Nick Silverpen

Definitely excited to see what comes of this! My entry is submitted!

Is there any way to negotiate some prices? definitely interested in a few.

The Toa looked up, the voice coming from the other side of the workbench. Barely peeking over the surface, a Matoran grinned at them. He hobbled his way around to Hahli, smiling as he took the scroll from her. The two Toa looked at him, mouths agape with shock. They had forgotten about him, in their wild journey though Voya Nui and Mahri Nui, and the mask he now wore was one from the hide of the Kanohi Dragon. One of his arms seemed new… and they realized in horror that it was the arm of Vohon, hastily latched onto his shoulder blade. The body was familiar, but the sound of his voice instantly sent them back to their time as confused Matoran in a twisted world. The Matoran whom had helped them escape the realm of Karzahni stood before them, staring wide eyed and cheery in this dark and mysterious factory. “You?” Jaller asked. “What are you doing here?” “A lot of people… forget,” the Matoran giggled. “But I… I remembered. You’ve forgotten me in your adventures, Metruan. But I forgive you, just as the Great Spirit forgave his playthings.” “Playthings?” Hahli asked nervously. She and Jaller looked at each other, and then to this decrepit Matoran. They were the able bodied ones, but somehow she felt this Matoran was the one with more power right now. “The Vortixx, the Skakdi, those who weren’t Matoran…” He answered, nodding. “All… playthings. And the Rahi too!” He gestured to the cluttered workbench. “While we worked, the Great Spirit, he played. But he never cleaned up. That was our job. My job.” Jaller shook his head. He was not following. “What is this place?” “It is my factory,” he replied. Hahli raised her eyebrows. This Matoran, own or be in charge of a factory? As incredulous as it sounded, it made sense to her worried mind. “It’s where the first of us was built by the Great Beings, and where the last of us will be taken apart.” “Taken apart… like the Rahi?” Jaller asked. “Exactly like the Rahi!” the Matoran said, excited his guests were starting to follow. “We were never meant to be here this long, it’s a wonder we’ve lasted in Paradise for the time that we have. The Great Beings never had a clue things would stray so far from the way they were supposed to.” “So you’re the one taking apart the Rahi?” Jaller demanded. “No… I am.” The two whirled at the sound of the raspy voice behind them, weapons drawn at a Vortixx they had thought snuck up on them. With a chuckle, however, the figure stepped into the faint light, revealing himself to be anything but one of the denizens working the factory. The Toa Mahri gasped. Strange silver additions to the being’s upper body gave an awkward bulkiness to him. He bore wicked looking claws, his left hand hidden by a shield strapped to his forearm. An orange glow seeped from under all of the armor, that, to which Hahli and Jaller could only assume were his bones given some sort of translucence. The being’s body looked almost unfamiliar, almost like a Vortixx, but the mask… there was no mistaking the Kanohi Volitak, or the sad smile that he looked at the two with. “Nuparu?” Hahli asked, almost hoping the being in front of her gave a different name. But the nod that he gave made her heart plummet. “What are you doing here?” “I think I know the answer but I don’t think we’ll like it,” Jaller grumbled. “Now I know I saw you, when I first came check on the Dragon. I wasn’t sure at first. Nuparu, are you working with the Vortixx to take apart the Rahi?” “It’s more along the lines of they are working with us,” the Toa of Earth grinned. “Explain yourself,” Hahli demanded. “It’s for the next step in the Great Being’s plan,” Nuparu quietly answered. “You’ve read some of these scrolls. All of the Great Beings’…research.” “Most of what we think of them is our own delusional myth, did you know that?” the Matoran chimed. And it looks like some of us are more delusional than others, Jaller thought, hand tight on his power sword. “Mata Nui was never meant for anything more than reuniting the planet,” Nuparu continued. “Once Spherus Magna was fixed, the robot was supposed to return to the Valley of the Maze and be shut down, and then be taken apart for uses in further projects they had in mind. Building the robot took up so much of the planet’s resources— and they were going to build TWO!— that they wanted to try and fully restore the planet.” “So were we supposed to be dismantled with the robot?” Hahli asked, incredulous at what she was hearing. “None of this was ever supposed to be integrated into Spherus Magna in this form,” he confirmed, a slightly apologetic tone in his voice. “The Great Beings just thought it was too dangerous.” “See, we’re all scheduled to be ‘disassembled’,” the Matoran said. Hahli shook her head. “Nuparu, how can you be behind this? How can you stand with this Matoran?” “I once saw a Spherus Magnan animal hunting in the desert,” he recalled. “It had come upon a recently deceased carcass of another animal, killed by some other predator but left otherwise untouched. The animal ate the spoils it found. But it later was hungry. It went and found another carcass, but the result was the same. The animal eventually died of starvation. When I looked at it, the animal had eaten the food, but there was no nutrition in it. “I know, it seems trivial, but it stuck with me. The sound of that animal dying of malnutrition, it seemed wrong. It seemed cheated.” “I’d gone wandering,” the Matoran said, sitting on top of the workbench and swinging his twisted leg. “And stumbled upon all of this. Nuparu eventually found me, and together we came and made this operation.” “It all seemed logical. I would take apart Rahi, figure out how we biomechs absorbed food. Because I wanted to figure out something.” He shook his head. “But there’s no solution. It’s not possible to try and make it right.” “And the Vortixx, they’re with you too?” Jaller asked. “They were… convinced, with the gift of the dragon, after we took it down.” Nuparu explained, extending his claws toward the fellow Toa. They shied away, leaving Nuparu with a disappointed expression. “They thought the project was promising.” “And there were Agori working with us, whom had some… feelings,” the Matoran said. “But they were willing to work with us. All in the name of the Great Being’s plan.” “This is madness,” Jaller breathed. “Nuparu, you’ve gone too far.” A noise made the three Toa Mahri looked around. A few Vortixx had arrived at the scene. Realizing Hahli and Jaller were unwanted guests/not allied with Nuparu, they began to brandish weapons. “No!” the Matoran screamed. Nuparu sent a column of earth forth at a Vortixx charging up their Rhotuka spinner. This was him nicely insisting they all back down. “They are my guests! They are mine to deal with!” “Then I guess we have outstayed our welcome,” Hahli said, brandishing her tri-claw. “Sorry Hahli, but I cannot let you leave,” Nuparu said. His whipped his shield forward, and Hahli braced for an attack. Instead, his claw reached under the shield, pressing a hidden button. Behind the Toa of Water, a mechanical crane came to life, grabbing Jaller. His power sword clattered to the floor where he stood. The crane lifted him into the air, throwing him around until it found a spot to pin him on a conveyor belt between two Rahi.“I know you think this is wrong, but this is what I feel is right.” Hahli spun, ready to rush for her friend. “No! don’t worry about me!” Jaller barked. “I can get myself out of this! Stop him!” Hahli glowered under her mask visor at his words, turning to lunge at Nuparu. She swung her claw downward, only to meet the face of his shield. Sparks flew. With a grunt, he pushed her away, slashing with his own set of claws. Catching them with hers, she threw his arm to the side, trying to open up his defense. Nuparu let her overextend herself, bashing the Toa of Water in the shoulder with his shield. She reeled from the blow, falling back with surprise from Nuparu’s strength. She didn’t expect the inventor could have been as strong as he was. Standing over her, the Toa of Earth pulled his fist back. When his fist came forward, it met her feet, as a kick sent him flying. He fell on the workbench on his back, rolling to avoid a protosteel talon piercing his mask. Hahli had leapt to her feet in a rage, thrusting downward towards Nuparu in what would’ve been a lethal jab. As Nuparu rolled away, he threw tablets from the table at her, which she slashed into pieces before advancing to her combatant. The Toa of Earth hopped to the ground, raising his shield as the Toa of Water slashed again. He slashed as well, and the two caught each other in mid air, claws locking into each other. Each of them struggled to gain the upper hand: Hahli had one claw and more ability to move, in addition to more strength, while Nuparu had more claws and more leverage. Nuparu eventually was the one to pull away, sending a kick towards Hahli’s way. Dodging it, she slashed again. He caught her tri-claw and twisted her arm, again with surprising force, bashing the Toa into the side of a nearby machine. Using her free arm she thrusted an elbow back, knocking him in the side of the head. The Toa of Earth remained steady however, throwing Hahli at the metal with even more force. As much as Jaller wanted to join the scramble, he was busy in his own fight, trying to avoid the mechanical arm Nuparu had set on him. The machine had strapped him down, readying him for some sort of deactivation process. His elemental powers did not seem to be effective; though he could feel the straps heating up, they would not succumb to the power of fire or his own strength. Another arm with a long needle of some sort hovered above him, and Jaller struggled against his straps, not curious to see what kind of surgery the needle could perform. “Help me!” he demanded of the Vortixx standing nearby. They did not respond, only faithfully watching Nuparu until he would call for their help. “Vortixx!” he called. “You realize that he plans on taking all of us apart? Yourselves included?” “Or maybe we have been paid royally enough that it will not matter, in the end.” A whisper came. Jaller’s eyes looked up to see the Vortixx that had been their host in the Dragon’s facility standing over him. “Or, we will get to chose our time of disassembly. We will be the last, and we will choose when.” “He wants you to think that!” Jaller tried reasoning. He struggled more fervently as the Vortixx operated a lever, causing the needle to come down further and faster. The Vortixx chuckled, returning to the shadows as the needle made the final bit of its descent, boring itself into Jaller’s chest pistons. He screamed in agony as he could feel the screwdriver twist. Letting out a bellow of rage, a burst of magma flew from Jaller’s hand, hitting him square in the chest. “Choose to deal with that,” the Toa of Fire grunted through his own pain. Hahli heard his screams, adding a bellow of her own as she charged at the Toa of Earth, ready to take him down. However, he had other plans, digging his claws into her back. The protosteel of his claws immediately cut through her back armour, piercing the tissue within. Hahli seized on the ground in pain, unable to defend herself. Hahli must have blacked out for a moment, but the next thing she recalled she was knocking her head against Nuparu’s. The Toa of Earth reeled back, and suddenly Hahli found she could breath easily. The pain in her back was still fresh, but it was easier to deal with now. Her mask must have activated on its own.. some Rahi with an extreme pain tolerance must be somewhere in this facility, she supposed. The Toa of Earth still reeling from the head blow, Hahli charged, pile driving the Toa of Earth towards the machine where Jaller was trapped. Jaller screamed again as the machine buckled, Nuparu’s body crashing into it. The needle boring into his chest became askew, and he felt it go too deep. Hahli appeared on the field of his vision, and yanked the needle from his chest. Jaller gasped in pain. The Toa of Water cut the rest of him free, and then pulled Jaller to his feet. They had no time to converse, however, as Jaller tackled her back towards the workbench. “No!” the Matoran wailed as he watched the another section of conveyor belts buckle under the flashes of the Toa’s strength and raging power. “Remember the factory, Nuparu! Preserve the Great Beings’ equipment! Preserve it!” The projectile shot at them passed right by where they had stood, flying instead into another conveyor belt. Hundreds of Rahi parts could be seen flying through the air, raining down between the three combatants. A piece struck the Av-Matoran in the head, and he slumped on the workbench, out cold. Nuparu stood enraged, a shoulder mounted Cordak launcher reminiscent of his Inika form still smoking. His mask glowed for a moment, before he disappeared into his stealth mode. “Nuparu!” Jaller yelled into the factory. “Think of what you’re doing! You’re a Toa! Think of what you stand for! All that we went through together… did Matoro sacrifice himself for the universe just for you to go slaughter your comrades and fellow biomechs?” “There was a lot we did not know then!” came Nuparu’s reply. “And what changed?” Hahli demanded. “What did you learn since then?” The Toa of Earth emerged from the shadows, deactivating his Mask of Stealth as he backhanded Jaller with his arm shield. “I’ve always done this, Jaller, I’ve always been this way,” the Toa of Earth informed him. “I invented the Vahki, and the Krahli before them. Turaga Dume told me. And the Bohrok on Mata Nui— did you know they were once Av-Matoran? Toa Gali told me that one. Matoran! Our brothers and sisters! I took them apart! How is this much different? I told myself when I started this. How much further will I g—?” Nuparu’s rant was cut short as Hahli had charged at him one last time, swinging a pipe that connected with the distraught Toa’s head. He crumpled at the blow, falling into a heap on the floor. “Hahli,” Jaller breathed. The Toa of Water looked at her close friend, still wincing from the blow to the head. With Nuparu down for the moment, she leapt to aid her friend. “There’s no way we can win this,” he told her. “Nuparu may be down, but there are still who knows how many Vortixx around us. You have to get out of here, while you can.” “That’s not the only option!” she snapped, knowing what her Toa brother was thinking. But he would not listen, his hands and body already heating up with raw power. “Just go!” he demanded her, closing his eyes as she felt his power build. He listened to her footsteps as she walked away. However, he felt his power shift slightly, and he opened his eyes. He was donning Nuparu’s mask, and Hahli was holding his Arthron. The Toa of Fire understood. The Vortixx shot at her as she leapt into flight, but the heat of Jaller’s building Nova incinerated anything they threw her way. Gripping tightly onto the Arthron, she shot forward toward the tunnel they had come through. Darkness flew by as she raced to outpace the fire behind her, conjuring her powers to create a cushion of water around her. She sent a tidal wave ahead of herself, crashing into the metal door leading out to the mountain. The skies beyond the mountain appeared as the wave did its work, and Hahli emerged into the air, surrounded by water, fire and air all at once. Review

How much are you asking for the box or?

"Once Were Warriors" is a 1994 film on Maori culture that covers the conflict of abandoning the old ways of the family's culture and living in the modern world. There are some graphic moments (R rated), but it is a it's a really powerful film discussing heritage. (The actor who plays Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones is one of the main characters) Definitely one to watch if you're looking for movies in race and identity.

