Nuile the Paracosmic Tulpa

. . . You just shed a very frightening light on how different my childhood would have been if they'd stuck with VooDoo Heads. Vale, Nuile

A CreditKarma commercial. I think there's a little Italian accordion in the background. Well, you asked. Sincerely, Nuile

Tekulo is another year closer to death. Have a good one.

Nothing? No, sir. No, you are everything. This is my childhood in a nutshell. This is life. This is brilliant. It's so plain and so simple and so, so very very very devilishly ingenious--exactly what this, the first and most perfect depiction of the terrible Makuta that still sends shivers down my spine, is meant to be. *slow clapping* Vale, Nuile

So, you basically just won my eternal respect. The Phoenixes are incredible, and I love that Komodo. Dat Chameleon, tho. You saved the best for last because that, sir, is beautiful. You did a great job thinking out all those descriptions, too. I'm sure you've heard this one before, but I'm a little disappointed that you didn't remake any of the iconic Rahi. The 2001 beasties mostly, but particularly the Gukko/Kewa/Kahu/suchlike. I would've liked to see something nostalgic. I was glad to see a Tarakava make the cut, however, and I'm very impressed by the design. Overall, you did a really great job putting together a large variety of Rahi with a cohesive aesthetic that fits the reboot yet recalls the designs of the incidental non-set Rahi from back in the day. So, you basically just won my eternal respect. EDIT: Reading thoroughly pays off. You built these exclusively out of pieces from G2 sets and included building instructions? You just took this to an entirely different level. You are my hero. Also, just realized I can basically make a perfectly satisfactory Kahu out of your Phoenix design if I just get the right pieces. Like, out of two Lewas and a Protector of Jungle? Do you think that would work? Vale, Nuile

I'm not sold on the skeletal look, but it's hard to judge from this picture. I'm liking the four-armed green villain, though, which is good, because he's the one I would have had to get no matter what, for the infected Miru. And I'm calling it right now: It's going to be up to Gali and Tahu to save the rest of the team when they get infected, and then, after they rescue Onua first, he'll be the one to rescue Lewa. Vale, Nuile

