How Bionicle 2015 was saved.

[Willess12]

The following is a work of fiction.  With the exception of the Lego CEO, all People and events are inventions of my imagination, and any semblance to reality is purely coincidental.

 

 

 

The room goes dark.  For a moment, no one can see.  Then the projector lights up, showing a fuzzy image that slowly comes into focus.  It shows an E-Mail. 

 

From: Jørgen Vig Knudstorp

 

To: Lego Board of directors

 

Subject: Bringing back Bionicle.

 

"All right, listen up, people.  I know you all tossed around some good ideas for bringing back Bionicle.  That said, after much consideration and discussion with the board, I've decided not to bring Bionicle back for 2015.  Bionicle had a good run for 10 years, longer than most themes, and I think that it's best..."

 

At the bottom, it was signed:  Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO of The LEGO Company

 

 

 

No one in the room reads farther than this before there are loud groans.  Someone -- it is hard to tell whom in the dark room -- asks, "How did you find this E-Mail?  And what's so important about this that you had to call an emergency meeting?"

 

The lights come back on, and everyone shields their eyes.  They are all sitting at a table in a room that features nothing but a table and chairs, a projector, a bench, and several Lego pieces scattered around.  Briefly, I wonder why this place hasn't been cleaned up, and I try to remember who was on cleaning duty this week.

 

"I didn't find this E-Mail," I explain.  "This is the work of a close friend of mine, who wishes to remain anonymous.  And, as you can see, there actually was consideration for a Bionicle return in 2015, but... I don't even know how to pronounce that name... let's call him Vig... vetoed the whole idea."

 

"I'm not sure if that's good news or not," a kid at the back of the room says.  "At least we know they considered it.  It was an idea tossed around."

 

"It was more than that," I say.  "They had the whole thing planned out.  The decision to cancel was a last-minute change.  They were going to bring back Bionicle, but Vig said no."

 

"So what do we do about it?" one girl asks.  "Send an angry E-Mail to Jørgen?"  Briefly, I wonder if she knows how his name is pronounced, or if she's just guessing.

 

"We can do more than that," I say.  I take a deep breath, preparing myself for the reaction I know my next statement will receive.  "Remember the top-secret project I told you all about back in 2008?"

 

A strong, muscular guy stands up, putting both hands down on the table hard.  "You aren't suggesting that, are you?"

 

"I knew you'd say it was crazy, but let me explain.  First of all, I know exactly how we can pull this off.  Secondly, my boss uses the tech all the time.  I found out, and I promised not to expose him in return for being allowed to use the thing myself.  I've never had a good reason until now.  I have a key card and everything, and I had a friend check and make sure it works."

 

There is a long, uncomfortable pause, and the muscular guy who reacted sits back down.  Finally, the kid at the back says, "What would we do?"

 

"Are you crazy?" says the person opposite the muscular guy.  "This could cause a disaster!"

 

"This thing hasn't caused a disaster yet," I say.

 

"That you know of," says another girl, sitting next to the kid who'd just questioned my craziness.  "Wouldn't they keep something like that a secret?  Besides, how would we know about it?"

 

"I would know about it," I remind everyone.  "We only have 42 hours to do this.  That's hardly long enough to start World War III.  It will be quick, and it will be precise.  I don't think I need remind you the dangers of this."

 

"If we get caught, we will be in HUGE trouble," says a tall skinny kid.  Suddenly, I remember he's supposed to be in charge of clean up.

 

"I've thought of that," I say.  "For this, it kinda makes sense to use masks.  My brother can make us look unrecognizable, yet still human.  For communications, we'll use codenames.  Something Bionicle-like.  Dibs on Ian."

 

The muscular guy speaks up.  "I have to be Onua."

 

"Too recognizable," I say.  "What about... Tai?  For Taipu?"

 

"Sounds good," he says.  "I still say this is crazy, though."

 

"I'm Leena," says the girl next to him.

 

"Rats, I wanted Lewa's name," say the tall skinny kid.

 

"Trixie," says the girl who pronounced Vig's first name.

 

"I'll be Matt Orkan," says the kid at the back.

 

"I'm going with Shasa," the last girl says.  "I doubt anyone will recognize it, and it’s close enough to a real name anyway."

 

"Care to trade?" the tall kid asks Leena.  "I could use Lee."

 

"Nope," she says.

 

"Fine," he says.  "I'm out of ideas."

 

"Kodak," I say.  "From Kopaka."

 

"Hey, what about Cody?" he asks.

 

I turn it over in my head.  "Fine, you're Cody," I relent.

 

"Now what?" Cody asks.