“Are you ok?” The Toa Hagah asked when they met the fresh air of the mountains. “Keep walking,” Jaller responded, eyes forward on the path. Hahli and Kualus waited some ways away from the entrance to the facility, keeping hidden amongst the snowbanks. They immediately descended back to the path when they saw their comrades, equally as puzzled by Jaller’s silence as Norik was. The three of them watched the Toa Mahri fall to his knees. His fingers became a whirl in the dirt, tracing something that only he could see. Any attempts to get an answer from what he was doing were met with only silence for a few moments. He stood up, brushing his hands off to the side, and the other three gathered to see what he had drawn. A depiction of the north, but there were paths between here and the Great Volcano that none of them recognized. “What is it?” Kualus asked. “Our host let something slip,” Jaller began. “When we were leaving, I happened to get glimpse of this on one of the tablets he dropped. I used my Arthron to memorize it as best as I could— the mask isn’t too precise. But there is something out here—“ he indicated a section in the Black Spikes, midway between Roxtus and Iconox. “and where we are. We need to continue north to check that out.” Using her power, Hahli sent water into the ruts the Toa had carved, allowing Kualus to freeze them into a sheet of ice. They pried it from the ground, smearing the original drawing Jaller had rendered as a precaution. When they were finished, they rose to see Norik gazing up at the slopes, troubled. “Is something wrong?” Hahli asked him. “The path is clear,” Norik said to Jaller. “I would’ve thought otherwise.” “Why shouldn’t it be?” asked Kualus. “I just would’ve thought… that the tremors inside would’ve shook the snow loose and down to here,” Norik responded. The Toa of Ice and Water looked at him quizzically. “What tremors?” Hahli asked. The Toa of Fire met eyes, Norik cursing. Another of the Vortixx’s tricks, they realized. “We need to get going,” Jaller said, leading the way. The makeshift map showed them paths that were definitely not known to any travelers, they realized after a day of hiking. The four of them had crossed from Iconox’s icy slopes to deep within the Black Spikes, now walking single file along a path entrenched between two mountains. On either side of the path, black slopes reached high toward the sky. There were no sign of any animals, let alone other travelers, which kept Jaller on edge. Though he led the way, scouting with his Arthron, he was so focused on interpreting the returning signals that he continually tripped on cracks in front of his face. “How much more of this?” Norik asked, picking up Jaller for the umpteenth time. “The path ascends soon,” Kualus said, using one of their Akakus to spy a trail on the mountain not so far away. “Wherever the map leads… its close.” “It better be,” Jaller said, crushing a rock with his power sword. “Because I’m sick of—“ A loud crack cut him off. To their side, a rumble sounded, and the Toa stiffened, knowing the sound of an oncoming rockslide. Tripping and tumbling over one another, the Toa began to sprint down the alley that was their path. Out of the corner of their Kanohi, they could see tons of rock coming closer with each stride they took. “Go! Go!” Kualus urged them. As far as they could run in the short time they had, Jaller thought, they were not going to get clear of the rubble. Wielding his sword with both hands, Jaller turned and sent waves of intense heat at the rocks, trying to split the stone before it toppled onto them. A figure on the mountain stood satisfied when he saw the rocks settle, the Toa buried far beneath them. He breathed a sigh of relief. The Toa were close, but they were not going to get any closer to uncovering his operations. That he was certain of. Satisfied with his work, he unlatched the door that would lead him into the mountain. Though the sounds of muffled agony could be heard several boulders down, but Jaller’s power sword still carved toward the surface. The rock above him exploded in a molten mess, and he emerged gasping into fresh air. His chestplate had been dented, and he set his sword down to fix it, before beginning to carve to where he heard the sound. Clearing the rubble, he found Norik trapped, a larger slab of rock pinning his leg. The sounds of yelling had come down, but the expression of pain on his mask remained intense. The armor on his leg had twisted under the impact and weight of the rock, and now the Toa laid amongst the rubble, fighting blacking out from the pain. Kualus freed himself and made his way over to the pair, freezing the rock and shattering it, but it did no help. In an extremely short period, the injury had turned gruesome. They could not remove it, Hahli noted—the weight of the rock had caused the injury, but now it kept it all together. Whatever Kualus did to the rock, it would have further hurt his comrade. Hahli bent down to him when she freed herself, sending healing water powers into the Toa Hagah’s injury. “You have to go on without me,” Norik said to Jaller and Hahli. The combination of the two Toa’s healing powers had done all it could now. “I’m of no use to you like this now.” “We can’t leave you,” Jaller said firmly, but Kualus’s look said otherwise. “It’s your mission,” Kualus reminded Jaller. “We are merely here to help. Go find out what the map led to; if we can catch up to you and serve as backup, we will.” The Toa of Fire opened his mouth to argue, but Hahli’s claw on his shoulder shut him up. Exchanging goodbyes with a fist bump, the two Toa Mahri made their way toward the mountain path. Hahli was unsettled with how calmly she was breathing in the crisp air as they walked up the path. It wasn’t leaving the Toa Hagah behind that bothered her; only Mata Nui could possibly fathom what they were walking into now, and it might’ve been best to have back up or someone else to tell that they had gone missing. No, it was nothing about the injuries Norik had sustained; it was the quiet surrounding her and Jaller. Even without her Mask of Kindred, she could sense something looming in the nature ahead of them. “I don’t like this,” she said to Jaller. “We shouldn’t have left them down there.” “You’re the one who agreed with them to do it,” Jaller reminded her, a little surprised at her sudden change of heart. “But the rockslide was too convenient. We can’t let a few tricks from a species of tech geniuses scare us away. Whatever the Vortixx are hiding, they’re really desperate to keep hidden from us. We need to keep going at all costs.” The Toa of Water gave a small smile; Jaller’s sense of justice, though strict, was somewhat comforting in the face of her building anxiety. Her fears returned and intensified when they saw the door. It stood against the face of the mountain, locked by a large gear. Hahli could feel its coolness with her protosteel claw, a chill running up her spine as her fears began to take on a solid form. Jaller grabbed its handles and cranked it open to find a dark, featureless tunnel. There were no signs of anything as far as they could see, but Hahli knew there had to be something deep in the tunnel. A door this well hidden had to be there for reasons she didn’t want to think about. They stepped inside the yawning entrance, and Hahli pulled the lever to close the doors, the view of the mountains disappearing as she did so. Where the Toa of Water before could see blue skies and mountaintops, was now solid stone and metal, the crack in the two halves of the door impenetrable. She didn’t like the feeling of confinement overcoming her, but she turned to Jaller, calm and collected. Neither torch nor lightstone illuminated the tunnel, and Jaller used his Arthron to guide them. The Toa of Fire was only visible by the glow of his eyes, but somehow her hand found his, and she let him lead the way. While he concentrated on his mask power for ‘sight’, Hahli relied on her other senses to keep alert. As the Toa of Water walked blindly, her thoughts drifted to her hearing, and she listened to their footsteps. Though they walked quietly, their armored feet resounded far down the tunnel, giving her the slightest idea on how large the tunnel was. Something was not right about the way they echoed, and Hahli listened more intently, the nerves on her neck suddenly sensitive. Jaller squeezed his partner’s hand as he felt her pace pick up, but she did not reciprocate while she concentrated. Something was not right about the way their footsteps echoed, but she could not discern exactly what it was. There was the pair of footsteps coming back to them, but something was off about the way they sounded. Hahli suddenly realized what it was as she stopped, her hand jerking Jaller and bringing him to a stop as well. But the sound of footsteps kept resounding behind them, and Hahli’s worries were confirmed. There was a third person in the tunnel with them. She whirled, slashing her tri-claw at the darkness. “Who is there?” she cried, her question repeating itself down the tunnel. Jaller directed his Arthron behind them, ‘listening’ for any response, but the footsteps had stopped. After a few eternal moments of silence, they continued onward again. Hahli continued to listen, but all she heard was two pairs of footsteps. The shadows seemed to soften, but it took Hahli a while to realize she could see again. She and Jaller walked through shafts of grey light now, a soft glow coming from somewhere ahead to dispel the shadows. Hahli glanced over her shoulder to see a wall of absolute black, and looked forward again. Yes, there definitely was a difference now, not just her imagination playing tricks on her. Jaller slowed to a stop, putting a hand on her shoulder to caution the fellow Toa. “There's movement up ahead", he told her, his voice troubled, "but I can't discern any details. Be prepared for anything.” Hahli nodded, and cocking their Cordak blasters, they slowly advanced. Their path narrowed into a catwalk that wound around a chamber, where an assembly of machinery criss crossed into an elaborate factory line. Lightstones mounted high above cast a cerulean glow on a series of eerily still conveyor belts, mechanical arms paused over the shells of Rahi resting on them. A few Vortixx wantered the machinery, hauling boxes of pieces to another room. The Toa looked at each other as they glimpsed the Rahi there, as well as a ladder that would take them to the floor. As quietly as they could manage, they snuck down the ladder, keeping hidden from the Vortixx as best as they could. On the belts the Rahi lay still and dark, devoid of any sign of life. Gone was any organic tissue that had been inside of their frames, the beasts appearing as haunted skeletons of what they once were. The eye of one Muaka tiger was dark, gazing blankly into the strange facility but not seeing the doom that it brought the beholder. As the two Toa walked further along the belts, they stuck to the shadows, precariously trying to keep hidden from the Vortixx workers. The two looked further along to see more Rahi, dozens of species and samples in various stages of disassembly. One belt contained multiple Rahi with their limbs detached— A Nivhawk with its wings removed, a Phase dragon with its limbs disconnected from its torso— whereas another belt had a Nui-Jaga completely taken apart, each piece laid out in a frighteningly precise manner. Following the belts led them to a hefty workbench in the middle of the factory, the stools surrounding it strewn about as though they were thrown in frustration. Scrolls and tablets were scattered along the tabletop, which the Toa began to sift through, until Jaller pulled up one of a diagram of the robot that had housed the Matoran universe. Some of the writing was Agori, but it was the few notes on it in Matoran that the Toa of Fire did not understand. Setting that scroll down, he dug through the pile he had plucked that one from. Hahli took that tablet as Jaller sifted more, reading notes about the giant robot, which from the context had to have been written by the Great Beings. There were some notations of Mata Nui and his mission, as well as the reformation of Spherus Magna, but it did not stop there; something that trailed off into Agori about the shutdown of the Mata Nui intelligence system, as well as reorganization of the materials within the robot… Hahli took a hard swallow as she looked around the factory, and then back at the text. “What is this place?” she asked aloud. “The place of our beginning… as well as our end.” Review

Jaller and Hahli, Have been looking into the Muaka specimen you gave me. Had to go consult Turaga Whenua in Tajun about it. Will find you when I return. —Nuparu Jaller read the note on Nuparu’s workbench in his Vulcanus home, irritated at the Toa of Earth’s disappearance. As much as the earth types were tied down to their projects— mining, history, inventing— they were extremely difficult to keep track of; once they were set on a project, they would go far and wide to find whatever they required.He would find Nuparu later then. Hopefully the Toa Mahri returned within the day. A Matoran came up to Jaller as soon as he left Nuparu’s hut, scroll in hand. “Toa Jaller!” the villager cried. “I have been looking for you everywhere!” “What for?” the Toa of Fire asked. “Toa Norik asked me to give you this, said it was urgent,” the villager said. Jaller opened the note, which held a meeting place and time. Jaller thanked the Matoran. “Have you seen Toa Hahli? I was asked to pass on the same message to her.” “Don’t worry, I’ll find her,” Jaller replied. “Thank you for this.” *** Hahli was the last to arrive at the campsite, immediately launching into the news that she had found. Jaller and the two Toa Hagah across the fire listened intently, shaking their heads at what she had found. “Of course the little vermin was selling parts,” Jaller spat after Hahli told him the tale. “Anything he could do to make a profit.” Across the campfire, Toa Norik shook his head. “Never have I heard of a Matoran so far from virtue,” the Toa Hagah of Fire said. “From Makuta’s Turaga in Metru Nui to this?” “He was working for Makuta long before we made our way back to Metru Nui,” Hahli told them. “But this is a new low for him.” “He wouldn’t tell you the supplier?” Toa Kualus asked. “No names, but what he gave was a small hint of where to look,” she said. “If it is true, then the eleven of us trusted the wrong people.” “What did you two find though?” Jaller asked the two Toa Hagah, breaking an uncomfortable silence hanging over them. Kualus looked at the two uncomfortably. “Something felt off about the Kanohi Dragon’s attack. Onua Nuva and I took a trip up there a few years ago, to check its status since leaving the old universe. There was no real reason which it would want to even come back down here. It seemed… at home.” “So what changed?” Jaller asked. Kualus shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “The Great Volcano was a mess last time I was there, but…” he shook his head in disbelief “There is nothing to describe it now.” “The ‘volcano’ itself is in shambles,” Norik told the Toa Mahri. “There is no heat coming from the area whatsoever. The land is torn apart. Where the Rahi’s nest was is a bunch of chasms now.” “An earthquake?” asked Hahli. “Or possibly a bigger beast from the Great Jungle?” “Not both though,” Norik said. “But we haven’t felt any seismic activity down here,” Jaller reminded them. “You’re not saying…” “Something forced the Kanohi Dragon out,” Kualus finished. “What could have the power to do that?” Hahli asked. “There was… a lot of machinery when I went to the Vortixx’s facility in Iconox,” the Toa of Fire cursed. “I didn’t know what a lot of it was. Nuparu would.” “Maybe he can accompany you to another trip there,” Hahli suggested. “But Norik, Kualus… are you saying the Vortixx could be responsible?” “The Vortixx have operated unchecked— here and on Xia —for millennia,” Norik said, glaring into the fire. “They could want to ‘revisit’ old projects.” “What reason would they have for wanting the Kanohi Dragon?” Hahli asked. “Weaponry, at the very least,” Norik said. “They don’t know all the players of this world, but they may want to be prepared for the day another Barraki or one of those Element Lords seeks them out.” “Nuparu did say they couldn’t bring all of their tech off of their homeland,” Jaller recalled. “But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t take a lot of it.” “Ahkmou isn’t the only one who wouldn’t do anything for a little extra income,” Hahli remarked. “What Jaller could have seen could have been anything,” the Toa of Ice said, annoyed with the conspiracy theories bouncing around. He used his ice powers to lower the height of the flame, the two Ta-Toa unintentionally feeding their power as they grew eager in their conversation. “We have no confirmations. We all have dislike for their society, but we cannot let prejudices push our suspicions.” “Yes, but it never hurts to investigate further, if the Vortixx are up to anything.” Jaller reminded him. *** Vohon closed the door to his shop, the sun beginning to dip past the western dunes on the outer reaches of Vulcanus. He watched the yellow orb of Solis Magna until it had sank behind the dune, and then turned to put his wares away. Selling was done for the day, and it was time to go home. A feeling of eyes on his back as he cleaned his shop made Vohon wary, and he almost expected the click of his shop doorknob. The Ta-Matoran stood there, laying his hands flat on top of the table he was at. “I’m closed for the day,” he said as calmly as he could, knowing the words wouldn’t discourage the intruders. “Come back tomorrow.” “We aren’t here to buy,” a voice chuckled, and Vohon turned to look at who had trespassed into his shop. A Vortixx and an Agori stood across his doorway, dropping their cloaks to the floor of the hut. The Agori took off his seemingly empty backpack, a grin coming from under the half mask that they wore. Vohon had thought they were wearing Kanohi at first, but the more he looked, the more he could see they were not Kanohi at all, or even Glatorian helmets. They were masks, but not even poorly crafted ones; they seemed much more warped than that. The thought crossed Vohon’s mind that he may not be dealing with simple thieves. “Now wait just a second—“ Vohon started, whipping out a loaded Kanoka launcher from under his table. Aiming at the Vortixx, he pulled the trigger, and threw the launcher unexpectedly at the Agori as the disk flew. The pseudo mask on the taller figure was knocked off, but the disk was too weak to have any effect on him. The Agori had dodged the launcher thrown at him, a grin growing on his face as he began to advance on the Matoran. Night was arriving in Vulcanus, darkness coming in the form of these two bandits. Vohon raised his fists halfheartedly, thinking he knew what was about to come. *** “Still think we shouldn’t be accusing them?” Hahli asked Kualus the next morning. He said nothing, simply gazing in shock at the mess that was Vohon’s ruined shop. The Matoran in question sat with Norik, sporting a new mask and nursing his socket where his arm used to be. Another Matoran medic was there, studying the spot where the limb had detached. Hahli reread the scroll she carried with the Matoran’s account of what had happened. The only word with meaning on it was ‘Vortixx’, describing one of the assailants. Kualus frowned, upset with the tortured Matoran’s physique. “We’re headed north as soon as this investigation is over,” the Toa assured her. “but not necessarily with Cordak launchers blazing.” “The interrogation should be more hostile than the last visit,” Jaller’s voice reached the two. In his hand he held the deformed half mask Vohon had presented to them when they had arrived. “I’ve never seen that kind of mask before,” Hahli said. “That’s because it’s a scale,” Norik corrected. “A decoy mask from the dragon, meant to lure in unsuspecting Matoran to feed on when they were close enough.” Kualus looked at his brother, disgusted. “The Vortixx are definitely doing more than keeping the dragon in stasis,” he said. “I’ll ask Ackar to borrow his Thornatus again,” he resolved. “Did Vohon have anything to say other than what he told us?” Jaller asked Norik. The Hagah shook his head. “No, but I told him we would personally see to it that he received a new arm,” Norik informed Jaller. The group of them nodded to Vohon and the medic, their work in the hut done. It was time to travel to Iconox again. “Before we leave, have Takanuva on double patrol tonight,” he asked the Toa Mahri. The Vortixx at the gate of the Iconox facility were concerned when Jaller and Norik brought them the news. “But the dragon has been here since you entrusted it to us,” one of the guards said. “How could an incident with the dragon happen in Vulcanus, if it never reached there?” “That’s why we’re worried as well,” Jaller said. “We want to take a look at the dragon. I just want to assure its well being. Norik here is an expert on reptiles, and he wanted to look as well. If you allow us just a few hours to observe, then we will be on our way.” “We weren’t expecting visitors today,” one Vortixx commented. Norik’s mask did a double take, sarcastically incredulous. “Toa Nuparu did tell you we would be checking in,” the Toa Hagah reminded the guards. Their brows darkened, and they nodded, letting the two Toa in. Their bluff got them into the dragon’s chamber, where the behemoth lay in stasis. An icy Spherus Magnan substance covered the dragon, keeping it dormant; whatever was on the dragon frosted over the surface of its hide, and the Toa could barely make out the details of its armor. Bringing two Kanohi Akaku from their packs, they saw past the substance, and began scouring up and down the length of the creature. It had some damage from the wrestling match with Bomonga, but the majority of its armor was undamaged. The Rahi’s midsection was where the Toa found something off. In the bulk of its body, where the Rahi’s ‘masks’ lined its hide, the stasis substance appeared patchy. Jaller and Norik crouched down to where they saw the disturbance. One section of the substance appeared patched— investigating further, the Toa could see no mask scales on the creature. The Toa looked at each other, eyebrows raised. While Norik glanced up to check on any spying Voritxx, Jaller used his powers to burn away the substance to investigate further. Underneath the patch, it was as they suspected; a broken scale stuck out from the rest, the Kanohi-like appendage missing. Jaller looked at it grimly, while Norik’s eyes were raised. They said nothing, repairing the seal quietly before moving on. More patches were visible further down the hide, various spots here spread out to try and look random, but the Toa could distinguish a pattern. They were undetectable from the platforms surrounding the dragon, where Vortixx walked to and from different facilities within the place, but down here, the more they looked, the more the Toa could see the substance had been tapped into. “Dozens of ‘masks’ missing,” Jaller said. “But why? A powerless Kanohi doesn’t hide that much. Vohon was clearly able to tell it was a Vortixx attacking him.” “Perhaps they’re not using the masks as disguises,” Norik suggested as they walked further down the dragon’s side. “The question is, then, what else they could be using them for. And how does this relate to the deaths of Rahi you found in the desert?” “They’re not just taking the masks,” Jaller realized as they came to the rear of the Rahi. Curled up behind the massive beast was its tail. Covered by the stasis substance, it was hidden, but with the aid of their Masks of Vision, they could see the raw muscle of the tail. Some of the armor from one of the Rahi’s greatest weapons had been removed. “They’re stripping the Rahi.” “For weaponry?” Norik queried. “There are thousands, if not millions of other weapons on Spherus Magna. Why would they waste their time stripping a dragon of its parts for—“ A sudden rumble cut Norik off. Tremors began to shake through the cavern, dust descending from the ceiling high above. The Toa looked at each other, surprised. The shaking did not last long, but it came in and out. Next to them, the comatose dragon began to shake as well. The two Toa nodded that it was best for them to leave. “What is going on?” Jaller demanded of their guide as they exited into a side tunnel. “Minor tremors, we have them every so often,” the guide explained, a collection of tablets and scrolls piled into a satchel he carried. “Nothing severe enough to awaken the dragon, but as a safety precaution we must ask you to leave.” “What is causing said tremors?” Norik answered. The Vortixx shook his head, saying something they could not hear in the rumbling. He turned to lead them toward the exit, and stumbled as another tremor hit them. The Vortixx tripped, his open bag spilling onto the ground. The Toa went to help him collect everything, but the Vortixx scrambled on his hands and knees, picking everything up as fast as he could. Jaller went to help him, and Norik could not help but notice the dark expression on his mask as they continued to the exit. Review

