how ever briefly. Moreover, upon trying to change the dream to be calmer, the toa of psionics found her efforts resisted, pushed back against by something, by someone. The three monoliths seemed to rumble in the far distance, clouds spiralling overhead with lightning flashing across the sky. And then, light. Emerald green light shone into her eyes from afar, as two lights appeared upon one of the monoliths, like eyes staring directly at her. "You don't belong here, psion." Came a voice from he who looked like Arkius, but the voice did not sound like the one she'd heard from him. There was no passion or integrity, but rather it was dry, more a croak than speak, the tone conveying bitterness and malice above anything else. "You should get going. None of this concerns you. You are not welcome here." With that, the one who looked like Arkius stood up and walked off, disappearing into a black mist that dissipated into the ground. A tremor went off, the green shimmering light from the monoliths shifting elsewhere in the vast black and grey wasteland as an earthquake shook the ground Vashni stood upon, the very earth tearing open, everything shifting around as Vashni found herself on a piece of ground headed deep under.

IC: Vashni - Morpheus - As Vashni located what looked like Arkius, she began to approach him, using her ability to manipulate dreams she began to attempt to force the storm to calm, to turn the sky much more calm and pleasant. "Arkius, can you hear me?" IC: Skyra - Coliseum Parade Grounds - Skyra pumped her fists together, "We're gonna make them wish they never set foot in our city!" Skyra was getting herself riled up in preparation for the inevitable battle ahead. It was likely to be very long, bloody, and all around unpleasant. But Skyra refused to think of that, she couldn't afford to have that mindset, not right now anyway...that was for later when it was all over. "Hey Rose, once we defeat the League and send them packing, I'll show you my favorite place to get cake." @Tarn@Onaku@Toru Nui

Yep! Please let me know if anything else appears broken.