 

"In this box beside me are various jackets," I say, pointing at the box I brought here.  "Inside are various jackets with different colored stripes down the arm of each jacket.  Each jacket... I mean, we'll each have a jacket corresponding to the name of the Bionicle character our name is from.  Matt Orkan, you'll have dark green, and Leena, you get light green.  Trixie, you'll take dark blue, and T--I mean Shasa, you'll take light blue."  I silently chide myself for almost not using her code name.  "Tai, Cody, you should know.  I'm yellow.  Everyone, come get a jacket."

 

"So when do we go to A-5?" Tai asks.

 

I glance at my watch.  It's 9:43 P.M.  "Unless anyone has any further duties, right now."

 

 

 

You aren't supposed to know this, but the government has way more technology in experimentation than the general public knows about.  Invisibility cloaks, limited teleportation, even a work-in-progress machine to turn Iron into gold.  That's where I come in.  I got a job working at a government facility.  Initially, I was just a secretary.  Then, late one night, I entered what I thought was the bosses office.  Instead, I caught the government in the process of teleporting a milk carton to the other side of the room.

 

They hired me on the spot and made swear to secrecy.  Sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, doesn't it?  If you don't believe me, well, neither did my friends until I showed them an invisibility cloak.  Normally, I would never tell anyone about A-5 and what goes on there, but my friends and I are all members of this top-secret club known as the Mata Nui club.  There are no secrets in that boring meeting room, and they never leave that room, either.

 

Right now, the technology I'm concerned with is limited time travel.  Not even I am supposed to know about this one -- it is top-top-secret.  Only a handful of people know about all of it.  I know enough to know that what I don't know, I really don't need to know.  There are rumors of mind-reading in the works, and I now know better than to dismiss rumors.

 

A-5 is the nickname for a building out in the middle of nowhere.  You need a key card, a fingerprint check, and a retina scan just to get in the fence.  That is, unless you happen to be friends with the night guard.  He lets me in all the time.  I'm always forgetting things like my phone and leaving them "on-base".  For security reasons, nobody knows his real name, not even me.  I just know his face.

 

Even the guard doesn't allow me to bring anyone on-base.  However, I knew how to get around that.  There is an energy field around the facility that prevents anything from teleporting into it, but I know a machine that overrides it for about 6.2 second -- just long enough for me to set a back-and-forth teleport.  The device sends me just outside the fence, where I grab my friends, and then it pulls me back in.

 

"I feel dizzy," Tai says.

 

"Everyone feels that way after teleporting the first time," I say.  I've teleported myself many times, and even my brother a few times.  "Does anyone feel like they want to throw up?  No?  Good, no one is allergic to teleportation."

 

"Allergic?" Shasa asks.

 

"For lack of a better term," I explain.  "If you're allergic to teleportation, you're allergic to time-shifting, because they operate on the same principle."

 

"Remind me how you talked us into this," Shasa says.

 

"Relax," I say.  "None of you should be allergic -- none of you are blood type O, which are usually the type of people to be allergic.  Besides, no one has ever actually thrown up after teleporting.  Time travelling, yes, but not teleporting."

 

"Time travel could make us throw up?" Leena says.

 

"Only if you're allergic," I say.  "I now know none of us are.  If you don't feel sick after teleporting, you won't feel sick after time-shifting."

 

"What are we doing again?" Matt Orkan asks.

 

"Vig is best friends with a Lego employee named Jason Schulz," I say.  Trixie told me how to pronounce Jørgen's name, but I'm calling him Vig for security.  "He was a big fan of Bionicle, and he helped keep Bionicle running for so long.  The thing is, he was out-of-touch with Vig at the time of his decision to not bring back Bionicle."

 

"How do you know this again?" Leena asks.

 

"Because Jason posted about it on BZP," I said.  "Not many people know that Jason is a member of BZP, or what his username is."  I decide not to tell them how I know Jason's username.  It's a long story, and we now only have 39 hours.

 

"So what do we do?" Matt asks.

 

"We time-shift to August 2014 New York and meet Jason," I say.  "We have to make sure he's in contact with Vig."

 

"How do we get back?" Trixie asks.  "I thought time-travel was one-way, past only."

 

"It is," I say.  "The future hasn't happened yet.  We'll bring a teleporter.  When activated, it will teleport us back to here."

 

"Then what do we do?" Tai says.

 

"We hide at Tai's aunt's place until today," I say.  Then, our 'then selves' will disappear, and our 'now selves' can take their place, and normal life resumes."

 

"What happens when our old selves disappear?" Matt asks.

 

"They just disappear," I say.  "However, no one will see it, because I've arranged for us all to be in a meeting right now in the altered timeline."

 

"I still say this is too risky," Tai says.

 

"I agree," Matt says.  "Can't we just go home and build Bionicle MOCs?"