Toa Jaller had seen his share of dead Rahi as a Matoran on the island of Mata Nui; there were plenty of casualties in the battles with the infected beasts of the Makuta. But what he saw now was another level of grotesque for him. The corpse of a Muaka tiger rested some ways from of Vulcanus, the gelatinous mass of organic material usually underneath its armor sitting exposed in the desert sun. The Rahi had only been dead a few days, but its hollowness made it seem as though it had been deceased for ages. Numerous parts were missing, more than when Kapura and Takua had initially found it. “This has to be the fifth or sixth one we’ve found,” the Toa of Light informed his friend. “But this one is the freshest kill.” Only one half of its face remained, its clean skull showing huge gaps into its body. One eye looked darkly into the sand of its final resting place, where the other parts of its being were scattered. Jaller shuddered, unable to shake off the memories as a Matoran being stalked by this creature. A powerful forearm that had been lined with armor and implants was completely bare, now nothing more than a tendril of lean muscle shriveled in the desert day. Even the toenails were stripped of its parts. A few wild birds had been pecking at the flesh, but they had flown off at the approach of the the Matoran and the four Toa. The five of them now looked over it, trying to comprehend what the dead Rahi meant. “The first two we thought were random,” Takanuva said. “But once more were showing up…” “How do we know that it wasn’t simply attacked by some larger Spherus Magnan animal?” Hahli asked her Av-Toa friend. “It’s too cleanly done,” the Nuparu answered her. The Toa of Earth had met up with the group on Takanuva’s request, the Toa of Light hoping to use his engineering expertise to gain insight on the trail of corpses he and Kapura had found. eHe pointed to mechanical parts on the Rahi’s head which were still intact. “Look here. The skull is gone, but there are no actual ‘breaks’ in its parts. It’s as if the pistons were taken off very deliberately. Other than what the birds have taken, no predator has gone after this. The flesh looks otherwise left alone.” “So are you saying… someone took the Rahi apart?” the Toa of Water inquired. Nuparu looked at her, an unsettling truth hanging silently in the air. “It was not a natural death,” Kapura said. “I found it during a scouting mission, with a few others just outside of Vulcanus. There was a roar we heard, and I volunteered to investigate it. Staying hidden within sight, I crept over to see the Rahi already dead. There were a few parts missing, but not as many as there are now.” “There aren’t claw marks or anything of the sort signifying an assault, and that’s the odd thing,” Nuparu added. He led Jaller to a bare shoulder. “Look at this. The armor over there is removed, not torn off. And none of the tendons are ripped particularly brutally. This happened after it died. I highly doubt that anything that was trying to feast would have pecked so evenly; a large predator would have made marks within the meat.” “Why would someone want to… disassemble a Rahi?” Jaller asked, uncomfortable with the word. “And how did they kill a Muaka themselves?” “Perhaps the answer is not in the dirt, but on the horizon,” Kapura said. They turned in confusion to see what he meant. The Ta-Matoran was pointing in the distance, where a dot was rapidly growing, and the four Masks of Power grew concerned. This was not an area on any trade routes, and the being was coming from the east, whereas Vulcanus was south of here. There were no villages east. Who could be coming out here, and why? Jaller wondered. His Arthron quickly scanned, and he did not like the returning signals. The three Toa armed themselves, cautious of who it could be. A sole rock steed galloped into sight, the particularly nasty Bone Hunter known as Fero mounted atop, sword wielded. The Toa glared at him as he sneered from atop his ride. “What brings you out here Toa? Your kind are like statues, only present where you can be admired.” “We could ask the same thing of you, Hunter,” Hahli growled. “This animal was found dead, hunted down. Was this or your clan’s doing? And what did you do with the parts?” “A coincidence that I pass this spot,” he chuckled sinisterly. “But I have the native right to travel my own territory, without assault from other worlders,” he spat. “I know not how this robot died, but I can tell you that it is not the first that I have seen.” He then flashed his spurs, which held a piece of a Nui Rama stinger that Jaller knew was impossible to get without losing a hand. “Your beasts make good trophies, but I would not waste my time hunting your kind. Better to wait until you’re like this one here, rusting in the sands and prime for scavenging.” With that, the rock steed lunged forward, jaws bared. “That’s evidence!” Jaller snarled, letting a warning burst of flame at the bandit and his mount. “That’s Skirmix’s dinner,” Fero laughed. “But I will tell you where I got this, before I go on, for I have elsewhere to be. There is a market far from here, to the north, where someone of your stature wouldn’t go. That is where I got these, from a merchant. I know not of how he gets his products, but I those in the market have high demands. Expect more carcasses like this one as the demand increases.” He kicked the steed in its sides, and they went off into the distance. The five watched Fero depart for a long time before they turned back to the deceased. “Bone Hunter scum,” Takanuva snarled, gripping his Toa tool. “Should have lit him up till he told us more.” “He told us enough,” Hahli said, flexing her claw. “We move this body somewhere where we can investigate it better. Jaller, you can use your Arthron to find out more clues, and I’ll use my mask to see if any animals know where this market is. If what Fero mentioned was true, I can get us more information.” “We’ll take what we can back to my workshop,” Nuparu suggested to the Toa of Fire. “And I can look at it more in depth there.” “I’m going with Hahli,” Jaller said, shaking his head. But the Toa of Water aggressively shook her mask. “You’re not coming with me. Two Toa sized travelers will give suspicion.” *** Not far away, under the sand, a figure was watching the group investigate the Rahi, fear rising in him as he noted who they were. He had been on his way to retrieve more of the parts of the Muaka, but the arrival of the investigators forced him into hiding. This was bad. Jaller and Hahli could be fanatics about nature, that much he knew about them. If they investigated this and caught on to what he was doing, he would have to be especially careful about how he conducted his operations. They seemed to be leaving, but he would wait a while, and slip away under the cover of nightfall. *** Ahkmou stood amongst the tables in front of his shop, a tarp overhead to protect his wares from the oncoming rain. Grey clouds were rolling in from beyond the Black Spike Mountains, shady and silent as they travelled across the sky. A few drops he could feel blowing in on the deathly quiet breeze, but the Po-Matoran did not retreat into the depths of the tent behind him; it would take a little more than water to hurt the Po-Matoran. His gave a small smile as he silently observed the passing crowd. The slave caravan being marched through the market was a rich mix of roughened Spherus Magnans and Matoran Universe inhabitants, somberly marching through the market by their master for exhibition. Some merchants taunted them, offering their products to those who clearly could not afford them, but the Po-Matoran kept silent, instead letting his merchandise speak for him. Their master would beat them if they dared turned their heads, but Ahkmou could see a few eyes lingering for more than a casual second before being rushed down the line. A number of customers required his attendance, and the afternoon wore on as Ahkmou sold his keep. The faceless and nameless customers came and went, only remembered by the piles of widgets they left. They disappeared when the storm seemed to strengthen, scrambling for drier quarters, but the merchant remained outside. His pockets were full of money, but his curiosity was still to be satisfied, as he observed one customer who remained: a cloaked being stood across the way between shops, indifferent to the rain. Much taller than the Matoran, that much he could tell, but no more. Ahkmou cocked his head as he finally turned his attention to them, as they had been facing his booth all day. Knowing they had caught his attention, the being trudged towards Ahkmou’s booth, effortlessly trudging through the mud. It was impossible discern a mask or helmet under the hood, no eyes even visible, and he simply waited for the being to speak. “Impressive wares you have,” they commented. “But…I hear you have more inside.” A large bag emerged from the stranger’s robes, landing on the table next to a Nui Rama shoulder bone with a number of clinks satisfying to Ahkmou’s ears. “Right this way,” he offered, pulling the flap of his tent back to allow the stranger in. “These pieces, they’re… fascinating,” the being said, noting the horn of a Kikinalo. Ahkmou said nothing, but let the stranger wander around his assembly. They did not draw their hands from their sleeves, keeping their features hidden. Ahkmou was slightly disappointed, hoping to get some insight into this high paying client. “How does one get such a stock?” “Now, a merchant can not tell the secrets of the supplier,” Ahkmou replied, admiring a claw on a table. “I am afraid, in good business, that I cannot reveal where I get these.” “I’ll pay extra,” the figure insisted. Still entranced in the claw, the merchant shook his head. “I cannot disclose where I get my product,” Ahkmou told them. “Then maybe the price of your miserable life is enough to interest you,” the customer snarled. The Po-Matoran whirled to see the cloak on the ground, and Toa Hahli in his tent, tri-talon bared. “Treacherous slime merchant. Talk, or you’ll find your shares here will become…liquidated.” “Toa Hahli, so nice to see you,” Ahkmou grinned. “I take it the Toa are learning of the new craze of fashion on Spherus Magna? Are you come to join in?” “Who is giving you these pieces to sell?” Hahli demanded. “There was a Rahi found brutally murdered, and its parts were missing. Why are people poaching Rahi for parts?” “Oh, Toa, always trying to find someone to bring to justice.” Ahkmou chuckled. “What’s a few Rahi gone from the universe? Think about it. People hunt animals all the time. Everyone did it on Mata Nui, I’m sure you Ga-Matoran were no exception. What are you trying to prove?” “There is something not right about it, Ahkmou,” Hahli insisted. “Of course, someone like yourself wouldn’t understand, the matter being about other lives than your own.” “Well, Hahli, there’s nothing that I can tell you,” Ahkmou shook his head. “It’s nothing more than friendly poaching and profit.” “If it’s no serious loss then, you probably won’t mind if I flood this entire black market back to the endless seas,” the Toa of Water growled. Ahkmou began to notice the rain pattering on the top of his tent. It was coming down heavier. “Your supplier, Ahkmou. Who are they?” “Where did you find the corpse?” he asked. “Somewhere near where you aren’t welcome,” she snarled. “Their hunting skills are pathetic,” the Po-Matoran laughed. “Whoever is helping me turn a profit, they are definitely more on the mechanical side. It takes someone with mechanical skill to acquire these parts,” Ahkmou smirked. “Whomever may giving me these parts, that’s one thing they do have.” Hahli glared. It was not much, but she thought she sensed where he was leading her. Nodding, she draped her cloak over her, exiting the tent without another word. Ahkmou remained inside, waiting a long time for the rain to lighten up. The entire market was a sinkhole a few hours later, ruined by Hahli’s powers. The Po-Matoran exited his tent to witness the damage, grimacing. Silently, he hoped nobody in the market would know an enraged Toa of Water had come through, or that it was because of him. “The Toa of Water,” came a voice from the shadows. Ahkmou jumped, suddenly aware of another cloaked being. The figure was just as tall as Hahli, just as featureless, but this time, the Po-Matoran knew who they were. His supplier. “What did you tell her?” “I sent her a clue, but it was down the wrong path,” he promised. “Nothing to allude to who you are.” “You know what happens if you violate our deal,” the stranger said. He stepped aside to reveal a large sack that had not been there before. More merchandise, was Ahkmou’s thought as he unwrapped the bag eagerly. He turned to say more to the figure, but they were gone, disappearing as suddenly as they appeared. Shrugging, he went to cataloging the new inventory, only to stop in shock at the non-Rahi pieces he found within the loot. Review