"Matero. This is your haven of peace in a tumultuous and changing world. Out there is war. Out there is fear. Out there the Toa are dead. In here you are safe. In here the Toa are your protectors. Here there is no crime! Here you need not live in fear! This is your city of dreams!" Toa Aerix stopped speaking. A riot of cheers and applause. A deep voice intoning, "This has been a civil reminder/inspiration, brought to you today by the Cobala Corporation. We now return to Matero Music with 'My Ga-Matoran Left Me' by M.A.S.K." If I was an Agori those four words might have broken my heart. But I'm a Fe-Matoran, and my heartlight flared until I thought it might crack. Do you remember the first time we heard that song? I hope so. It was the day we met. I'd just blown the Aybabtu championship game and I'd gone to the diner to drown my sorrows in a glass of "energized protodermis." Before the drink had a chance to cross my wires the song drifted down from the speakers and you walked in the door. It was a day I've never been able to forget. No matter how hard I tried. It was the day we fell in love. This time I shut the radio off on the first note. This was the day we broke up. I'd gone home to drown my sorrows in a dark corner by the window with all the lights off and the radio at half-volume while I gazed out at the nighttime streets dyed bronze by the glow of the lightstone streetlamps. In my mind I ran over the things we said. "Karattru," you said, and my name was beautiful on your voice, "I just feel like we haven't had any time for each other lately." "Well," I said, "we have time now." We were strolling together through the Nokama Botanical Gardens park in the power district. "But Aybabtu takes up so much of your time now, and my job--" "It's just the Aybabtu season. The championship game is coming up. After we win, I'll treat you to a victory dinner, just the two of us." "And if you lose?" "Well . . . you can treat me to a consolation dinner." You didn't find it funny. "But even in the off-season, you have meetings, and then there are the appearances, the benefits, the parties--" "But you always come with me." "That's just it. You don't understand how I feel tagging along to those things. I--I don't fit in. You're a celebrity, and I write about celebrities." "What's wrong with being a news chronicler? I don't see why that should come between us. I have nothing against newstablets. I'm pro-chroniclerism." "Don't joke. I'm serious. I feel like--like we live in two different worlds." "We're where those worlds meet." "It doesn't work that way." I was silent. Something in your tone worried me. "What are you saying?" You sighed. "I'm breaking up with you, Kar." "But--but Obitu," I stammered, "I love you. I mean--we love each other, don't we?" Your voice shook just a little. "Of course I love you, Kar, but . . . you have your life, and I have mine, and they just don't fit together." "But Obitu--" "Please don't make this any harder," you said, turning away. "I have to go." "Obitu, please--" "Don't follow my, Karattru." Then you walked away and hailed a chute lift, and I watched until it lifted you away to the platform and the chute whisked you away. I tried to close my mind to it but that last image of you echoed in my memory. I turned the radio back on and switched the channel. Toa Aerix's voice crackled through. "This is your haven of peace in a tumultuous and changing world. . . ." * * * After a few days you hadn't answered any of my mitter calls and I figured you just needed to call off. After a week I hadn't heard anything and I couldn't wait any longer. Early in the morning I showed up on your doorstep in the knowledge district with a bouquet in my hands. I knew you didn't have anything to do on Sidordays, and I'd called off practice so I could spend the whole day with you. I hoped that would convince you to give me another chance. Your hutmate, Thren, opened the door. She seemed surprised to see me. Her eyes fell on the flowers and she took them with a sad smile. "Thank you," she said. "It's sweet of you." I cleared my throat. "Those--those are for Obitu." "Of course. I'll put them with the others." "Others?" "Sure." We looked at each other, confused and embarrassed. "Oh--please, come in," she said after a moment. She stepped out of the way to let me in. I was surprised to see boxes strewn throughout the hut, some of them open, filled with your things. Thren shuffled past and set my bouquet down in a pile of flowers on a table. It didn't make sense--I couldn't piece it together. "Could I--see her?" I asked. Thren seemed horrified. "Of course not!" I couldn't understand her behavior. "I--uh--why not? I mean, isn't she here?" Thren stared. I stared back. Suddenly her face cleared, and she gave me a pitying look. "You--don't know, do you?" My heartlight flashed faster. "Know what?" Her voice broke a little. "I'm sorry. I--I thought you would've known." She wrung her hands. "Obitu's dead, Karattru." We stared. * * * When I got home I dropped the box in my arms on the floor. It was the box with all the things I'd given or lent you, that you'd given Thren a few days after we broke up, and she'd given to me. I stepped into the room and flipped the lightswitch on, and flipped it off, on and off and on and off and I tried to rip the switch out of the socket but I couldn't get a firm grip. So I kicked the wall instead and fell down and cried. * * * You'd been found lying in an alleyway in the tech district. The official statement was that your death was Matoranslaughter, a mere mugging gone wrong. I couldn't buy that. You hated the tech district, and you never carried anything worth stealing, much less killing for. Why should you have been walking alone through such a dangerous part of the city? What would you have been doing there in the first place? It didn't make sense to me. That night I visited the spot. It was a dirty alley on a dirty street in a dirty corner of the district. It was one Karzahni of a place to die. What could've taken you there? A drifter was digging through a dumpster, sorting old parts into a bag slung around his shoulder. "Hey, buddy," I called. "Look, Mator'n, this ain't a crime," the Zesk grumbled, peeking out at me over the edge of the dumpster. "One being's trash 's another being's treasure, am'right?" "You know it," I said. "So if you have a little information to throw out, I have some old