 

"What's your mom's shirt say?" Leena says to Matt.

 

"Uh, get fit?" Matt says.

 

"No, not that one," Leena says.  "'Never give up.'  We can't give up just because it's hard.  We'll never achieve anything.  Would Matau give up on this?"

 

"Thank you," I say.  "C'mon, people, let's do this."

 

 

 

I've never time-shifted before, so I did not know what to expect.  I kinda figured it would be like teleportation, but it wasn't.  It felt like I was moving super-fast.  I guess we were moving fast than the speed of light, but I still didn't expect that.

 

And then there's the sudden stop at the end.  And when I say sudden, I mean 'going from 299,792,458 m/s to 0 m/s in a split second'.  No wonder I've always seen people sitting whenever they sent a human back in time; we all arrived at our destination, and fell flat on our faces or backs.  No one warned me time travel hurt!

 

A little girl screamed and ran away.  What was some little girl doing in this back alley?  Ah well, at least no adult saw us.  Or worse, government agents.

 

"Aside from falling, everyone okay?" I ask.

 

"Next time, we sit down, then we time-jump," Tai says.

 

"I second that," I say.  "C'mon, we have to get to the Belnord Hotel.  That's where Jason stayed -- I mean will be staying."

 

 

 

Once we left the alley, it was all formal.

 

"I'm going to go make contact," I say.  "You guys, spread out.  If you see anyone who even looks official, buzz the others.  Shasa, have you got the cash?"

 

"Here you go," she says, handing me a pair of bills.  "You owe me twenty bucks."

 

"Better make it 30," I say, and she hands me two fives.

 

I click on my earpiece.  "This place is neat," I hear Leena say.

 

"Act like you've been here before," I remind her.  "Remember, if you see anyone you know, I don't care if they're a long-lost friend, you don't acknowledge them.  We can call our friends later.  Right now, we have a job to do."

 

"Ooh, a donut place," Cody says, "Can I get a donut?  I've heard this place has the best donuts."

 

"Can you keep an eye out and eat a donut at the same time?" I ask.

 

"Well... I guess not."

 

"Then the answer's no," I say.  "When we're done, I'll buy you a donut."

 

Everyone goes quiet for a while (well, except Matt, who's humming, as usual).  With the help of my map, I locate the Belnord hotel.  I go in and wait inside the lobby.  My timing is good; ten minutes later, Jason shows up.

 

Now, for the hard part.  Jason and I have never met face-to-face, so it's not like I can go up and start a conversation.  Plus, I must make sure he doesn't call me by my real name.  I wait 'til he buys a room and starts going to his room.  I follow him, until there's no one around.  Then, I flick my headpiece off and say, with genuine excitement, "Jason!"

 

He turns around.  "It's me, Ian," I say.  As I say that, I open my jacket, just enough so he can see what I've written on the inside: 'don't call me Willess12'.  Not only does it tell him who I am, it tells him not to call me that and has an inside joke so he knows it's really me.

 

He hesitates for a moment, then seems to decide to roll with it.  "Ian!  How are you?"

 

"Good," I say, giving him a hand-shake.  As I do so, I give him a piece of paper.  "How's your wife and kids?"

 

"Great," he says.  "Jason Jr. misses you."  By this time, he's surreptitiously glance at my message: 'not supposed to be here, but I and co. need talk to you.'  "Listen, is Steve around?" he asks.

 

"He's in town," I say.

 

"Great," he says.  "He hands me a piece of paper with an address.  "Why don't you and her meet me in about a half hour?  That should be long enough for me to get settled in."

 

Why did he say Steve, and then say her?  Never mind, I'll ask him later.  "Great, I'll be there."

 

I leave.  As I do so, I flick my communicator back on.  "Be here," I say after giving them the address.  Meanwhile, I am really glad that Jason and I are such good friends on BZP.

 

"Hey, is anyone going to 88th street?" Shasa asks.

 

"Yeah, why?" Cody says.

 

"Don't!" Shasa says.  "FBI!"

 

Oh Karzahni.  What's the FBI doing here?  "Everyone, keep away from 88th street."  I say.

 

"Is this bad?" Matt says.

 

"Are we in trouble?" Leena says.

 

"The FBI can't be here after us," I say.  "Besides, we just got here; when is government ever that quick?  Just don't let them see you."

 

"I'm trapped," Cody says.  "FBI to the north and south."

 

"Hide," I say.  "Wait until they leave.  We've got thirty minutes."

 

 

 

We got lucky.  The FBI disappeared (not literally).  We all got to the meeting place, which turned out to be a house owned by a friend of Jason's.  Jason was a little late, which he apologized for.  He only saw me, Shasa, and Cody.  Leena, Tai, Trixie, and Matt, he never saw.  It's generally better that way.