This was originally posted in Short Stories, but due to an error with the forum, a good portion of the ending is not showing. I prompted the SS Leader GSR, and he said this was an appropriate means of reposting it. The story can be read in full on my Wordpress or AO3. One The shadow of the Kanohi Dragon passed over the eleven Toa as it flew overhead, deciding whether to continue being a pest or to eliminate the pests below. While it made up its mind, Toa Hagah and Toa Mahri alike were sweating it out in the fiery inferno which raged in the surrounding plains, gripping their tools tightly. Far to the north, a path of destruction loomed in the dragon’s wake, as it used its fiery breath on the land. The Toa were determined to stop the destruction right here, but the battle had been a shaky one—the Kanohi Dragon was a more formidable beast than any Rahi any of them had ever faced, and they wondered if there was any hope of taking it down. “Behemoth creatures with loads of armor,” Pouks grumbled. “Why did the Great Beings always have a fascination with behemoth creatures with loads of armor?” “Maybe that can play into our benefit,” Nuparu piped. “We could overheat its systems, perhaps?” “The dragon thrives on heat,” Norik reminded him. “And under each of those mask scales the Rahi has a ventilation system. Too many vents to try and plug.” “Whatever we do, we just have to keep it from using its fire,” Hewkii growled as he summoned a boulder to throw the dragon’s way. “And we can’t let it reach the villages south,” Gaaki reminded them. “It came from the Great Volcano,” Jaller said. “How are batteries like us supposed to have enough power to suppress something a power plant couldn’t satisfy?” “Precision,” Kualus answered, firing the tri-bladed staff he carried as the Kanohi Dragon dove towards them. What was intended as a strong stream of frost aimed at the dragon’s underbelly resulted in a thick coating of ice which adhered to its underside, the staff amplifying the Toa of Ice’s elemental abilities. Kualus continued his offense, bombarding the Rahi with ice colder than his Sub-Zero Spear could ever manage. The dragon’s maw opened wide as it roared in pain, fire beginning to conjure in its throat. The conjuring was short lived, however, as a growing Toa of Earth rose up to tackle the dragon. It lashed out with its double bladed tail, catching Bomonga in the back. He grimaced, but he did not falter. Instead he reached back to grab the behemoth by its tail, ripping the creature out of the sky. Bomonga grappled with the dragon, distracting it as the two Toa of Water created moisture for Kualus to freeze. Feeling weak at the sense of the cold, the dragon let itself drop to the ground, slamming into the earth with the force of an earthquake. It wriggled furiously against the Toa of Earth, trying to escape from his grip. The remaining Toa of Earth and Stone rushed to assist their brother, willing the ground of Spherus Magna to help their enlarged brother pin the gargantuan. In the meantime, Jaller and Norik rushed to either side of the beast, using their control of fire to suppress any flame the dragon tried to shoot, whilst Iruini and Kongu used their elemental powers to suffocate the ravening infernos spreading along the plains. Spherus Magnans who saw the fight claimed it was nothing they’d seen since the Core War, while historians from the Matoran Universe recalled the fight the dragon had given another group of eleven Toa millennia before. The beast both times had been a ravager of the land, but perhaps this time it would be put down for good. To the mountains of Iconox it would be shipped, where the cold would inhibit its power. The Toa had originally let the beast go, and it had been peaceful. But apparently it would never be content to leave the Matoran and their new Agori peers alone. *** The eleven Toa watched the sun set to the west, sweat of the battle turning cold under their armor in the arriving evening. At the bottom of the hill where they stood, the Kanohi Dragon was being loaded onto a platform by hundreds of black armored denizens, of which half the group looked skeptically upon. “Do we trust the Vortixx to take the dragon?” Kualus asked. “The last time they had it they—“ “The only place it can go is the northern reaches of Iconox,” Jaller nodded, understanding the Toa Hagah’s concerns. “We have to trust them with the dragon.” “But if they do anything like they tried to do last time…” Iruini said, uneasy. “My mask shows me nothing of the dragon’s future,” Gaaki said. “I think it will be alright with them, this time.” “They don’t have access to all of the technology they had on Xia,” Nuparu pointed out. “The disassembly of the robot made them leave a few things. And since Roodaka isn’t leading them this time, I think they’ll be on the right path.” The Toa Hagah of Ice nodded, watching the silhouettes of the Vortixx rushing to finish the work before nightfall. “Is everything alright, Kualus?” came the voice of Norik. The others had left, leaving only the two of them on the hill. The Toa of Ice shook his head. “No brother,” he said, pointing his staff to the north, “There is somewhere you and I have to go.” *** The hannah crab clacked its claws excitedly as it scuttled through the maze of furniture before it. Eagerly venturing through the closed quarters, it bumped on every possible chair leg it could come across, ricocheting onto the wall and back. Each collision made the Rahi more excited, looking for the way out of the absurd arrangement of furniture. There had to be a gap somewhere to duck out of this… after all, there was food outside of here. The crab continued to crawl through the maze, nearly passing the exit in its furious search. It crashed into the wall as it tried to reverse direction, then managed to crawl backwards to the break in the furniture. It shot through the gap to a wide chamber, nearly scuttling into a pair of blue columns in the middle of the floor. It was only the swift sweep of a big red arm which prevented it from a painful collision. “We come here every week, little one, yet you get lost back there every time,” Jaller chuckled as he nestled his pet in the crook of his arm. The crab began to coo as its legs came to a stop. It curled up in the Toa of Fire’s embrace. “It would also help if someone didn’t rearrange the furniture every time we visited,” he jabbed at the winged Toa standing in the middle of the room. “You don’t have to come over for these healing treatments,” Hahli retorted, fluttering her wings. “Surely the Kanohi Dragon didn’t burn the Toa of Fire too bad.” A knock on the door whisked his comeback away, and Jaller set his drink down as he went to answer it. His evening with Hahli was interrupted, and he wondered by whom at this time of night. The door opened to reveal a gold and white Toa, standing behind a Ta-Matoran, and Jaller was curious as to which odd character led the pair. “Takua! Kapura!” He exclaimed. Kapura gave a courteous nod, but when the Toa only exchanged a solemn hello, it seemed strained, and Jaller saw that there was something painful in his old friend’s eyes. He pulled them in, asking what was wrong, but Takanuva could not answer. “Nothing to be spoken of in doorways, Toa Jaller,” the Ta-Matoran responded for his companion. ' Review

This was originally posted in Short Stories, but due to an error with the forum, a good portion of the ending is not showing. I prompted the SS Leader GSR, and he said this was an appropriate means of reposting it. The story can be read in full on my Wordpress or AO3. Chapter One