widgets I was about to toss, anyway." I took out a handful of coin and jangled it around in my palm. The Zesk looked at me with more attention. "Well . . . I mi'know a thing or two. Knowledge is the greates' treasure there is, I alw' say, and I open m'eyes for anythin' val'ble. You, eh . . . lookin' for somethin' in pa'tic'lar?" "You been here before? Say, in the evening, about a week ago?" "You talk'n about tha' Ce-Mator'n?" My heartlight skipped. "That's the one." I jangled the widgets. "You saw her?" He pointed a finger across the street. "I's divin' in the dumpster over there 'at night, doin' wha' 'tis I do, y'know, when I see'd this airship come down over here and drop ou' tha' bundle o' scrap an' take off. She did'n' move, I just figgered she was dead, y'know?" "Anything else? Any words on the ship? Any logos?" The Zesk scratched his head. "Well, I migh' remember som'n, but tha's a week ago, hard to remember prop'ly . . ." He looked at me expectantly. I filled his hands with copper widgets and flashed a silver in front of his face. The Zesk's face lit up. "The ship was 'n Orkahm. Wanna know the registration number?" * * * A bored Orkahm Transportation customer service agent promised to check the number and get back to me promptly. Four days passed and I got a call. Model #C12215 had been part of an order of ten airships purchased by Hafu Building Co. I lived in the sports district; the construction district was its only neighbor in the Stone Sector. I took a porter to Nuparu Station, next door to the Hafu Building Co. Main Office. The receptionist was able to give me a list of warehouses. There were four within the city's limits. I checked the technology district first on a hunch, but none of the airships docked there was the one I was looking for. I checked out the warehouse in the shipping district next but there was no sign of #C12215. That left the power district and the construction district. I tossed a widget and power won. The warehouse was in a quiet part of the neighborhood, surrounded by a few abandoned plants, and offices and warehouses that would be empty by night. Even the power district's famous lights were few and dim here. It was like walking through a graveyard. I flinched at shadows and looked around at every sound, but the closer I got to the warehouse the fewer souls I saw, until I didn't see any at all. Unless there was a lead waiting for me, I was the only life within miles. When I got to the warehouse I found a Hau fence closing off the docks, from the air and ground both. But it would take more than that to keep me out. I'd known a forger once who worked with Zemya Depot and he'd told me the closely-guarded secrets to their Hau fences. They had a failsafe: remove the Hau inside the central post, which was always numbered 4-CR. Knowing that, it was a simple matter of locating the central post in the fence, hacking the lock, removing the Hau, and putting it back once I was safe on the other side. The elevators were shut off, as I'd expected, and I had to scale the framework to get to the airdock. But it paid off. There were five airships docked at this warehouse. The first three had the wrong registration numbers. The fourth was #C12215. It was unlocked but empty. I didn't know what I could've expected to find in the airship, anyway. If there were any secrets to find here--they would be in the warehouse. * * * Here there is no crime. This was no warehouse for a building firm. All I saw was a torture chamber. From my hiding-place in the ventilation shaft I looked through the grate into a room full of machines and gears and racks everywhere, scattered masks, some of them broken, and on a distant table, metallic parts I couldn't quite make out and wasn't sure I wanted to. And there was something else in that room. You, Obitu. You and a Bone Hunter and an Agori and an Onu-Matoran. You were watching them strap a De-Matoran to a table. One of the Agori turned to you and said, "First time in the Chamber, Disse?" You nodded. Why did they called you Disse? You weren't Disse. I tried to convince myself that she wasn't you, that she was Disse, but she was you and I knew it. "Watch closely. I think you will be impressed by the things we do here." The others were busy poking wires into the De-Matoran on the table. Then the Onu-Matoran threw a lever and turned a dial and a machine began to fizzle. The De-Matoran began to scream. I looked away and covered my ears until the screams died out. The machine stopped fizzling. The De-Matoran wasn't moving. Your voice was flat. "What did he do?" The Agori beside you shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know." "You don't know?" "Probably got in our way, somehow. We just follow orders. We don't get all the information." I took a deep breath. I didn't know what was going on here, and I figured what I was about to do was pretty stupid, but you were there, and for all I knew you were next. It was time to put a stop to this. I counted backward from ten and gave myself my pre-game pep talk. "Nerves of iron," I whispered to myself. "Heart of protosteel. Roar like a Muaka. Run like a Kane-Ra. Fight like a Toa. It's like a game. Breathe in, breathe out. That's it. It's just another game." I slid the grate silenty out of the way and dropped like a sandbag, landing lightly on the cushioned soles of my Aybabtu boots. I ducked behind a pile of crates and peered through a crack. You and the Agori were still standing together, watching the others remove the De-Matoran's restraints and lay a variety of tools on the table. I put my hands on one of the upper crates and pulled myself upward. "This is what you do here?" you were saying. "Dispose of our--our--" "Liabilities?" the Agori suggested. "Inconveniences? Yes. Anyone we're delivered, even if we don't know who they are. We just deal with the bare facts. And the fact," he said, pointing at the unmoving body of the De-Matoran, "is that this Matoran is no longer a problem." "Here's another fact: You're sick." Everyone all jumped and turned toward me at the sound of my voice. I had already dropped silently right into the midst of the group. I dropped the Bone Hunter with a quick one-two punch. I dodged around a swinging Onu-Matoran with big fists and kicked him in the back of his knee, ripping off his mask as he fell over. Next to me your Agori friend leveled a Kanoka-gun at my head. I grabbed his hand and