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The Heist, or, how Berix became a real thief


KDNX

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find the review topic here: http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/21825-the-heist-or-how-berix-became-a-real-thief-review-topic/

THE HEI$T, or,  how Berix became a real thief

 

 

Chapter One: Berix

 

The Agori named Berix ran down the street.

It was a fine day on Spherus Magna, in the sprawling city of New Metru Nui. After the Reformation, and the Evacuation, the Matoran and Agori had worked together to build a massive utopian metropolis where all could live together in peace. Berix lived in the western part of town, where tall sandstone apartment buildings dominated the skyline, and small, green, single bench parks dotted the spaces between the flat, rectangular monoliths of tan stone and clear glass.

He found his way to his apartment building. Though all of the buildings were designed the same, the chute system had planted stations in many of the apartment blocks. Berix recognised his building on the grounds that it had three chutes entering its largest side, on the north end of the building, while only two left the south end and one left the thin eastern end. The eastern chute made a loop ("for stupid little giggles," Berix's Toa roommate Barana would say) and another chute ran through the loop.

Berix ran inside, jumped into the elevator, and pressed the 33 button as fast as he could. The elevator couldn't rise fast enough.

As he stepped out of the elevator, he took notice of an older Agori walking down the hall in the direction he needed to go. He grimaced, swore under his breath, and ran the opposite direction, planning to climb the two flights to floor 34 and then loop back down two flights to the other end of floor 33.

He came back to the 33rd floor after a jog down the hall of floor 34, and as he came down the west end of the hall on floor 33, he saw the slow-moving older Agori had just passed his room. Not wanting to be impolite, he turned and looped around again to the east end of floor 33 and finally came to his room. The room placard 33K had never looked more inviting.

He stepped into the small, 2 bed 1 bath flat with thin walls, and collapsed onto the small couch. He felt around for the remote control and pointed it at the protoscreen across from the couch. He pressed the on button.

Electrical currents ran through the protoscreen, and colours came into being across the downward-flowing protodermis. The picture cleared as sound began to come through the speakers. He pressed the channel up button multiple times.

"Buy the new Mobius-brand mask polish tod-"

"What's up with Vahki, I mean real-"

"I have seven hundred cans of non-perishable food in my basement, I'm ready for the next Shatter-"

"Breaking news!"

Berix heard the words he had wanted to hear and sat up.

"The Kanohi Ignika disappeared from its place in the New Coliseum Vault today. Authorities have found no traces of evidence, and the guards on duty had not seen anything outside the vault. The security cameras had deactivated for a five-minute period this morning before coming back online, revealing that the Ignika had disappeared. Toa Helryx offers a few words."

The image shifted from everyone's favourite Po-Matoran news anchor, Pekka, to an image of Toa Helryx. Her blue-and-gold armoured hands were placed on either side of a podium, several microphones seated on it in front of her mask. The mouthplate was opened on her mask, allowing her to speak.

"The Toa Alliance is doing all it can to ensure that the Mask of Life is found and returned to the Vault. We have sent our best scouts and soldiers out to search for its energy signature. Any questions?" Helryx pointed to someone out of view. "You." She waited a moment. "For those of you that didn't hear, he asked, 'is it true that Mata Nui is still alive inside the Ignika?' I must sadly answer this question with a yes. Our best scientists have confirmed that he is alive within the mask, and it is for this reason that its energy signature is detectab-"

The protoscreen turned off as Barana pressed a button on the machine. Toa Barana was a female Toa of Plantlife. She wore a Mask of Energy Rebounding, which would catch any attack and repel it back to its original creator at double the power. She was a tall, thin figure, with waist-length silver hair. Two Cordak Blasters were strapped to her back, and two ammo belts crossed her chest. A smaller, one-shot photosynthesis cannon was attached to her shoulder. Her mask resembled a Lehvak shield.

"What'cha watchin' there, Berix?" She was loud and boisterous as always, and Berix jumped as the protoscreen deactivated.

"Th-the news, Barana," he stammered.

"Yeah, the Mask of Life went missing. Whaddaya think of that?"

"I-i-i-it scares me. So do YOU!"

"Sorry, sorry. Thought you were asleep or something."
"Why would you be LOUDER if I was ASLEEP?!"

"I dunno. Good question."

Berix placed his hands over his face and screamed as Barana walked casually into the kitchen.

 

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The next day, Berix walked the short walk down the street to his job at a convenience store at a six-way intersection.

As he rounded the corner, a being not much taller than him stood in his way. He appeared to be an Agori, as he wore a silver helmet, but that was where the similarities ended. A black cape was slung around his shoulders, flowing down to the knees on his abnormally long legs. His body, arms, and legs were grey, save for a red plate of armour on either bicep. A dark metal gauntlet covered his left hand, and he held a long walking stick in his right.

He grabbed Berix by the shoulders, and pulled him, kicking and screaming, into an alley.

"WAIT! NO! STOP! DON'T DO THIS! I WORK A MINIMUM WAGE JOB, I'M ABOUT TO GET A PROMOTION!"