Author's Note: Tagged PG 13 for action and ending. Much thanks to AceGreenLegend for beta reading this! Disassembly The shadow of the Kanohi Dragon passed over the eleven Toa as it flew overhead, deciding whether to continue being a pest or to eliminate the pests below. While it made up its mind, Toa Hagah and Toa Mahri alike were sweating it out in the fiery inferno which raged in the surrounding plains, gripping their tools tightly. Far to the north, a path of destruction loomed in the dragon’s wake, as it used its fiery breath on the land. The Toa were determined to stop the destruction right here, but the battle had been a shaky one—the Kanohi Dragon was a more formidable beast than any Rahi any of them had ever faced, and they wondered if there was any hope of taking it down. “Behemoth creatures with loads of armor,” Pouks grumbled. “Why did the Great Beings always have a fascination with behemoth creatures with loads of armor?” “Maybe that can play into our benefit,” Nuparu piped. “We could overheat its systems, perhaps?” “The dragon thrives on heat,” Norik reminded him. “And under each of those mask scales the Rahi has a ventilation system. Too many vents to try and plug.” “Whatever we do, we just have to keep it from using its fire,” Hewkii growled as he summoned a boulder to throw the dragon’s way. “And we can’t let it reach the villages south,” Gaaki reminded them. “It came from the Great Volcano,” Jaller said. “How are batteries like us supposed to have enough power to suppress something a power plant couldn’t satisfy?” “Precision,” Kualus answered, firing the tri-bladed staff he carried as the Kanohi Dragon dove towards them. What was intended as a strong stream of frost aimed at the dragon’s underbelly resulted in a thick coating of ice which adhered to its underside, the staff amplifying the Toa of Ice’s elemental abilities. Kualus continued his offense, bombarding the Rahi with ice colder than his Sub-Zero Spear could ever manage. The dragon’s maw opened wide as it roared in pain, fire beginning to conjure in its throat. The conjuring was short lived, however, as a growing Toa of Earth rose up to tackle the dragon. It lashed out with its double bladed tail, catching Bomonga in the back. He grimaced, but he did not falter. Instead he reached back to grab the behemoth by its tail, ripping the creature out of the sky. Bomonga grappled with the dragon, distracting it as the two Toa of Water created moisture for Kualus to freeze. Feeling weak at the sense of the cold, the dragon let itself drop to the ground, slamming into the earth with the force of an earthquake. It wriggled furiously against the Toa of Earth, trying to escape from his grip. The remaining Toa of Earth and Stone rushed to assist their brother, willing the ground of Spherus Magna to help their enlarged brother pin the gargantuan. In the meantime, Jaller and Norik rushed to either side of the beast, using their control of fire to suppress any flame the dragon tried to shoot, whilst Iruini and Kongu used their elemental powers to suffocate the ravening infernos spreading along the plains. Spherus Magnans who saw the fight claimed it was nothing they’d seen since the Core War, while historians from the Matoran Universe recalled the fight the dragon had given another group of eleven Toa millennia before. The beast both times had been a ravager of the land, but perhaps this time it would be put down for good. To the mountains of Iconox it would be shipped, where the cold would inhibit its power. The Toa had originally let the beast go, and it had been peaceful. But apparently it would never be content to leave the Matoran and their new Agori peers alone. *** The eleven Toa watched the sun set to the west, sweat of the battle turning cold under their armor in the arriving evening. At the bottom of the hill where they stood, the Kanohi Dragon was being loaded onto a platform by hundreds of black armored denizens, of which half the group looked skeptically upon. “Do we trust the Vortixx to take the dragon?” Kualus asked. “The last time they had it they—“ “The only place it can go is the northern reaches of Iconox,” Jaller nodded, understanding the Toa Hagah’s concerns. “We have to trust them with the dragon.” “But if they do anything like they tried to do last time…” Iruini said, uneasy. “My mask shows me nothing of the dragon’s future,” Gaaki said. “I think it will be alright with them, this time.” “They don’t have access to all of the technology they had on Xia,” Nuparu pointed out. “The disassembly of the robot made them leave a few things. And since Roodaka isn’t leading them this time, I think they’ll be on the right path.” The Toa Hagah of Ice nodded, watching the silhouettes of the Vortixx rushing to finish the work before nightfall. “Is everything alright, Kualus?” came the voice of Norik. The others had left, leaving only the two of them on the hill. The Toa of Ice shook his head. “No brother,” he said, pointing his staff to the north, “There is somewhere you and I have to go.” *** The hannah crab clacked its claws excitedly as it scuttled through the maze of furniture before it. Eagerly venturing through the closed quarters, it bumped on every possible chair leg it could come across, ricocheting onto the wall and back. Each collision made the Rahi more excited, looking for the way out of the absurd arrangement of furniture. There had to be a gap somewhere to duck out of this… after all, there was food outside of here. The crab continued to crawl through the maze, nearly passing the exit in its furious search. It crashed into the wall as it tried to reverse direction, then managed to crawl backwards to the break in the furniture. It shot through the gap to a wide chamber, nearly scuttling into a pair of blue columns in the middle of the floor. It was only the swift sweep of a big red arm which prevented it from a painful collision. “We come here every week, little one, yet you get lost back there every time,” Jaller chuckled as he nestled his pet in the crook of his arm. The crab began to coo as its legs came to a stop. It curled up in the Toa of Fire’s embrace. “It would also help if someone didn’t rearrange the furniture every time we visited,” he jabbed at the winged Toa standing in the middle of the room. “You don’t have to come over for these healing treatments,” Hahli retorted, fluttering her wings. “Surely the Kanohi Dragon didn’t burn the Toa of Fire too bad.” A knock on the door whisked his comeback away, and Jaller set his drink down as he went to answer it. His evening with Hahli was interrupted, and he wondered by whom at this time of night. The door opened to reveal a gold and white Toa, standing behind a Ta-Matoran, and Jaller was curious as to which odd character led the pair. “Takua! Kapura!” He exclaimed. Kapura gave a courteous nod, but when the Toa only exchanged a solemn hello, it seemed strained, and Jaller saw that there was something painful in his old friend’s eyes. He pulled them in, asking what was wrong, but Takanuva could not answer. “Nothing to be spoken of in doorways, Toa Jaller,” the Ta-Matoran responded for his companion. *** Toa Jaller had seen his share of dead Rahi as a Matoran on the island of Mata Nui; there were plenty of casualties in the battles with the infected beasts of the Makuta. But what he saw now was another level of grotesque for him. The corpse of a Muaka tiger rested some ways from of Vulcanus, the gelatinous mass of organic material usually underneath its armor sitting exposed in the desert sun. The Rahi had only been dead a few days, but its hollowness made it seem as though it had been deceased for ages. Numerous parts were missing, more than when Kapura and Takua had initially found it. “This has to be the fifth or sixth one we’ve found,” the Toa of Light informed his friend. “But this one is the freshest kill.” Only one half of its face remained, its clean skull showing huge gaps into its body. One eye looked darkly into the sand of its final resting place, where the other parts of its being were scattered. Jaller shuddered, unable to shake off the memories as a Matoran being stalked by this creature. A powerful forearm that had been lined with armor and implants was completely bare, now nothing more than a tendril of lean muscle shriveled in the desert day. Even the toenails were stripped of its parts. A few wild birds had been pecking at the flesh, but they had flown off at the approach of the the Matoran and the four Toa. The five of them now looked over it, trying to comprehend what the dead Rahi meant. “The first two we thought were random,” Takanuva said. “But once more were showing up…” “How do we know that it wasn’t simply attacked by some larger Spherus Magnan animal?” Hahli asked her Av-Toa friend. “It’s too cleanly done,” the Nuparu answered her. The Toa of Earth had met up with the group on Takanuva’s request, the Toa of Light hoping to use his engineering expertise to gain insight on the trail of corpses he and Kapura had found. eHe pointed to mechanical parts on the Rahi’s head which were still intact. “Look here. The skull is gone, but there are no actual ‘breaks’ in its parts. It’s as if the pistons were taken off very deliberately. Other than what the birds have taken, no predator has gone after this. The flesh looks otherwise left alone.” “So are you saying… someone took the Rahi apart?” the Toa of Water inquired. Nuparu looked at her, an unsettling truth hanging silently in the air. “It was not a natural death,” Kapura said. “I found it during a scouting mission, with a few others just outside of Vulcanus. There was a roar we heard, and I volunteered to investigate it. Staying hidden within sight, I crept over to see the Rahi already dead. There were a few parts missing, but not as many as there are now.” “There aren’t claw marks or anything of the sort signifying an assault, and that’s the odd thing,” Nuparu added. He led Jaller to a bare shoulder. “Look at this. The armor over there is removed, not torn off. And none of the tendons are ripped particularly brutally. This happened after it died. I highly doubt that anything that was trying to feast would have pecked so evenly; a large predator would have made marks within the meat.” “Why would someone want to… disassemble a Rahi?” Jaller asked, uncomfortable with the word. “And how did they kill a Muaka themselves?” “Perhaps the answer is not in the dirt, but on the horizon,” Kapura said. They turned in confusion to see what he meant. The Ta-Matoran was pointing in the distance, where a dot was rapidly growing, and the four Masks of Power grew concerned. This was not an area on any trade routes, and the being was coming from the east, whereas Vulcanus was south of here. There were no villages east. Who could be coming out here, and why? Jaller wondered. His Arthron quickly scanned, and he did not like the returning signals. The three Toa armed themselves, cautious of who it could be. A sole rock steed galloped into sight, the particularly nasty Bone Hunter known as Fero mounted atop, sword wielded. The Toa glared at him as he sneered from atop his ride. “What brings you out here Toa? Your kind are like statues, only present where you can be admired.” “We could ask the same thing of you, Hunter,” Hahli growled. “This animal was found dead, hunted down. Was this or your clan’s doing? And what did you do with the parts?” “A coincidence that I pass this spot,” he chuckled sinisterly. “But I have the native right to travel my own territory, without assault from other worlders,” he spat. “I know not how this robot died, but I can tell you that it is not the first that I have seen.” He then flashed his spurs, which held a piece of a Nui Rama stinger that Jaller knew was impossible to get without losing a hand. “Your beasts make good trophies, but I would not waste my time hunting your kind. Better to wait until you’re like this one here, rusting in the sands and prime for scavenging.” With that, the rock steed lunged forward, jaws bared. “That’s evidence!” Jaller snarled, letting a warning burst of flame at the bandit and his mount. “That’s Skirmix’s dinner,” Fero laughed. “But I will tell you where I got this, before I go on, for I have elsewhere to be. There is a market far from here, to the north, where someone of your stature wouldn’t go. That is where I got these, from a merchant. I know not of how he gets his products, but I those in the market have high demands. Expect more carcasses like this one as the demand increases.” He kicked the steed in its sides, and they went off into the distance. The five watched Fero depart for a long time before they turned back to the deceased. “Bone Hunter scum,” Takanuva snarled, gripping his Toa tool. “Should have lit him up till he told us more.” “He told us enough,” Hahli said, flexing her claw. “We move this body somewhere where we can investigate it better. Jaller, you can use your Arthron to find out more clues, and I’ll use my mask to see if any animals know where this market is. If what Fero mentioned was true, I can get us more information.” “We’ll take what we can back to my workshop,” Nuparu suggested to the Toa of Fire. “And I can look at it more in depth there.” “I’m going with Hahli,” Jaller said, shaking his head. But the Toa of Water aggressively shook her mask. “You’re not coming with me. Two Toa sized travelers will give suspicion.” *** Not far away, under the sand, a figure was watching the group investigate the Rahi, fear rising in him as he noted who they were. He had been on his way to retrieve more of the parts of the Muaka, but the arrival of the investigators forced him into hiding. This was bad. Jaller and Hahli could be fanatics about nature, that much he knew about them. If they investigated this and caught on to what he was doing, he would have to be especially careful about how he conducted his operations. They seemed to be leaving, but he would wait a while, and slip away under the cover of nightfall. *** Ahkmou stood amongst the tables in front of his shop, a tarp overhead to protect his wares from the oncoming rain. Grey clouds were rolling in from beyond the Black Spike Mountains, shady and silent as they travelled across the sky. A few drops he could feel blowing in on the deathly quiet breeze, but the Po-Matoran did not retreat into the depths of the tent behind him; it would take a little more than water to hurt the Po-Matoran. His gave a small smile as he silently observed the passing crowd. The slave caravan being marched through the market was a rich mix of roughened Spherus Magnans and Matoran Universe inhabitants, somberly marching through the market by their master for exhibition. Some merchants taunted them, offering their products to those who clearly could not afford them, but the Po-Matoran kept silent, instead letting his merchandise speak for him. Their master would beat them if they dared turned their heads, but Ahkmou could see a few eyes lingering for more than a casual second before being rushed down the line. A number of customers required his attendance, and the afternoon wore on as Ahkmou sold his keep. The faceless and nameless customers came and went, only remembered by the piles of widgets they left. They disappeared when the storm seemed to strengthen, scrambling for drier quarters, but the merchant remained outside. His pockets were full of money, but his curiosity was still to be satisfied, as he observed one customer who remained: a cloaked being stood across the way between shops, indifferent to the rain. Much taller than the Matoran, that much he could tell, but no more. Ahkmou cocked his head as he finally turned his attention to them, as they had been facing his booth all day. Knowing they had caught his attention, the being trudged towards Ahkmou’s booth, effortlessly trudging through the mud. It was impossible discern a mask or helmet under the hood, no eyes even visible, and he simply waited for the being to speak. “Impressive wares you have,” they commented. “But…I hear you have more inside.” A large bag emerged from the stranger’s robes, landing on the table next to a Nui Rama shoulder bone with a number of clinks satisfying to Ahkmou’s ears. “Right this way,” he offered, pulling the flap of his tent back to allow the stranger in. “These pieces, they’re… fascinating,” the being said, noting the horn of a Kikinalo. Ahkmou said nothing, but let the stranger wander around his assembly. They did not draw their hands from their sleeves, keeping their features hidden. Ahkmou was slightly disappointed, hoping to get some insight into this high paying client. “How does one get such a stock?” “Now, a merchant can not tell the secrets of the supplier,” Ahkmou replied, admiring a claw on a table. “I am afraid, in good business, that I cannot reveal where I get these.” “I’ll pay extra,” the figure insisted. Still entranced in the claw, the merchant shook his head. “I cannot disclose where I get my product,” Ahkmou told them. “Then maybe the price of your miserable life is enough to interest you,” the customer snarled. The Po-Matoran whirled to see the cloak on the ground, and Toa Hahli in his tent, tri-talon bared. “Treacherous slime merchant. Talk, or you’ll find your shares here will become…liquidated.” “Toa Hahli, so nice to see you,” Ahkmou grinned. “I take it the Toa are learning of the new craze of fashion on Spherus Magna? Are you come to join in?” “Who is giving you these pieces to sell?” Hahli demanded. “There was a Rahi found brutally murdered, and its parts were missing. Why are people poaching Rahi for parts?” “Oh, Toa, always trying to find someone to bring to justice.” Ahkmou chuckled. “What’s a few Rahi gone from the universe? Think about it. People hunt animals all the time. Everyone did it on Mata Nui, I’m sure you Ga-Matoran were no exception. What are you trying to prove?” “There is something not right about it, Ahkmou,” Hahli insisted. “Of course, someone like yourself wouldn’t understand, the matter being about other lives than your own.” “Well, Hahli, there’s nothing that I can tell you,” Ahkmou shook his head. “It’s nothing more than friendly poaching and profit.” “If it’s no serious loss then, you probably won’t mind if I flood this entire black market back to the endless seas,” the Toa of Water growled. Ahkmou began to notice the rain pattering on the top of his tent. It was coming down heavier. “Your supplier, Ahkmou. Who are they?” “Where did you find the corpse?” he asked. “Somewhere near where you aren’t welcome,” she snarled. “Their hunting skills are pathetic,” the Po-Matoran laughed. “Whoever is helping me turn a profit, they are definitely more on the mechanical side. It takes someone with mechanical skill to acquire these parts,” Ahkmou smirked. “Whomever may giving me these parts, that’s one thing they do have.” Hahli glared. It was not much, but she thought she sensed where he was leading her. Nodding, she draped her cloak over her, exiting the tent without another word. Ahkmou remained inside, waiting a long time for the rain to lighten up. The entire market was a sinkhole a few hours later, ruined by Hahli’s powers. The Po-Matoran exited his tent to witness the damage, grimacing. Silently, he hoped nobody in the market would know an enraged Toa of Water had come through, or that it was because of him. “The Toa of Water,” came a voice from the shadows. Ahkmou jumped, suddenly aware of another cloaked being. The figure was just as tall as Hahli, just as featureless, but this time, the Po-Matoran knew who they were. His supplier. “What did you tell her?” “I sent her a clue, but it was down the wrong path,” he promised. “Nothing to allude to who you are.” “You know what happens if you violate our deal,” the stranger said. He stepped aside to reveal a large sack that had not been there before. More merchandise, was Ahkmou’s thought as he unwrapped the bag eagerly. He turned to say more to the figure, but they were gone, disappearing as suddenly as they appeared. Shrugging, he went to cataloging the new inventory, only to stop in shock at the non-Rahi pieces he found within the loot. *** Jaller and Hahli, Have been looking into the Muaka specimen you gave me. Had to go consult Turaga Whenua in Tajun about it. Will find you when I return. —Nuparu Jaller read the note on Nuparu’s workbench in his Vulcanus home, irritated at the Toa of Earth’s disappearance. As much as the earth types were tied down to their projects— mining, history, inventing— they were extremely difficult to keep track of; once they were set on a project, they would go far and wide to find whatever they required.He would find Nuparu later then. Hopefully the Toa Mahri returned within the day. A Matoran came up to Jaller as soon as he left Nuparu’s hut, scroll in hand. “Toa Jaller!” the villager cried. “I have been looking for you everywhere!” “What for?” the Toa of Fire asked. “Toa Norik asked me to give you this, said it was urgent,” the villager said. Jaller opened the note, which held a meeting place and time. Jaller thanked the Matoran. “Have you seen Toa Hahli? I was asked to pass on the same message to her.” “Don’t worry, I’ll find her,” Jaller replied. “Thank you for this.” *** Hahli was the last to arrive at the campsite, immediately launching into the news that she had found. Jaller and the two Toa Hagah across the fire listened intently, shaking their heads at what she had found. “Of course the little vermin was selling parts,” Jaller spat after Hahli told him the tale. “Anything he could do to make a profit.” Across the campfire, Toa Norik shook his head. “Never have I heard of a Matoran so far from virtue,” the Toa Hagah of Fire said. “From Makuta’s Turaga in Metru Nui to this?” “He was working for Makuta long before we made our way back to Metru Nui,” Hahli told them. “But this is a new low for him.” “He wouldn’t tell you the supplier?” Toa Kualus asked. “No names, but what he gave was a small hint of where to look,” she said. “If it is true, then the eleven of us trusted the wrong people.” “What did you two find though?” Jaller asked the two Toa Hagah, breaking an uncomfortable silence hanging over them. Kualus looked at the two uncomfortably. “Something felt off about the Kanohi Dragon’s attack. Onua Nuva and I took a trip up there a few years ago, to check its status since leaving the old universe. There was no real reason which it would want to even come back down here. It seemed… at home.” “So what changed?” Jaller asked. Kualus shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “The Great Volcano was a mess last time I was there, but…” he shook his head in disbelief “There is nothing to describe it now.” “The ‘volcano’ itself is in shambles,” Norik told the Toa Mahri. “There is no heat coming from the area whatsoever. The land is torn apart. Where the Rahi’s nest was is a bunch of chasms now.” “An earthquake?” asked Hahli. “Or possibly a bigger beast from the Great Jungle?” “Not both though,” Norik said. “But we haven’t felt any seismic activity down here,” Jaller reminded them. “You’re not saying…” “Something forced the Kanohi Dragon out,” Kualus finished. “What could have the power to do that?” Hahli asked. “There was… a lot of machinery when I went to the Vortixx’s facility in Iconox,” the Toa of Fire cursed. “I didn’t know what a lot of it was. Nuparu would.” “Maybe he can accompany you to another trip there,” Hahli suggested. “But Norik, Kualus… are you saying the Vortixx could be responsible?” “The Vortixx have operated unchecked— here and on Xia —for millennia,” Norik said, glaring into the fire. “They could want to ‘revisit’ old projects.” “What reason would they have for wanting the Kanohi Dragon?” Hahli asked. “Weaponry, at the very least,” Norik said. “They don’t know all the players of this world, but they may want to be prepared for the day another Barraki or one of those Element Lords seeks them out.” “Nuparu did say they couldn’t bring all of their tech off of their homeland,” Jaller recalled. “But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t take a lot of it.” “Ahkmou isn’t the only one who wouldn’t do anything for a little extra income,” Hahli remarked. “What Jaller could have seen could have been anything,” the Toa of Ice said, annoyed with the conspiracy theories bouncing around. He used his ice powers to lower the height of the flame, the two Ta-Toa unintentionally feeding their power as they grew eager in their conversation. “We have no confirmations. We all have dislike for their society, but we cannot let prejudices push our suspicions.” “Yes, but it never hurts to investigate further, if the Vortixx are up to anything.” Jaller reminded him. *** Vohon closed the door to his shop, the sun beginning to dip past the western dunes on the outer reaches of Vulcanus. He watched the yellow orb of Solis Magna until it had sank behind the dune, and then turned to put his wares away. Selling was done for the day, and it was time to go home. A feeling of eyes on his back as he cleaned his shop made Vohon wary, and he almost expected the click of his shop doorknob. The Ta-Matoran stood there, laying his hands flat on top of the table he was at. “I’m closed for the day,” he said as calmly as he could, knowing the words wouldn’t discourage the intruders. “Come back tomorrow.” “We aren’t here to buy,” a voice chuckled, and Vohon turned to look at who had trespassed into his shop. A Vortixx and an Agori stood across his doorway, dropping their cloaks to the floor of the hut. The Agori took off his seemingly empty backpack, a grin coming from under the half mask that