twisted it to the side. The gun fired into the air and he screamed and let go. I put the Agori to sleep with the butt of the weapon and holstered it. Your eyes looked like they would overheat and explode. "Karattru--how are you here?" "Why aren't you dead?" I retorted. "What the Karzahni are you doing here?" you said. "You're going to ruin everything! Shut up," you added before I could speak. "You shouldn't be here. Do you have any idea what you're up against? Come on. You have to get out." "Why aren't you dead?" I repeated. "I thought you were dead! Do you have any idea how that made me feel? Do you know what I've gone through to find out what happened to you? Is this some kind of sick joke?" You scowled. "There's no time for this! We need to get you out of here!" You nearly yanked my arm out of its socket as you tried to drag me away, but I wouldn't budge. I grabbed your wrist and pulled you back toward me until your Kanohi was close to mine. "Why did you really dump me?" I said. "I want the truth." "To protect you." You leaned forward and touched my mask with yours. "I should've known you'd be a Spikit-brain and come looking for me." Your voice was soft with affectionate sarcasm, but it became sharp. "You saw what they did to that De-Matoran, didn't you? You have to get out of here, now! Come with me!" You gripped my wrist tight and this time I let you lead me out of the chamber, through a door, down a long hall. She ran to every corner and peered cautiously around to make sure it was clear and then ran on again. We rounded a corner and I trembled in terror at the sight of a massive figure towering over me. I raised my gun and realized an instant later that Toa Nilam was staring down the muzzle. I went limp with relief. You squeaked beside me. Nilam looked calmly down at us with his hands folded behind his back and a slightly amused expression on his Arthron. His voice was metallic and hollow as he murmured, "Please, don't shoot." I lowered the weapon. "Toa Nilam, thank the Great Beings!" "Come," Nilam said. "Let's get you out of here." But when I turned to you your eyes were wide with fear. "No," you gasped hoarsely, then louder, "No!" You turned and ran back the way we had come. I was shocked into immobility and stupidity. Nilam gazed after you with dull, steady eyes. He took out a mitter and glanced at it, pressed a button, and shook his head. "Find your friend before she gets herself killed. I'll clear a way out." He had hardly spoken the first syllable before I was off down the hall and around the corner. You disappeared into a doorway near the end of the corridor. I ran, heartlight flickering, shouting your name again and again. I wonder if you heard me? I barreled into the room and nearly tripped over you. The first thing I saw was your unlit eyes and the scorch mark on your chest and the smoking Kanoka-gun in the hands of the Ta-Matoran standing over you. The second thing I saw was the Kanoka-gun in my own hands and the hole I put in the Ta-Matoran's Kanohi. My head was throbbing and a black haze was closing around the edges of my vision as if I were in a dream. There was an Agori in one corner of the room, fumbling with a key at a locked door. I shouted and aimed my Kanoka-gun at him and he paused. I opened my mouth but couldn't form words. I tried again. "Why did you kill her?" I said. "I-I didn't--" "Why did you kill her?" I shouted. "Orders! Just--orders! I don't know why--" "Whose orders?" The Agori looked at me and looked over my shoulder. Before I could react to stop him he unholstered a Kanoka-gun and shot himself. I didn't understand any of it. Nothing made sense. I fell to my knees, dropped my weapon, clutched at my head, but it still didn't make sense. What were you doing here? Who faked your death and why? And why--why did they kill you? My head refused to work, like I was asleep and couldn't wake up. I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw your lifeless body awkwardly cradled in one of Nilam's arms. You. Dead. Toa Nilam. None of it made sense. In here the Toa are your protectors. "Come on, Fe-Matoran. Let's get you somewhere safe." Here you need not live in fear! I looked up into Toa Nilam's cold eyes. Without being quite sure what I was doing I pushed his hand away and threw the Kanoka-gun at his Kanohi and dove out a window into the dark, empty night. This is your city of dreams! END * * * * * Unless you've skipped here to the end (in which case I refer you to the beginning of the story where you belong), you have just finished the first in a new series of short stories collectively entitled "The Tales of Matero," a series I am co-writing with two of the most horrible people on BZP (AKA two decent buds who can actually write kinda goodly). The purpose of these short stories is to usher in an epic we are currently working on getting written. Keep reading for another paragraph and I'll tell you a little bit about it. Almost there. Just a little further. The story is set some 100,000 years after the Fall, that is, the F.A.L.L., the "Foiling of the Antagonist via Lame Lunar-rock" (love you anyway, Greg). Mata-Nui has been gone for millennia, and even the Great Beings are gone, and the world has changed. In the city of Matero (Mat[a] + [At]ero, not to be confused with that beloved guy who died) a new hero will rise, and some stuff will happen, and people will do things, and there will be some ties to earth-shaking attempts at world conquest, and some memorable characters will make appearances and there will be drama and feels and lots of exciting literary devices and suchlike to engage your interest. So if you like stories and epics and drama and emotions and characters and awesomeness and all things BIONICLE, you may or may not enjoy our epic (we'll let you be the judge of that). And you may or may not want to keep an eye out for it (you can judge that, too), which may or may not be coming soon (unfortunately we reserve the right to be judges of that). tl;dr - You just read a 3,000 word short story, and you can't read two paragraphs? srsly? ~Trivia~ Saturday is named for the Roman god of agriculture, Saturn. Sidorday just sounds good, because the resemblance stops at the assonance. I chose the Orkahm airship's registration number, #C12215, because L is the twelfth letter of the alphabet, U is the twenty-first, E is the fifth, that spells CLUE, and I'm just that creative. Vale