The being removed his cape and tied it around Berix's head, keeping his mouth shut as he dragged him to the back of the alley. As his cape came off, two large bat wings folded away from his back, and the being lifted Berix into the air between two apartment buildings, and off southeast towards the commercial district of New Metru Nui.

Edited by Number_One_IX
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Chapter Two: Barana's Secret

 

Berix hit the concrete hard, face first. He was on the concrete expanse of the New Ga-Metru docks, and he rubbed his helmet in pain while looking at the multicoloured shipping crates and boats tied to piers. Two clawed feet landed on the concrete in front of him. They belonged to a grey body, and said grey body was looking menacingly down at Berix's helpless blue-clad form in the road.

Working at the shipyard, one would see many wide roads where loading vehicles would carry around shipping crates. It was in the center of one of these 15-bio-wide roads that Berix propped up his body and coughed before he was kicked in the face by the grey being. Berix sprawled backwards, and he heard a familiar voice calling for a moment before he blacked out.

"Vridox! Stop! Vridox! He doesn't know..."

 

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Berix awoke in a chair, in a room whose walls were made of corrugated white protosteel. He looked around. He wasn't bound or anything. He stood and ran to the other end of the room, but the door was locked. He turned to inspect the wall to his left, originally right when he awoke.

It sported a long glass window, separated occasionally by support beams. A fancy control panel was affixed to the wall beneath the glass. He walked up to the control panel and leaned forwards to take a look out the window.

Down in the warehouse below, because he was quite obviously in a warehouse, five beings were gathered. None looked any similar to another, making this ragtag team very diverse, and certainly quite noticeable in the street. The warehouse's door was closed, and the beings were almost entirely surrounded with red-and-green corrugated protosteel shipping crates, labeled MOBIUS BANKING TRANSACTIONS.

He looked at the five beings. One was tall, thin, and dark blue. He had several prosthetic limbs, and carried a sword that looked like it was made of several swords. He held a 5-shot launcher in the other hand. His mask was wide and flat. He had a long blue tail with a metal plate on one side of it. To the right of the catlike blue being was a wide Toa of average height. He wore black-and-red armour, as well as a Skrall helmet with several patches and weld marks on it. He carried a massive club with a launcher at one end. Chains dangled from his shoulders. He had one arm around a Toa of a similar height. However, this Toa was slender, and wore black and green armour, and long silver hair traveled down her back... it was Barana!

Berix jumped back from the window in surprise. Barana? How? What does she have to do with this?

He recognised the grey being with the black wings. He stood opposite the ragtag group of three. He took no notice of Berix in the window as he pushed his walking staff across a table in front of him, moving two small wooden figures onto a floor plan. Berix couldn't read the markings on the floor plan from his vantage point, but saw the blue being pointing to a corner of the page and dropping another wooden figure there.

Berix lost his balance over the control panel and flopped onto it. Berix cursed loudly.

 

A crane began moving in the warehouse. It held a large red protosteel shipping crate. The crane dragged the crate across the floor, slamming it into other crates, support beams, and catwalks until the crumpled steel box smashed its way into the gathering of Toa-like beings. The grey one flew into the air, while the catlike blue one pounced atop the box and the black-and-red one lifted the green one and sheltered her with his bulk. The crate continued to scrape across the floor, showering sparks across the black-and-red one's back.

The grey being flew up to the crane control panel and watched Berix pick himself up off of the panel. Berix's eyes widened when he saw the grey being and his hand slipped onto a lever. Said lever opened a hatch in the ceiling and began spiriting the crate, catlike being atop, out into the open shipyard.

 

Felus was having the time of his life.

He once was a mindless Muaka, bounding across the plains of Spherus Magna, chomping up smaller animals and sleeping under the stars. He never imagined that he would one day fall into energized protodermis and emerge as a tall, thin, 8-foot-tall warrior. He would return to his pack, but they wouldn't recognise him, and would brutally maul him. The torn-up once-Muaka dragged himself into New Metru Nui city and collapsed at the feet of a wealthy business tycoon who would patch him up with new prosthetic limbs and grant him a Kanohi - the Kanohi Atramak, Mask of Dimension, which allowed himself (or a targeted object or being) to become two-dimensional and move along walls as an image.

Felus's life flashed before his eyes as the shredded, twisted, crumpled crate slowly floated up above the ceiling of the warehouse and out into the shipyard. Several Matoran and Agori looked up at the crate, but paid no attention to it.

Felus leaped off of the crate, did a backflip, then passed into the floor using his mask. He popped out above the control panel room, taking no damage from the fall.

 

Berix screamed. He began wildly pressing buttons on the control panel, and the warehouse door rose as the shipping crate that once held masks flew back into the room, whizzing past the grey being. The crate's contents finally spilled out of the grey-streaked steel mess: a pile of grey protodermis shards.

The grey being bared talons on his toes, and began scratching the window. Berix looked around for a weapon to defend himself. All he could find was a small dagger, but it had to do. As the grey being flew through the shattered window, Berix brandished the dagger. He felt a button on its handle, and pressed it. The two blades of the dagger separated to reveal a small point, which fired an energy bolt into the grey being's eyes. The being lunged at Berix, slamming him against the wall, knocking him unconscious again.

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