they wore. Vohon had thought they were wearing Kanohi at first, but the more he looked, the more he could see they were not Kanohi at all, or even Glatorian helmets. They were masks, but not even poorly crafted ones; they seemed much more warped than that. The thought crossed Vohon’s mind that he may not be dealing with simple thieves. “Now wait just a second—“ Vohon started, whipping out a loaded Kanoka launcher from under his table. Aiming at the Vortixx, he pulled the trigger, and threw the launcher unexpectedly at the Agori as the disk flew. The pseudo mask on the taller figure was knocked off, but the disk was too weak to have any effect on him. The Agori had dodged the launcher thrown at him, a grin growing on his face as he began to advance on the Matoran. Night was arriving in Vulcanus, darkness coming in the form of these two bandits. Vohon raised his fists halfheartedly, thinking he knew what was about to come. *** “Still think we shouldn’t be accusing them?” Hahli asked Kualus the next morning. He said nothing, simply gazing in shock at the mess that was Vohon’s ruined shop. The Matoran in question sat with Norik, sporting a new mask and nursing his socket where his arm used to be. Another Matoran medic was there, studying the spot where the limb had detached. Hahli reread the scroll she carried with the Matoran’s account of what had happened. The only word with meaning on it was ‘Vortixx’, describing one of the assailants. Kualus frowned, upset with the tortured Matoran’s physique. “We’re headed north as soon as this investigation is over,” the Toa assured her. “but not necessarily with Cordak launchers blazing.” “The interrogation should be more hostile than the last visit,” Jaller’s voice reached the two. In his hand he held the deformed half mask Vohon had presented to them when they had arrived. “I’ve never seen that kind of mask before,” Hahli said. “That’s because it’s a scale,” Norik corrected. “A decoy mask from the dragon, meant to lure in unsuspecting Matoran to feed on when they were close enough.” Kualus looked at his brother, disgusted. “The Vortixx are definitely doing more than keeping the dragon in stasis,” he said. “I’ll ask Ackar to borrow his Thornatus again,” he resolved. “Did Vohon have anything to say other than what he told us?” Jaller asked Norik. The Hagah shook his head. “No, but I told him we would personally see to it that he received a new arm,” Norik informed Jaller. The group of them nodded to Vohon and the medic, their work in the hut done. It was time to travel to Iconox again. “Before we leave, have Takanuva on double patrol tonight,” he asked the Toa Mahri. The Vortixx at the gate of the Iconox facility were concerned when Jaller and Norik brought them the news. “But the dragon has been here since you entrusted it to us,” one of the guards said. “How could an incident with the dragon happen in Vulcanus, if it never reached there?” “That’s why we’re worried as well,” Jaller said. “We want to take a look at the dragon. I just want to assure its well being. Norik here is an expert on reptiles, and he wanted to look as well. If you allow us just a few hours to observe, then we will be on our way.” “We weren’t expecting visitors today,” one Vortixx commented. Norik’s mask did a double take, sarcastically incredulous. “Toa Nuparu did tell you we would be checking in,” the Toa Hagah reminded the guards. Their brows darkened, and they nodded, letting the two Toa in. Their bluff got them into the dragon’s chamber, where the behemoth lay in stasis. An icy Spherus Magnan substance covered the dragon, keeping it dormant; whatever was on the dragon frosted over the surface of its hide, and the Toa could barely make out the details of its armor. Bringing two Kanohi Akaku from their packs, they saw past the substance, and began scouring up and down the length of the creature. It had some damage from the wrestling match with Bomonga, but the majority of its armor was undamaged. The Rahi’s midsection was where the Toa found something off. In the bulk of its body, where the Rahi’s ‘masks’ lined its hide, the stasis substance appeared patchy. Jaller and Norik crouched down to where they saw the disturbance. One section of the substance appeared patched— investigating further, the Toa could see no mask scales on the creature. The Toa looked at each other, eyebrows raised. While Norik glanced up to check on any spying Voritxx, Jaller used his powers to burn away the substance to investigate further. Underneath the patch, it was as they suspected; a broken scale stuck out from the rest, the Kanohi-like appendage missing. Jaller looked at it grimly, while Norik’s eyes were raised. They said nothing, repairing the seal quietly before moving on. More patches were visible further down the hide, various spots here spread out to try and look random, but the Toa could distinguish a pattern. They were undetectable from the platforms surrounding the dragon, where Vortixx walked to and from different facilities within the place, but down here, the more they looked, the more the Toa could see the substance had been tapped into. “Dozens of ‘masks’ missing,” Jaller said. “But why? A powerless Kanohi doesn’t hide that much. Vohon was clearly able to tell it was a Vortixx attacking him.” “Perhaps they’re not using the masks as disguises,” Norik suggested as they walked further down the dragon’s side. “The question is, then, what else they could be using them for. And how does this relate to the deaths of Rahi you found in the desert?” “They’re not just taking the masks,” Jaller realized as they came to the rear of the Rahi. Curled up behind the massive beast was its tail. Covered by the stasis substance, it was hidden, but with the aid of their Masks of Vision, they could see the raw muscle of the tail. Some of the armor from one of the Rahi’s greatest weapons had been removed. “They’re stripping the Rahi.” “For weaponry?” Norik queried. “There are thousands, if not millions of other weapons on Spherus Magna. Why would they waste their time stripping a dragon of its parts for—“ A sudden rumble cut Norik off. Tremors began to shake through the cavern, dust descending from the ceiling high above. The Toa looked at each other, surprised. The shaking did not last long, but it came in and out. Next to them, the comatose dragon began to shake as well. The two Toa nodded that it was best for them to leave. “What is going on?” Jaller demanded of their guide as they exited into a side tunnel. “Minor tremors, we have them every so often,” the guide explained, a collection of tablets and scrolls piled into a satchel he carried. “Nothing severe enough to awaken the dragon, but as a safety precaution we must ask you to leave.” “What is causing said tremors?” Norik answered. The Vortixx shook his head, saying something they could not hear in the rumbling. He turned to lead them toward the exit, and stumbled as another tremor hit them. The Vortixx tripped, his open bag spilling onto the ground. The Toa went to help him collect everything, but the Vortixx scrambled on his hands and knees, picking everything up as fast as he could. Jaller went to help him, and Norik could not help but notice the dark expression on his mask as they continued to the exit. “Are you ok?” The Toa Hagah asked when they met the fresh air of the mountains. “Keep walking,” Jaller responded, eyes forward on the path. Hahli and Kualus waited some ways away from the entrance to the facility, keeping hidden amongst the snowbanks. They immediately descended back to the path when they saw their comrades, equally as puzzled by Jaller’s silence as Norik was. The three of them watched the Toa Mahri fall to his knees. His fingers became a whirl in the dirt, tracing something that only he could see. Any attempts to get an answer from what he was doing were met with only silence for a few moments. He stood up, brushing his hands off to the side, and the other three gathered to see what he had drawn. A depiction of the north, but there were paths between here and the Great Volcano that none of them recognized. “What is it?” Kualus asked. “Our host let something slip,” Jaller began. “When we were leaving, I happened to get glimpse of this on one of the tablets he dropped. I used my Arthron to memorize it as best as I could— the mask isn’t too precise. But there is something out here—“ he indicated a section in the Black Spikes, midway between Roxtus and Iconox. “and where we are. We need to continue north to check that out.” Using her power, Hahli sent water into the ruts the Toa had carved, allowing Kualus to freeze them into a sheet of ice. They pried it from the ground, smearing the original drawing Jaller had rendered as a precaution. When they were finished, they rose to see Norik gazing up at the slopes, troubled. “Is something wrong?” Hahli asked him. “The path is clear,” Norik said to Jaller. “I would’ve thought otherwise.” “Why shouldn’t it be?” asked Kualus. “I just would’ve thought… that the tremors inside would’ve shook the snow loose and down to here,” Norik responded. The Toa of Ice and Water looked at him quizzically. “What tremors?” Hahli asked. The Toa of Fire met eyes, Norik cursing. Another of the Vortixx’s tricks, they realized. “We need to get going,” Jaller said, leading the way. The makeshift map showed them paths that were definitely not known to any travelers, they realized after a day of hiking. The four of them had crossed from Iconox’s icy slopes to deep within the Black Spikes, now walking single file along a path entrenched between two mountains. On either side of the path, black slopes reached high toward the sky. There were no sign of any animals, let alone other travelers, which kept Jaller on edge. Though he led the way, scouting with his Arthron, he was so focused on interpreting the returning signals that he continually tripped on cracks in front of his face. “How much more of this?” Norik asked, picking up Jaller for the umpteenth time. “The path ascends soon,” Kualus said, using one of their Akakus to spy a trail on the mountain not so far away. “Wherever the map leads… its close.” “It better be,” Jaller said, crushing a rock with his power sword. “Because I’m sick of—“ A loud crack cut him off. To their side, a rumble sounded, and the Toa stiffened, knowing the sound of an oncoming rockslide. Tripping and tumbling over one another, the Toa began to sprint down the alley that was their path. Out of the corner of their Kanohi, they could see tons of rock coming closer with each stride they took. “Go! Go!” Kualus urged them. As far as they could run in the short time they had, Jaller thought, they were not going to get clear of the rubble. Wielding his sword with both hands, Jaller turned and sent waves of intense heat at the rocks, trying to split the stone before it toppled onto them. A figure on the mountain stood satisfied when he saw the rocks settle, the Toa buried far beneath them. He breathed a sigh of relief. The Toa were close, but they were not going to get any closer to uncovering his operations. That he was certain of. Satisfied with his work, he unlatched the door that would lead him into the mountain. Though the sounds of muffled agony could be heard several boulders down, but Jaller’s power sword still carved toward the surface. The rock above him exploded in a molten mess, and he emerged gasping into fresh air. His chestplate had been dented, and he set his sword down to fix it, before beginning to carve to where he heard the sound. Clearing the rubble, he found Norik trapped, a larger slab of rock pinning his leg. The sounds of yelling had come down, but the expression of pain on his mask remained intense. The armor on his leg had twisted under the impact and weight of the rock, and now the Toa laid amongst the rubble, fighting blacking out from the pain. Kualus freed himself and made his way over to the pair, freezing the rock and shattering it, but it did no help. In an extremely short period, the injury had turned gruesome. They could not remove it, Hahli noted—the weight of the rock had caused the injury, but now it kept it all together. Whatever Kualus did to the rock, it would have further hurt his comrade. Hahli bent down to him when she freed herself, sending healing water powers into the Toa Hagah’s injury. “You have to go on without me,” Norik said to Jaller and Hahli. The combination of the two Toa’s healing powers had done all it could now. “I’m of no use to you like this now.” “We can’t leave you,” Jaller said firmly, but Kualus’s look said otherwise. “It’s your mission,” Kualus reminded Jaller. “We are merely here to help. Go find out what the map led to; if we can catch up to you and serve as backup, we will.” The Toa of Fire opened his mouth to argue, but Hahli’s claw on his shoulder shut him up. Exchanging goodbyes with a fist bump, the two Toa Mahri made their way toward the mountain path. Hahli was unsettled with how calmly she was breathing in the crisp air as they walked up the path. It wasn’t leaving the Toa Hagah behind that bothered her; only Mata Nui could possibly fathom what they were walking into now, and it might’ve been best to have back up or someone else to tell that they had gone missing. No, it was nothing about the injuries Norik had sustained; it was the quiet surrounding her and Jaller. Even without her Mask of Kindred, she could sense something looming in the nature ahead of them. “I don’t like this,” she said to Jaller. “We shouldn’t have left them down there.” “You’re the one who agreed with them to do it,” Jaller reminded her, a little surprised at her sudden change of heart. “But the rockslide was too convenient. We can’t let a few tricks from a species of tech geniuses scare us away. Whatever the Vortixx are hiding, they’re really desperate to keep hidden from us. We need to keep going at all costs.” The Toa of Water gave a small smile; Jaller’s sense of justice, though strict, was somewhat comforting in the face of her building anxiety. Her fears returned and intensified when they saw the door. It stood against the face of the mountain, locked by a large gear. Hahli could feel its coolness with her protosteel claw, a chill running up her spine as her fears began to take on a solid form. Jaller grabbed its handles and cranked it open to find a dark, featureless tunnel. There were no signs of anything as far as they could see, but Hahli knew there had to be something deep in the tunnel. A door this well hidden had to be there for reasons she didn’t want to think about. They stepped inside the yawning entrance, and Hahli pulled the lever to close the doors, the view of the mountains disappearing as she did so. Where the Toa of Water before could see blue skies and mountaintops, was now solid stone and metal, the crack in the two halves of the door impenetrable. She didn’t like the feeling of confinement overcoming her, but she turned to Jaller, calm and collected. Neither torch nor lightstone illuminated the tunnel, and Jaller used his Arthron to guide them. The Toa of Fire was only visible by the glow of his eyes, but somehow her hand found his, and she let him lead the way. While he concentrated on his mask power for ‘sight’, Hahli relied on her other senses to keep alert. As the Toa of Water walked blindly, her thoughts drifted to her hearing, and she listened to their footsteps. Though they walked quietly, their armored feet resounded far down the tunnel, giving her the slightest idea on how large the tunnel was. Something was not right about the way they echoed, and Hahli listened more intently, the nerves on her neck suddenly sensitive. Jaller squeezed his partner’s hand as he felt her pace pick up, but she did not reciprocate while she concentrated. Something was not right about the way their footsteps echoed, but she could not discern exactly what it was. There was the pair of footsteps coming back to them, but something was off about the way they sounded. Hahli suddenly realized what it was as she stopped, her hand jerking Jaller and bringing him to a stop as well. But the sound of footsteps kept resounding behind them, and Hahli’s worries were confirmed. There was a third person in the tunnel with them. She whirled, slashing her tri-claw at the darkness. “Who is there?” she cried, her question repeating itself down the tunnel. Jaller directed his Arthron behind them, ‘listening’ for any response, but the footsteps had stopped. After a few eternal moments of silence, they continued onward again. Hahli continued to listen, but all she heard was two pairs of footsteps. The shadows seemed to soften, but it took Hahli a while to realize she could see again. She and Jaller walked through shafts of grey light now, a soft glow coming from somewhere ahead to dispel the shadows. Hahli glanced over her shoulder to see a wall of absolute black, and looked forward again. Yes, there definitely was a difference now, not just her imagination playing tricks on her. Jaller slowed to a stop, putting a hand on her shoulder to caution the fellow Toa. “There's movement up ahead", he told her, his voice troubled, "but I can't discern any details. Be prepared for anything.” Hahli nodded, and cocking their Cordak blasters, they slowly advanced. Their path narrowed into a catwalk that wound around a chamber, where an assembly of machinery criss crossed into an elaborate factory line. Lightstones mounted high above cast a cerulean glow on a series of eerily still conveyor belts, mechanical arms paused over the shells of Rahi resting on them. A few Vortixx wantered the machinery, hauling boxes of pieces to another room. The Toa looked at each other as they glimpsed the Rahi there, as well as a ladder that would take them to the floor. As quietly as they could manage, they snuck down the ladder, keeping hidden from the Vortixx as best as they could. On the belts the Rahi lay still and dark, devoid of any sign of life. Gone was any organic tissue that had been inside of their frames, the beasts appearing as haunted skeletons of what they once were. The eye of one Muaka tiger was dark, gazing blankly into the strange facility but not seeing the doom that it brought the beholder. As the two Toa walked further along the belts, they stuck to the shadows, precariously trying to keep hidden from the Vortixx workers. The two looked further along to see more Rahi, dozens of species and samples in various stages of disassembly. One belt contained multiple Rahi with their limbs detached— A Nivhawk with its wings removed, a Phase dragon with its limbs disconnected from its torso— whereas another belt had a Nui-Jaga completely taken apart, each piece laid out in a frighteningly precise manner. Following the belts led them to a hefty workbench in the middle of the factory, the stools surrounding it strewn about as though they were thrown in frustration. Scrolls and tablets were scattered along the tabletop, which the Toa began to sift through, until Jaller pulled up one of a diagram of the robot that had housed the Matoran universe. Some of the writing was Agori, but it was the few notes on it in Matoran that the Toa of Fire did not understand. Setting that scroll down, he dug through the pile he had plucked that one from. Hahli took that tablet as Jaller sifted more, reading notes about the giant robot, which from the context had to have been written by the Great Beings. There were some notations of Mata Nui and his mission, as well as the reformation of Spherus Magna, but it did not stop there; something that trailed off into Agori about the shutdown of the Mata Nui intelligence system, as well as reorganization of the materials within the robot… Hahli took a hard swallow as she looked around the factory, and then back at the text. “What is this place?” she asked aloud. “The place of our beginning… as well as our end.” The Toa looked up, the voice coming from the other side of the workbench. Barely peeking over the surface, a Matoran grinned at them. He hobbled his way around to Hahli, smiling as he took the scroll from her. The two Toa looked at him, mouths agape with shock. They had forgotten about him, in their wild journey though Voya Nui and Mahri Nui, and the mask he now wore was one from the hide of the Kanohi Dragon. One of his arms seemed new… and they realized in horror that it was the arm of Vohon, hastily latched onto his shoulder blade. The body was familiar, but the sound of his voice instantly sent them back to their time as confused Matoran in a twisted world. The Matoran whom had helped them escape the realm of Karzahni stood before them, staring wide eyed and cheery in this dark and mysterious factory. “You?” Jaller asked. “What are you doing here?” “A lot of people… forget,” the Matoran giggled. “But I… I remembered. You’ve forgotten me in your adventures, Metruan. But I forgive you, just as the Great Spirit forgave his playthings.” “Playthings?” Hahli asked nervously. She and Jaller looked at each other, and then to this decrepit Matoran. They were the able bodied ones, but somehow she felt this Matoran was the one with more power right now. “The Vortixx, the Skakdi, those who weren’t Matoran…” He answered, nodding. “All… playthings. And the Rahi too!” He gestured to the cluttered workbench. “While we worked, the Great Spirit, he played. But he never cleaned up. That was our job. My job.” Jaller shook his head. He was not following. “What is this place?” “It is my factory,” he replied. Hahli raised her eyebrows. This Matoran, own or be in charge of a factory? As incredulous as it sounded, it made sense to her worried mind. “It’s where the first of us was built by the Great Beings, and where the last of us will be taken apart.” “Taken apart… like the Rahi?” Jaller asked. “Exactly like the Rahi!” the Matoran said, excited his guests were starting to follow. “We were never meant to be here this long, it’s a wonder we’ve lasted in Paradise for the time that we have. The Great Beings never had a clue things would stray so far from the way they were supposed to.” “So you’re the one taking apart the Rahi?” Jaller demanded. “No… I am.” The two whirled at the sound of the raspy voice behind them, weapons drawn at a Vortixx they had thought snuck up on them. With a chuckle, however, the figure stepped into the faint light, revealing himself to be anything but one of the denizens working the factory. The Toa Mahri gasped. Strange silver additions to the being’s upper body gave an awkward bulkiness to him. He bore wicked looking claws, his left hand hidden by a shield strapped to his forearm. An orange glow seeped from under all of the armor, that, to which Hahli and Jaller could only assume were his bones given some sort of translucence. The being’s body looked almost unfamiliar, almost like a Vortixx, but the mask… there was no mistaking the Kanohi Volitak, or the sad smile that he looked at the two with. “Nuparu?” Hahli asked, almost hoping the being in front of her gave a different name. But the nod that he gave made her heart plummet. “What are you doing here?” “I think I know the answer but I don’t think we’ll like it,” Jaller grumbled. “Now I know I saw you, when I first came check on the Dragon. I wasn’t sure at first. Nuparu, are you working with the Vortixx to take apart the Rahi?” “It’s more along the lines of they are working with us,” the Toa of Earth grinned. “Explain yourself,” Hahli demanded. “It’s for the next step in the Great Being’s plan,” Nuparu quietly answered. “You’ve read some of these scrolls. All of the Great Beings’…research.” “Most of what we think of them is our own delusional myth, did you know that?” the Matoran chimed. And it looks like some of us are more delusional than others, Jaller thought, hand tight on his power sword. “Mata Nui was never meant for anything more than reuniting the planet,” Nuparu continued. “Once Spherus Magna was fixed, the robot was supposed to return to the Valley of the Maze and be shut down, and then be taken apart for uses in further projects they had in mind. Building the robot took up so much of the planet’s resources— and they were going to build TWO!— that they wanted to try and fully restore the planet.” “So were we supposed to be dismantled with the robot?” Hahli asked, incredulous at what she was hearing. “None of this was ever supposed to be integrated into Spherus Magna in this form,” he confirmed, a slightly apologetic tone in his voice. “The Great Beings just thought it was too dangerous.” “See, we’re all scheduled to be ‘disassembled’,” the Matoran said. Hahli shook her head. “Nuparu, how can you be behind this? How can you stand with this Matoran?” “I once saw a Spherus Magnan animal hunting in the desert,” he recalled. “It had come upon a recently deceased carcass of another animal, killed by some other predator but left otherwise untouched. The animal ate the spoils it found. But it later was hungry. It went and found another carcass, but the result was the same. The animal eventually died of starvation. When I looked at it, the animal had eaten the food, but there was no nutrition in it. “I know, it seems trivial, but it stuck with me. The sound of that animal dying of malnutrition, it seemed wrong. It seemed cheated.” “I’d gone wandering,” the Matoran said, sitting on top of the workbench and swinging his twisted leg. “And stumbled upon all of this. Nuparu eventually found me, and together we came and made this operation.” “It all seemed logical. I would take apart Rahi, figure out how we biomechs absorbed food. Because I wanted to figure out something.” He shook his head. “But there’s no so