Never. I don't even remember the song I think they did for BIONICLE in '06. The person below me is going to tell me that this statement is false. Vale, Nuile

Review Lewa first! (You're gonna review Tahu first aren't you?) I'm exciting to find out just how these new gear systems work and how effective they are. This remains the biggest question yet to be answered. Vale, Nuile

LEGO and MSC Cruises? I ship it. Vale, Nuile

Thank you, sir, for drawing eight-legged spiders/scorpions. Incredible art. Great concept. I love the play with the difference in size between 2015 constraction figures and our beloved 2001 toys. I always thought it was amusing that the Mata were like Matoran beside any post-2006 Toa. For that matter, they were about the size of the 2008 Matoran, and next year's Protectors will probably be that size too. Things sure have changed since I was young . . . You, sir, keep up the great work. Vale, Nuile

So readeth the Tekkōdō.

This is clearly either official or a very convincing fake. Part of me hopes it's real, because I do like the colors; brown and orange go well together, and I'm glad LEGO could compromise and use both. That should please fans. At the same time, part of me hopes this is fake because the design is just another cookie cutter. Or maybe vegetable peeler. Either way, it's obviously not a leek. Still, I yam hoping you'll get in a lot of tuber for this. Vale, Nuile

Obviously what we need to be asking ourselves is what makes the four significant. Why make this pre-announcement four days in advance, instead of three, five, or seven? Clearly the number four is significant. And when I think the number four, I think of one thing: Clikits, released in '04 (well, late '03, but let's not be too technical), which ran for four years (until 2008), and happened to be LEGO's fourth theme specifically geared toward girls. The obvious conclusion is that LEGO is about to announce that they're bringing back the Clikits theme. This is HUGE! Who else is excited? Vale, Nuile