 

"Listen, we need you to do something," I say.  "Lego's CEO is on the fence about deciding to bring back Bionicle.  We fear that, without your input, he's going to decide not to go through with it."

 

"So, what do you want?" Jason says.

 

"Can't you just call him or something?" Shasa says.

 

"I've given him input," he says.  "He likes it, but he and the story team have a big problem.  Besides, I lost my phone on the way here."

 

"What's the problem?" I ask.

 

"I can't say that," he says.  "I'm not supposed to."

 

"You know you can trust me," I said.  "I've trusted these two with every secret I have.  We're not going to spoil any story details; you have our words."

 

Jason looked at each of us in turn.  "I'm not allowed to..."

 

"How about this," I say.  "Forget that we know anything about Bionicle.  We won't mention anything by name.  We're just authors tossing ideas at each other.  Why, Cody just finished book one of a story he's making that took inspiration from... uh, that Lego constraction theme."

 

Jason explained the problem to us.  Shasa was stumped, I was lost, and Cody was clueless.  I contacted the others.  None of them had any ideas, but then Leena said something that gave Cody The Idea.  It was the one idea that saved Bionicle.

 

But I'm afraid I can't tell you what it is.  Sorry.

 

"Great!" Jason says.  "I hadn't thought of that.  Now I just need to tell the CEO.  That could be difficult."

 

"Ian, ideas?" Shasa says.

 

I think fast.  None of us brought cell phones.  Then suddenly, an idea occurs to me.  "Tai, you're at football practice right now, right?"

 

"Yeah, I think," he says.  "Why?"

 

"You're about to get in a bit of trouble," I say.  "Luckily, you won't remember it."  I turn back to Jason.  "Can I borrow your computer?"

 

All it takes is a quick E-Mail to the same guy who found the E-Mail from Jørgen.  He also knows how to track cell phones.  I dislike using the teleporter so much, but in a flash, Tai goes home, gets his phone, and comes back.  Luckily, Tai never remembers to bring his phone to football practice.

 

Meanwhile, Jason has forgotten Vig's phone number -- he has the CEO on his contacts list.  Shasa plays a numbers game with him that she says can help anyone remember a phone number they knew once.  I was only out of the room for five minutes, but when I came back, Jason has remembered the number.  I have to get Shasa to show me what she did.

 

Jason dials his boss, explains (rather sheepishly) what happened to his phone, and tells his boss what Cody told him.  I make a mental note to tell Cody he's a genius later.

 

We all say good-bye.   We head back to the alley, and use the time-shifter to take us back to A-5.  It's still August, so we now have almost two months to kill.  Time for a party at Tai's aunt's!

 

 

 

Life was back to normal.  Okay, I was a little disappointed to miss how the rumors on BZP slowly got confirmed, but oh well.  Then, disaster struck.  Well, kinda.

 

I was talking to Shasa when it happened.  I received a call, number blocked.  I know better than to ignore those.  I answered it. 

 

"Hello, I'm Jim Vaisley, with the Black Belt Club--” That was Cody's voice, and he was using our code-words!  "Not interested," I say.  I press a series of buttons on my phone.  Ten seconds later, a green light lights up.  "Secure," I say.  To anyone tapping this line, it would appear I just hung up on 'Jim Vaisley'.

 

Cody cuts to the chase.  "I'm an idiot.  I think I lost a piece of paper in the past."

 

I get up and run to my computer.  "What did it say?"

 

"Nothing," Cody says.  "It just had a picture I drew on the computer and printed off for my story.  I'm sending it to you now."

 

A few moments later, the message comes up on my screen.  It shows what looks like an ornate helmet, like what's in Cody's Knights and Vikings stories.  I quickly run it through my image search program.

 

"Oh, great," I say.  "90% match."  Then I see what it's matched to, and I burst out laughing.

 

"What is it?" Cody asks.

 

"You just provided Jason with inspiration for a Mask for Bionicle 2015."

 

"No way.  You're putting me on."

 

"It's true," I say.  "I'll send you the message.  Meanwhile, get a job for Lego, why don't you?  You're now officially an unofficial member of the Bionicle story team."

 

Looking over my shoulder, Shasa says, "This is amazing."

 

"I know," I say.  "We not only saved Bionicle, we influenced it."

 

 

 

All's well that ends well, I think.

Edited September 10, 2014 by Willess12

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

haha! That was pretty funny. Some structural errors but in the short time you wrote this it was pretty solid. Funny characters and pretty clever ending. Also liked the writing style.

 

-NotS

[Van Hohenheim]

Headcanon accepted, this is definitely what happened.

[Mata Rahi]

Absolutely charming! I like to believe this is what really happened. xD