I have been seeing a lot of recent dislike for the alternate universes that were given to us over the years. Just curious, but what is the exact reasoning for it? I originally thought these were created to 1) Satisfy hypotheticals Greg was repeatedly sent by fans 2) Open fanfic possibilities Dark Mirror and The Kingdom I thought were some of the best stories that came out of the Bionicle later years. The Melding Universe was a good idea, but it could have been introduced differently, but I thought it was an intriguing world. From what I've read of various serials (fanmade and canon), the Tridax-Shadow Takanuva experiment was a good plot device for Teridax's reign. City of Silver Pocket Dimension was ok. The few random dimensions that came out of the Olmak in the later bit (all the dimension hopping Vezon did in the end, the bluff in Federation of Fear about the dimension of pure light beings) were a little weird and unnecessary, I will agree on. Yes, it did make the story more complex. But overall I think the alternate dimensions were more of a benefit than they were detrimental. Alternate dimensions exist in a lot of sci-fi worlds-- DC's "Flashpoint" is one of the franchise's most beloved scarlet speedster stories, just to name one. So why do people have so much animosity to the alternate dimensions concept in Bionicle?

How much are you looking for 12-13 comics and a Boxor? also, what do you have in terms of collectibles?

I wrote a story about it, too, but I don't think I ever explained it. I always saw it as resistance training, as athletes do with weights or bands-- it takes so much effort to move with the resistance, and when that resistance is finally taken away, you move incredibly easily. I always found that after I do a really heavy set of dead lifts or squats, I feel real light when walking to the water fountain, because my body is significantly lighter than what i just lifted. The training of strain on the body lets the body do amazing things when you let that strain free. Kapura somehow finds something that he can resist in the forest where he practices, or some sort of strain that he trains with, and when he is out in the field on a mission, that lack of strain on his body allows him to be quicker.

Is this lego club page mentioning mask of time available in a scan somewhere?

Every time I see a new chapter is released, I go back a few chapters t try and pick up any clues you may have left as to what is going on. I will be using this post to be shooting a lot of theories at you. So starting with chapter 8, here we go! Theory: When Nela and Jehui encountered the conveyor belt with the coins, that dropped into the water, I somehow feel that is connected to Nela and her arrival on the island. As though maybe the mini version of her was in a conveyor belt, or she is represented by one of those coins. This might explain how she “awoke in midair, in her element”, etc etc. But I’m not sure how it connects the others though, and I want to still work on it before discussing it any further. An observance— after the revelation of Deschyny, there is no more noting of the ticking and the egg. What’s up with that? Was he somehow causing the ticking as a little silent wave to the group, to let them figure out he was there, or is it still something due to the buildup of energy within the egg? Vyroko’s odd armor. If he and Deschyny were of one being, was does the armor explain? Were they a different color and this hints at their malevolent nature or whatever? What Deschyny says in chapter 9, about each member of the group having a mystery, reminds me of the Toa Mata and their Shadow counterparts from Tales of the Masks. They each had their own mystery/challenge, but it was through the help of everyone else that they overcame the challenges. Jehui and Nela together figured out the mystery tower, and Tahtorak and Nela helped Vyroko figure out a bit of the mystery of the glass plates underground. I wonder if this will continue, and someone else knows the answer to the egg’s power. I keep looking for clues because this is such a compelling mystery that is addicting to read. Tahtorak’s comment on necessity sums it up— everything seems very natural yet at the same time very choreographed. The running in circles of these mysteries is captivating, and I’m anxious to see what it is all coming to. Your past stories don’t seem to be confined to one island, and I keep falling back into the idea that this egg bomb, the importance of the sky, all have an effect to somewhere off island; ditching the theory pitching, your writing is increasingly different from the Absolutity, as you have stated earlier in this topic, and finding a new way to write a mystery with more streamlined writing keeps me hooked. The poem within the rings I feel is a little proof toward the chain rotation theory I have stated above. “The eternal turning returns one of the six/Their circle is cursed and must not be broken”. This could mean the chain must be depositing a coin permanently in the island metaphor underneath the tower, and the two towers themselves were never meant to be broken? I’m really trying to go abstract here to make these connections. Nela, Nahara, Tahtorak, Vyroko, Jehui, Deschyny— are these five or six mentioned, with the new information reveal of the two Toa being one entity? Im not sure, but I believe that the two aren’t really Toa, or at least one of them… I am burning to see some interaction from the fog, a direct message about what it wants or its intent. It can’t just be a guardian, does it? And is it connected to the dark fog, the nighttime one that tried to attack them before the To a of Light was revealed, or is it a separate entity? This is burning me up. Jehui is seen communicating with it, can Nela use her power over water as a sort of common language with it? Something that confuses me— Why does Tahtorak so easily believe that mysterious riddle? I feel like there isn't a shred of proof that Vyroko has done anything wrong, only misguided thoughts. Could you further explain why Tahtorak suddenly takes up a grudge against the Toa of Fire? That last chapter was… triply, and I need a few more nights to process. I will be back. PS... about how far into the story are we?

How much are you asking for the boxor? As well as comics 1-12?