Gali walked with her arms spread to either side, caressing each branch and leaf and frond with her fingertips. Kopaka followed behind her, keeping his arms to himself and holding his sword close. "I can think of nothing I ever had to do as a Toa," said Gali, "that was more difficult to do than unleashing the Bohrok on our island." "It wasn't for us to choose." Gali stopped and Kopaka tensed. He relaxed as Gali kneeled and reached out slowly to a small beast, some kind of winged rodent. Kopaka stepped around her and took the lead. "Now Mata Nui is beautiful and alive once more," said Gali, standing up, and the creature scurried away. She hastened after Kopaka. "We left Mata Nui a long time ago." "And now we have come home, brother. " "It's changed too much." Kopaka shook his head. "This isn't our home." The Toa emerged from the trees onto a promontory overlooking a deep valley. The land fell away steeply and far, until the ground below faded in clouds of mist. Vegetation sprang up out of the sand blown in by the years. Trees and brush and grass turned the ground green and billowed with the wind. But at intervals, where the sand and verdure became sparse, a glimpse of a sheet of rusted metal revealed the true nature of this strange land hidden beneath its lush facade. Gali watched a flock of Taku nestled together in a high tree far below. Kopaka focused his telescopic eye on a Burnak devouring an unsuspecting Jungle Fox. He looked away. "This used to be Naho Bay," Gali said. "The falls were probably there"--she pointed--"and the village would have been there"--she pointed. "In the gardens below, the sea was full, and alive--there were Ruki and Takea and seaweed and coral and underwater caves. My people lived here and swam here for thousands of years. I lived here less than one. And still I call it home, Kopaka. My first memories were walking these beaches and swimming these waters." She spread out her hands. "This is where it all began. Our battle started here. We fought the Makuta here for the first time, before we knew he had a name, before we knew there were Toa who came before us. We saved the Rahi from his control and faced him, and we thought we destroyed him." "We thought that many times." Gali sighed. "And every time, we were wrong." Kopaka shrugged. "The battle didn't start here. It started in Metru Nui long before us. Maybe before that." "That was a different battle. One that the Toa and Mata Nui lost. The Makuta won for a time. This island is where our battle began. Together, we won it. The shadows we all fought for so long died here, in these eyes." She peered down into the valley. "We won this battle. . . ." "The question is," said Kopaka, "was it the last? Was it the end of the shadows?" Gali looked at him over her shoulder. "No," she said. They looked at each other a moment longer. Kopaka turned to follow the rim of the valley. "Come. Let's finish our mission." "Yes, of course. . . ." * * * The Great Coliseum lay in ruin. Three spires were fallen in different directions. The fourth had vanished into scattered rubble. The stands and walls were collapsed, in some places crumbled to powder. In the Coliseum's place, a jagged mountain of rock loomed into the sky, towering above the Great City. It was a souvenir left by the moon that had killed the Makuta who had once been guardian over the island. "We killed an evil-bad Makuta with an ever-big rock, and all we got was a smaller ever-big rock that's pointier and ever-ugly?" Onua clapped dust off his hands and smiled at Lewa, who was standing nearby on a pile of debris and frowning up at the grim steeple. Somehow, Lewa always focused on the worst side of things, and made it into something comical. "We won a lot more than that, brother," Onua said. "Oh, that's right, how could I quick-forget!" Lewa gave his Kanohi an overdramatized slap. "We won the big happy-prize! We get to here-stay with a bunch of wild-mad Rahi-people!" Onua frowned. He understood his brother's feelings. Migrating from Mata Nui to Metru Nui with the Matoran had been one thing. Onua remembered it as a time of stress and confusion. Their unity had seen them through then, but a sense of destiny, a feeling that they were returning home, had made it easier. Leaving the Matoran Universe and everything they had ever known behind them, to live in a strange land none of them had ever even dreamed could exist, was much, much harder. Five years had passed since the Falling, and they were still struggling to cope. "It is nice to be back in Metru Nui again," he admitted aloud. "True-said, brother." "Give me a hand with this protoblock, would you?" Onua grunted. "It's 'ever-heavy.'" "I thought you were the power-strong one," Lewa gibed. Lewa flew to his side and together they heaved the brick into the airship. They went about their work in silence for a while, collecting any undamaged materials they could salvage from fallen buildings. They had already rummaged through the ruins of Le-Metru, Ko-Metru, and Onu-Metru, and now they were scouring Po-Metru. When they had successfully loaded a life-size stone carving of a Kikanalo on the airship, Lewa swept his brow with his hand and said, "I'm beat-tired! Are we done in this dry-bald wasteland yet?" "Not yet. We should check the protodermis warehouses first." "Then can we quick-take a rest-break? We've been hard-working all day!" Onua agreed to this. He lay down on a bed of rubble while Lewa perched on a broken Gukko statue beside him. Onua looked up at the sky, where whatever artificial light had given them their sun had died into a flickering, dusk-like glow. That made it difficult to see what they were doing without Ruru, but on the bright side, it meant they didn't have to work in the heat of beating daylight. "Hard to believe this trash heap used to be our home," he sighed. "And now we live in a mystery-land of know-nothingness," said Lewa. "We'll get used to it." "In the old-age, when we were out brave-fighting and getting in ever-trouble, no matter the dark-luck, I could dream-think of the stories we used to tell in Le-Koro, like the 'Far-Wanderer.'" "Is this anything like the one about the three Matoran and the Manas and the--" Lewa whistled and laughed and shook his head. "No, brother, not a chuckle-good humor-tale! The Far-Wanderer was a tree-brother who vast-explored far-away lands. He got into risk-hazards and had many heart-thrilling adventures, but he always home-came to Le-Koro at the story-end." Lewa's eyes became hazy and distant. "And I used to dream-think . . . wherever I far-wandered, whatever the trouble-bad, as long as I could home-come to Le-Koro, everything was happy-fine." He rocked back and forth and smiled. "I had to home-come to Le-Koro. I couldn't fall-die, because I had to home-come to Le-Koro. No matter what, I just couldn't fall-die." He closed his eyes and frowned. "Now Le-Koro is ever-gone . . . there's no heart-home to home-come to, not anywhere." "I miss the island, too," said Onua. "But it's the people that matter, and we'll always have them to go home to, won't we?" "Well true-said." Onua sat up and leaned on the Gukko statue, tilting his head back to look at Lewa. "We've been through a lot together, brother. You and me, the team, our people. We've been through dark times. That's over now. I don't know where we're going now, but it's like Turaga Whenua used to tell me. The future is like a tunnel--you may not be able to see far ahead of you, but as long as you keep going, you will end up in a better place." Onua put his hand on Lewa's shoulder. "As long as we stay together, we can handle anything Spherus Magna throws at us." Lewa's gaze raked over the desolation of Po-Metru. Onua looked over his shoulder and frowned at it. "Quick-come, then," said Lewa, leaping up with a resolute smile on his mask. "Let's get back to hard-work." * * * Tahu stood with Turaga Vakama inside the gates of the Coliseum, at the foot of the towering moonrock. "This is where the Makuta cast Mata Nui into slumber," said Tahu. "This is where you and the other Turaga defeated him, and where you defeated Sidorak and Roodaka and the Visorak horde. This is where you saved the Vahi. The scene of all our greatest victories, destroyed." "Destroyed for our greatest victory yet, lest you forget," said Vakama. "The Great Spirit did what he had to do to save Spherus Magna. Perhaps it was the right time for what we knew as our world to come to its end." "So we could live in a world where we do not belong? A world unprepared for our coming? So we could share the homes of a people who do not want us here?" "You are their hero, Toa Tahu," said Vakama. "They will not soon forget that." "It's a lot to ask of them, even if I did help save their lives." "It is a big change for them," Vakama agreed. "It is a big change for us all. None of us chose this path, but we must all cope with it now." "But we were never meant to live there, Turaga. The very Great Beings who created us wanted to keep us out if it. They tried to destroy us." "And yet the Great Spirit, whom they created to reunite the world, their broken world, was the one who saved Spherus Magna. He saved it for the people who lived there, as well as his own. I do not know about you, Toa, but I have more faith in a hero like that, and the destiny he gave us, than in any creator, no matter how powerful they are nor how knowing they claim to be." They moved on, strolling in circles around the broken field of the Coliseum. "We've never dealt with anything like this," said Tahu. "We have always had some darkness to defeat, some enemy to stop, but this is so different from anything we have ever had to do." "You are more than the leader of a team now, Toa Tahu. You and your brothers are the leaders of a new world in its infancy." "There have been many times when we could hardly keep ourselves together. The people of our old universe couldn't even get along. How can we keep two universes united?" "I do not know all the answers to your questions." Vakama sighed, pulling thoughtfully at the chin of his mask. "Destiny has changed. Once we looked to the Great Spirit to guide us. Now he is more difficult to see. Our world has become more complicated." He turned to Tahu and twitched a finger. "Come here." Tahu kneeled beside the Turaga. "Yes?" "Look back on all the times when you have come to me in the past, Toa, when your mind was troubled with doubts for the things that had to be done. Think how hopeless things seemed then. Every time you faced one challenge, a newer, and harder one would take its place. That is the way of things, it seems. But listen to me. Destiny has always been ours to carve. It is our choices, and the things we do, that decide it, nothing else." He shrugged. "None of us expected what has happened, and yet I believe as time passes we will find we were better prepared to face the future than we realized. The Great Spirit is still with us. Times have changed and they will change again, but the heart of our people will not. You will see, Toa. We will have a say yet in what comes next." Vakama nodded his head once, twice, thrice, and turned and hobbled on again. Tahu followed. * * * So while everyone else is off gathering building materials and studying geology and taking nostalgic strolls down memory lane, I'm running back and forth across an endless desert, thought Pohatu. Scenery that all looked the same whizzed past in blurs that all looked the same as he sped across the desert at full speed. He was returning from the newly founded city of Matero with his precious package strapped securely to his back In a deep, gravelly voice that didn't sound nearly as much like Vakama as Pohatu liked to think it did, he said, "You are the fastest and the most gullible. You are the obvious choice to do this most biggest, most important, most boring task that nobody else wants to do." He imitated Tahu next. "You know it's not safe in Matero. There have been too many attempts to steal it already, and even though we kicked each sorry rear that tried it, we must go to the exaggerated and unnecessary lengths of burying one of the most powerful artifacts in all the universe someplace where we'll never be able to get at it again." Pohatu's voice rose shrilly. "We must all do our part, brother, because I'm the goody-goody conscience of the team, something about unity and duty and destiny, something weepy and dramatic about hope!" Gali was the worst of his imitations. He made his voice airy. "Go-run wind-fly-quick with-having ever-speed, good-great-noble Toa-hero-warrior-guy!" He made his voice stiff. "Get your rear to Matero before I freeze you where you stand with my icy eyes because I'm so cool I'm frigid." He made his voice very deep. "Ummm, what're we talkin' about?" Pohatu's hearty laughter echoed behind him into the desert. * * * The months crawled by, until at last, the new Kini-Nui was finished. Gali and Kopaka had scouted out the location of the original Kini-Nui, above the entrance to Mangaia, beneath which still lay the abandoned Maze of Shadows and the tunnels that descended to Metru Nui. Lewa and Onua had been able to salvage a wide variety of materials, not only allowing them to rebuild the temple itself exactly as they remembered it, but also leaving plenty left over to work with in the engineering of defenses. By design, it resembled the 777 Steps of Voya-Nui. Chamber after tunnel after tunnel after chamber, armed with traps and tests and puzzled to impede thieves, descended into the Maze of Shadows, where any thief who had somehow made it this far still had to face the almost impossible challenge of navigating the maze to its heart, where one final security measure protected the innermost vault. All entrances from below had been collapsed or blocked or otherwise closed at regular intervals, leaving the Kini-Nui as the only possible point of access. Now, the package had been placed within and the traps had been set, and the Kini-Nui was waiting to be sealed. All that wanted now was the arrival of the volunteer who would dwell in Mangaia as the guardian of the universe's most prized artifact. Since before construction had started, finding this volunteer had been Takanuva's task. The six Toa Nuva, together with the six Turaga, waited atop the temple. "You didn't forget to activate the chutes in the third chamber?" Tahu checked. "True-certain, sir Toa-Leader," said Lewa. "And the furnace in the fourth chamber is ready?" "Check," said Onua. "And the--" "Calm yourself, brother," Gali interrupting, chortling. "Nothing has been forgotten. Every smallest detail has been carefully prepared. We are ready." Vakama hobbled between the two Toa. "You have all worked long and hard for this moment, and naturally, we are all nervous," said Vakama. "But there is nothing left to be done now other than the sealing of the temple, and for that, we have only Toa Takanuva to wait for." "And until then," said Nokama, "we have nothing to worry about. No precaution has been spared, and until the temple is sealed, we have the six of you here to guard its entrance. The Mask of Life will be safe now for all time." There was a moment of silence to appreciate those words. Inevitably, it was Lewa who broke it. "So deep-safe," Lewa added, "that even if the Makuta were to back-return from the old-bone, not even he could take-snatch it!" Pohatu groaned. "Please, brother, don't even joke. The Makuta has returned from the dead enough times." A moment later, Lewa cried, "Wind-flying sky-ship! Our brother is here-come!" Cheers erupted on the Kini-Nui, and whooping and shouting Lewa took to the air. He flew up to meet the approaching airship and flitted around it in playful circles. Moments later, before the airship had even come close to the ground, Lewa returned to the temple and landed beside his brothers wide-eyed and silent. "I--I quick-took a look-see in a window," Lewa stuttered, and in spite of further questions he said nothing more. But as they waited in suspense for the airship to land, a smile grew on Lewa's mask. Takanuva came first. He was greeted warmly and patiently, but he could sense the tense anticipation of his brothers and sister and elders. With a strange grin, he announced, "Well, you asked for a volunteer, and I've brought him. He's an old friend from my dimensional travels." He turned to the airship and called, "Come out, brother!" A tall, brawny figure clad in radiant white stepped out of the airship. Most of the Toa and Turaga stared in silent shock, or gasped out loud. Pohatu cursed, and Lewa nearly broke his mask laughing. "Friends," said Takanuva, "welcome the new guardian of the Mask of Life--Makuta Teridax." END * * * * * Unless you've skipped here to the end (in which case I refer you to the beginning of the story where you belong), you have just finished the first in a new series of short stories collectively entitled "The Tales of Matero," a series I am co-writing with two of the most horrible people on BZP (AKA two decent buds who can actually write kinda goodly). The purpose of these short stories is to usher in an epic we are currently working on getting written. Keep reading for another paragraph and I'll tell you a little bit about it. Almost there. Just a little further. The story is set some 100,000 years after the Fall, that is, the F.A.L.L., the "Foiling of the Antagonist via Lame Lunar-rock" (love you anyway, Greg). Mata-Nui has been gone for millennia, and even the Great Beings are gone, and the world has changed. In the city of Matero (Mat[a] + [At]ero, not to be confused with that beloved guy who died) a new hero will rise, and some stuff will happen, and people will do things, and there will be some ties to earth-shaking attempts at world conquest, and some memorable characters will make appearances and there will be drama and feels and lots of exciting literary devices and suchlike to engage your interest. So if you like stories and epics and drama and emotions and characters and awesomeness and all things BIONICLE, you may or may not enjoy our epic (we'll let you be the judge of that). And you may or may not want to keep an eye out for it (you can judge that, too), which may or may not be coming soon (unfortunately we reserve the right to be judges of that). tl;dr - You just read a 3,000 word epic, and you can't read two paragraphs? srsly? Vale

Bahaha, brilliant twist. I was actually a little bored and disappointed up until that point - not that there's anything wrong with your writing, but simply because the story was vague and uninteresting - which I think is actually very effective. You really sold that ending. Nice. Vale, Nuile

This is the way you start a story. Not that there's anything remarkable about the first sentence, nothing that immediately grabs the reader's attention, but the deftness with which you introduced these creatures, the "Skantang" and the "Nalseri," is simply masterful. If you're going to give the reader unknown creatures they've never heard of, there's always the dangerous potential of confusion, and you allayed it with the simplest, most effective instant descriptions. Immediately we know the nature of the species simply by the use of the words "proudly," in the Skantang's case, and "brute," in the Nalseri's case. Anything more is unnecessary, and therefore wisely withheld. Just seeing that had me hooked - I knew if the very first line had such prudent subtlety, I would not be disappointed if I kept reading. And I wasn't. Similar concept, Kanail is just an unconscious body for a while, and we're wondering who this mysterious character is - and then bam, you show us. Dexterously funny, infinitely telling. Brilliant. I just point these out as highlights. On the whole, the story is, ehhhhh . . . beautiful, just beautiful. Honestly, it has everything - detail, exposition, action, drama, humor, even romance. In fact, it's quite amazing how much you managed to pack into such a short story, and how well. Beautiful, just beautiful. Sir, I applaud. Keep writing, Vale, Nuile

Great writing, intriguing story, promising character - I really wish the whole story was here, instead of this enticing fragment. You posted this months ago, any chance you've written a sequel since? I'd read it. I'm also curious about the origin of this story. Obviously most, if not all, of the characters are BZP members. What's the idea behind this? Vale, Nuile

First things first, you leap right into the middle of the things, and sell it with a hooker of a first line. You had me from the beginning and never let go, and you didn't pull so hard you broke the line - not bad for an "amateur," not bad at all. Now, obviously, this is a light piece, short and comical, only half-serious. The comedy was pretty well done, I think - I'm not very familiar with the Deadpool character, but I've heard he likes to break the fourth wall, and I know he's generally pretty psychotic, so I think you did pretty well capturing that character. I think my biggest complaint is that there wasn't more to the story. I wanted more: I wanted to see more action, I wanted to know what would happen next, and most of all I just wanted a chance to get to know this Deadpool better. There wasn't enough time to find out, for instance, what is species is, what he does and why, and how he fits into the BIONICLE universe. As a guy who doesn't know much about Deadpool, I would've liked more introduction, and Deadpool fans probably would probably want to know what makes him more here than just a comic character thrust into a BIONICLE setting. This could have been done through presentation ("show, don't tell") as well as explanation (Deadpool's personality gives you an excuse to have the character start monologuing about his backstory). Quick, clean fun. Nicely done. Keep writing, Vale, Nuile

Eleventy-one already? You're not going to tell everyone you hate them and then vanish, are you? Happy birthday! Hope you had (and will have while the fleeting hours still last) a good one! Now go back to partying - you've put this off for far too long. Unless you are just going to tell us all you hate us and then vanish. In that case, walk into Mordor. Vale, Nuile P.S. One more. Inevitably,

Is its a masssk, preciousss? Edit: The nasssty Zox beats us to it! Can we eats it?