Sinister Lost Frothy whitecaps rose to touch the sides of the boat as the island drew near, but it was not until we walked along the frozen beach that we could admit that we were cold. The wind out there was unyielding, blowing hard at our backs, but the constant motion of the gale kept the cold from settling into our cloaks. As we walked the icy shores, however, the wind was blocked by the towering mountain that took up most of the landscape, and the chilling air began to sink into us, seeping through the material and between the cracks and breaks in our armor until we were shaking at our cores. If there was an empty cove beyond the frigid dunes ahead, Nireta and I agreed as we made our way up the beach, then perhaps there was a chance of finding warmth on this desolate isle. Following the curvature of the path, we left our boat behind, unanchored along the shore. The current was negligible, nowhere near strong enough to pull the dinghy away, so we let it sit there. A pathway carved through a dune was the one we followed, leaving behind a pink edged horizon as we continued hopefully to where shelter may lay. At the top of the beach I gave one long look towards the afternoon skyline, lowering my gaze to the frozen sand, a long line of pale white that ringed around us. I was about to turn when something else on the shore caught my vision— a small dot of red, a figure laying prone and motionless on the beach. I pointed them out to Nireta, and all thoughts of our own misery were cast away as we reverted our path to their aid. The figure lay curled up in a ball on the middle of the beach, shivering violently on the cold sand. It was a Toa, his eyes firmly shut, arms tucked tightly into his chest and breath escaping him raggedly. I grimaced at the sight as I turned him over, Nireta helping me as she grabbed one side. We could not pick him up as we realized who he was, shock sapping our strength. “Tiribomba!” I exclaimed, recognizing the Kanohi Ruru on the half drowned Toa of Fire. Recollecting ourselves, we seized him by the underarms and hauled him away from the edges of the choppy blue green sea, the lapping of the waves becoming distant as we reached the other side of the dune again. Leaving the beach behind though, I felt an indescribable dread; despite the safety from the cold, there was something else that came with Tiribomba’s appearance that made me shiver. An entrance to a cave had been our haven, a shelter from the cold of the beach as we Matoran huddled together in attempt to regain our warmth. Together we watched Tiribomba as he lay slumped against the wall, now looking only as if he were sleeping soundly. As we had brought him in, the shivering fit the Toa of Fire was enduring slowly faded away, his breathing slowing to a normal rate. Yet his heart light still flashed rapidly, and bursts of scorching heat emitted occasionally from his body. Shedding our cloaks, Nireta and I layered them over him, drying and insulating his body the best we could; the only thing we could do now was hope that he would wake soon. Finding driftwood, we used Nireta’s tinder to make ourselves a small fire, a makeshift torch that we staked into the icy ground. We huddled around it for hours, taking in as much heat as we could whilst warming our friend. After a while we heard a mutter from him; as if sensing his element, Tiribomba began to stir, and crawled toward the fire. Slowly he rubbed his arms to his chest, probably too weak to use his own powers. He said nothing for a while, and I wasn’t even sure if he recognized us as his eyes stared off into the flames, his mind probably somewhere else. Knowing he needed to regain his strength, we watched him silently, patient for when he was strong again. “Where…are we?” his voice croaked after a long while. “Not exactly sure,” Nireta said, gesturing to her pack of maps. “Only that it’s far to the east of home, and it took us weeks to reach here. How did you get out here, friend, and how long have you been here?” “Hom-m-me?” The Toa of Fire’s eyes seemed to lighten at the word, and he gasped, recognizing us. “Nireta? Bour?” he asked as he saw our masks. We nodded, embracing him as his awareness returned, his eyes returning to their vibrant yellow. “It wasn’t long af-af-t-ter yo-ou-ou-u left,” he stammered. “I w-was On-n-n the beach… with Ko-p-pa-pa-aka. The st-sto-or-m overtook the beach, and there was a tidal wave…” he paused, shaking his head so he could talk straight as the heat brought his body back to homeostasis. “I went under, and I d-don’t remember what came next. It’s just now, here and now, I don’t remember what happened before this.” A grim expression was on his lips. “Are they with you?” he asked flatly, knowing the answer to his question. I shook my head, laying a hand on his shoulder. “It is only the three of us, Tiri. Another adventure— just not as comfortable as the last one.” We sat for a few moments in silence, the sound of the wind and waves outside weakly permeating the cave. “How long have we been here?” the Toa piped, suddenly concerned. “How long have you had this fire?” “Not long enough,” Nireta muttered. But the look on the Great Kanohi seemed dissatisfied with that answer, and he asked again, a little more worriedly. “Two hours, maybe more, maybe less? You’ve been asleep for a while. Why?” he pushed the two of us away from the fireside, so the driftwood torch stood alone. At its base was a small film of water, a trail pouring down the path we had come from and out of the cave. Our friend stood up with a surge of renewed strength, and walked with the flow of it, extremely cautious in his pace. He walked to the mouth of the cave, out of our sight, still following its trail, until he came running back. I noticed that the sound of the ocean was growing louder, as though the tide were possibly having coming up the frost covered shores. The Toa yanked us to our feet, kicking over the torch over and extinguishing it. He said nothing, but pointed toward the depths of the cave. “What’s the matter?” I asked. “Run,” was his reply. *** The water that Tiribomba had traced from the fire streamed down to the beaches, braving temperatures that should have frozen it long before this point. However, something from the fire stayed within the liquid, protecting it from the full force of winter out there and letting it continue in liquid form. It trickled down the frozen sand, carving a stream that halted mere feet from the ocean. The waves that crashed on the shoreline just beyond seemed to sense its approach, bashing in fury as they impatiently waited for the water to complete its way down. Like horses sensing the start of a derby, sea spray flew in the air as the surf reached for the sky, but as it came down upon the icy shores, the beads of water would hit everywhere but around the stream it so anxiously reached for. The tide was already high, and could not come up any further, and so the waves sat there, thrashing violently in a gale that had sprung up unexpectedly. Within the ocean, the consciousness of the Element Lord of Water internally screamed, his rage heard by only himself. He had traversed the planet, destroyed continents, only to be inches away from his goal. The Kanohi Olmak that was hidden within the countryside of Del Vienvi, the power that could return him to River Dormus, was inaccessible, some other force barring the countryside from him. He had come so far, waited for so many millennia, to find that he did not have enough power. His fury was seen in all of the shore towns that had played victim to his Cavalry as he laid waste to them, giving no mercy to any speck of land on the coastline. So he had made his way east of the continent, looking to retreat and redesign his plot, to analyze where he had gone wrong, and in doing so, he had found this frozen spit, where he could sense a similar power within. But the place was frozen, the power and potential of water locked away, and he could not penetrate these bonds; without a passage of water leading to the ocean, he was once again thwarted by his goal. The red armored one he had captured in his tidal wave on one of the islands was supposed to be the solution. He would be the one to unlock the water in the ice, and the Element Lord would be free to charge into the island. But the arrival of the two Matoran had taken the Toa inland; the plan was perfectly in place, and then these two came in and ruined it. And then this trickle came, only to stop just shy of his reach. He would sweep them all if he found them inside, another reminder of his rage, if and when he bridged the gap that lie before him. The tempest’s temper was expressed as the waves grew larger, crashing harder than ever on the iced over shores. The equestrian like froth neighed as it reached for the sky, stampeding its feet hard but able to go nowhere. However, in its tantrums, the forces had caused reverberations in the ground, which had moved the still water. The ground rocked, and gravity was accelerated as the bead began to travel once again, sliding those last few inches to join the ocean. And it touched, and the path continued once more for the Element Lord. *** I was horrified as I heard the storm waters surge into the tunnel, and sprinted as hard as I could to keep up with the other two. The driftwood torch was immediately caught in the ocean’s grasp, dashed to splinters against the tunnel wall. This was no tidal wave, a stern voice in my head told me. The roar of it coming in reached us not too far ahead of the waters. The tunnel widened the further we went in, and Tiri grabbed our wrists and pulled as along, screaming about something in the water that had brought him here. He had not told us what to run from, and I thought he had encountered simply screeched about some sea beast— But what I did not expect was to fear the ocean itself. So I ran with them, breathing heavily as we dashed. The tunnel gave way, opening up into a cave of ice, and we flew across its floor in between our strides. Other tunnels lined its sides, but whatever we were fleeing from was coming through every one of them. There was no path forward, only a giant wall of bluish white that stretched far above us, higher than the purple cliffs of Cipituez. Despite no source coming from anywhere, the emptiness of the cavern seemed to glow, shining with the gleam of a lightstone. Tiri turned on a dime, his eyes filled with fear as his Ruru looked for a way out. I looked with my Akaku, its lens tracking up the wall of ice before us. I pointed to it as I saw it, something none of us could see without the power of a telescopic lens— the wall near the ceiling was further back than what was at ground level, a shelf midway in-between. If it led anywhere I could not tell, but as long as it was away from the monstrous waters we had to take a chance. He slung both of us on his neck as he approached the wall, using his powers to burn handholds into the ice. Water dripped from each hole that he created, and I was afraid he would slip, but Tiri kept steady as he ascended. Frigid droplets rained down on Nireta and I, and we glanced downward to see the water begin to cover the chamber floor. Swirls of salt water came to cover the ice, slamming into the wall we climbed that shook Tiri’s grip. I tightened my grip around my friend’s neck, closing my eyes as I felt the world spin. But the impact on my back was solid, and there was never a finer moment to want to kiss the ice. The other two crawled on their hands and knees along the shelf, a crack in the wall leading to somewhere behind it. Scrambling, I caught up to them, the sound of the water filling up the chamber enough to quicken even my slow limbs. Another tunnel was on the other side of the wall, winding high up the inside of the mountain. The sounds of the rising water remained behind, but our pace was still quick as we went up the frosted slope. Light—perhaps from the outside? came down from high above, or perhaps the walls glowed with a light of their own, letting us see the worried mask of my friend. His face more frightened than I could ever recall, he merely gestured for us to keep climbing. The place was an endless catacomb. The tunnel ceilings would widen to tower above our heads, but a little further on they would be so small that we would have to shimmy through them sideways. A being any bigger than the three of us would have been stuck. The sound of the water did not seem to return as we ventured deeper… perhaps it was only a freak tide, and Tiribomba was wrong? No. He knew more sense in this madness than we did, so we had to trust his judgement and keep following him. But there was one thing bugging my mind that I had to voice. “What is it?” I asked him, knowing the response I would get. He had been rambling for the last two miles of the climb. “The sea itself. Remember when we were at the lighthouse, and we called the storm the Cavalry? Well, it is no army. It’s something singular, yet something greater. He’s after us, and he’s angry. We have to keep climbing, Bour, or he will find us, and it will not be a tough row through the low tide when he does.” “But how far can we flee?” I stopped him. If he said it was coming, it was coming. “We reach the top of wherever we are headed. Then what? You say it’s the ocean we are running from. Well there is more ocean out there than island here, and it will eventually reach us. Or we are headed to the other side, where whatever we are running from will simply meet us? Where in Mata Nui’s name are we going?” “I don’t know, but you just have to trust me on this.” he said. “Up is the way to go. If I’m wrong, then we’re safe. If I’m right, then at least we didn’t die down on the beaches.” The sound of water was nearby again, faint and coming from somewhere ahead. Tiribomba did not seem worried about it, and Nireta and I glanced at each other, wondering if we should be concerned for our friend. As if sensing our worry, he turned to us, smiling, with a finger to his lips. "Listen," he said. "It's not the Cavalry." How could you know for sure though? I almost asked. Quieting my thoughts, I kept my guard up as I listened and climbed. The water sounded different, flowing smoother than the furious waves had. It even sounded as though it were not even traveling in our direction. There was no distracting the entranced Toa as we grew closer to the source, while Nireta and I both felt the hours of hiking in our shorter Matoran limbs. Our climb was soon over, however, as the path ended not far ahead. Shadows clung to the sides of a bluish veil, but they could not permeate the bright white light that shined from beyond. The chamber beyond the veil was wide and open, light spilling in again as we crossed the threshold. The center was an abyss dozens of bio wide, through which an enormous waterfall fell, its roar deafening even our thoughts. There was something about this water that we didn’t seem afraid of, the light somehow drawing out that feeling of danger. Where was the light coming from? I dared get close enough to the edge to peer over, to the darkness of the well thousands of feet below. Nireta had taken notice in something other than the liquid that tumbled. The Ga-Matoran ran her hand along the wall, and upon focusing my Akaku I could see scribbles all over the surface. No, they were not scratches… they were names. Taking care on the slippery ring of ice around the waterfall, I inspected closer. Faded by the erosion of water on ice, but they were there, dozens upon dozens of names, graffitied on the walls. So others had been here? I wondered who would want to travel to this isle. Nireta was bringing out one of her carving tools, carefully etching her name in a blank spot, or perhaps a place where the names were so faded that it looked blank. She stepped back to admire her work, handing me the chisel, but it slipped from her grasp, sliding towards the waterfall and tumbling over the edge. She lunged for it, but she slipped on the slicked ground towards the dropoff. I lunged to grab her, but slipped as well, praying for a grip on the edge before we both went over. Our bodies paused at the edge, feeling the water thundering by. Stupid, stupid move, I cursed her, but my own ideas were cast away as I watched the water glow, a sudden splash to the face taking me elsewhere. The light changed colors, and different shapes and images were seen within. Faces floating by on a river of realities, scenes of other places which were not mirages but actually existed. Another douse of water splashed the Akaku’s lens, and my mind returned to the edge of the bottomless well again. One of my hands held Nireta’s wrist, the other digging into the ice, and a third hand yanking at my ankle. Third hand? Our Toa friend was there, hauling us to our feet, and patted our heads to make sure we were alright. We chuckled together. “We’ve made it to the top,” I noted, all the entrances pointed downhill to the bottom of the mountain we had just reached the peak of. “What do we do now, wait it out?” “Well, the two of you still need to carve your names,” Nireta insisted, offering the recovered chisel that had brought us to this trivial predicament. Take the chisel, carve your names into immortality; and once you have made your marks, perish. The thought ran through all of us, and we whirled to the entrance, where a figure of sea foam and water floated under the arch. It stood in crude semblance of Tiribomba, without the sleek definition that the Toa’s armor gave him. The body was a whirlpool, with slender arms like a pair of streams diverging from its body, sporting wicked looking claws. Its bold chest visibly rose and fell, not as if the thing was breathing but more like the tide coming in and out. The legs had it standing as tall as the Toa of Fire, but the feet were lost in the constantly shifting mass of ocean at its feet. Glowering at us from behind a clear helmet, its orange eyes burnt below horns protruding the sides of its head. This was what Tiri was so afraid of, this was what he had thought was out in the ocean. You three… I should have drowned you in my northern realms months ago, but I sensed there was some use to you. You have led me to this place, but plagued me with endless frustration. Now you have outlived your uses. Raising one liquid arm, a beam of water shot forward and crushed my throat, the steady stream strangling and drowning me at the same time. I was pinned against the wall, but I could feel myself moving, as the alien creature moved me closer to the waterfall. Brown ones like you sink like a stone. But even if you can survive to swim, these streams don’t lead to the ocean. Nevertheless, wherever you may land, the fall alone will probably kill you. I do not remember what happened next, only that Nireta was hauling me to my feet, and Tiri’s palms were ablaze, a wall of fire appearing to cut the Element Lord of Water off from us. The tentacles of water that leapt in response hit the white wall of flame and were turned to steam. The entity recoiled, the hissing of the steam carrying his rage, and he pushed onward; but Tiribomba turned up his intensity as well, sending more fire to burn him away. The consequences of using fire in a fight in an icy environment were apparent as Nireta and I felt the dripping of water around us. The heat of the firewall beat through our masks in waves, and we could sound the ring of ice around the waterfall gradually melting. Chunks of scorched ice were diminishing rapidly, the newly freed liquid running towards the waterfall’s well. All around us, we could feel the ice shake, and began to backed towards a veil, but our friend could not retreat, stuck in combat with this monster. The laughter made him fight more furiously, hurling fireballs as furiously and frequently as he could, his arms a blur, flying just as fast as the projectiles he launched. The creature had forced Tiri against the wall, where he could not retreat any further. From an alcove we watched our friend fight, witnessing whips of flame and water nullifying one another. Steam was all about, and the ice soon shook more violently than the roar of the water fall. I watched the place melt, my best friend slipping uncontrollably until he was on his back, the ocean’s froth about to wash over him. No amount of fire can stop me, the alien tongue whispered in our minds. I have blotted out the sun, I have doused bonfires a thousand times your size, no more will these matches be bothering me. “It’s not the flame coming toward you that is the problem!” Tiri shouted before the froth enveloped his face. His palms facing the ground, he sent jets of flame all along the slushy floor, the fire cutting a straight line into the shelf. There was a large crack, and then Nireta and I watched in horror as all of the ice fell, carrying the two elementals with it. I shouted, my hand reaching out from the arch to grab him, but it was no use, the shelf tumbling far too fast. The Element Lord slid off the shelf, a sheet of water that now fell and contorted in midair. His momentum carried him toward the waterfall, and soon the catacombed island was gone. He was in a stream of many worlds for an instant, until a blue path caught his sight, its route all to familiar, and he aimed for it as he tumbled through space; if he had a physical form then, he would have smiled. The mess of white noise quickly faded to the rushing of wind as he fell towards a new earth. As the warlord crashed into the world, his essence could feel the fresh water around him. He could sense the borders of the river— mountains to the north, and the desert to the south, and though they had clearly aged in the millennia he had been gone, he continued his way down the River Dormus as though not a day had gone by. The Element Lord of Water was home. The sounds of battle were gone, and I hung onto the Ga-Matoran’s arm as I peered out to see the destruction. The shelf had been sliced off, bringing total destruction to the edge where we had stood. A large pile of ice sat at the lip of where Tiri’s heat had sliced, but no movement came from it; only drops of water silently slid toward it, dropping off into the abyss. Each drop joined the waterfall, and the great cascade rumbled on, uninterrupted by the skirmish. But the little landing we had been on was totally devastated. I held my breath as I listened for any sound beyond the waterfall, desperately praying that Tiri had made it. There was no body— from what I could see— in the pile of ice, still and cold next to the ever moving stream of water. I stared intensely at it, certain that he had survived. Nireta tugged at me, urging me back to the safety beyond the arch, and I reluctantly conformed, a dark expression on my face as I crossed into the shadowy corridor. I did not accept the fact that my friend had fallen. The entity— to Karzahni with him, I had seen him hit the waterfall and go down— but of my friend I was not sure. “I want to believe it too, Bour, but it’s just not… If there was any way he could…” “We need to explore,” I told her. When she looked at me with wide eyes, I insisted. “We’ve explored the country, the unknown seas, a waterfall is surely nothing!” “But you heard what that thing said. It doesn’t descend to the ground.” “How can you be certain of what it said? It was trying to kill us!” A sound interrupted our argument, and I whirled to the archway again. The ice on the lip had fallen, leaving nothing on the lip except for water… and something that gripped along the edge, four little stubs that twitched. Four more joined it, a chisel throwing itself up to the steep slope. And then… Tiri pulled himself up. He had a hard climb, but he burnt footholds to steady himself as he hiked the slope to us. We hauled him the last few feet, yanking him to his feet as he had us. “Is he truly gone?” I asked him. “Yes,” Tiri said, standing up tall. “Guys, I think it’s time to go home.” *** We sailed along the rocky coast for days, witnessing the damage that the Cavalry had caused. The shoreline was ruined, buildings now bare skeletons of what they had been before. Beaches were strewn with rocks and rubble, and I could not feel further away than I did just beyond the waves. I had escaped having to endure what had brought all of this, only to encounter it head on, but the firsthand sight of the havoc that the entity had wreaked still made me feel isolated and guilty about not being there. Everyone else had to stay, forced to watch their homes be washed away. I did not recognize the area around Utywa at first, the familiar skyline of the lighthouse gone. The lighthouse… was gone. I wondered what had happened to Solek and Yetoxa. The Vortixx had treasured that lighthouse… and now it was swept clean from the lower reaches of the sky. We coasted in along the breakers, Tiribomba pulling the boat to shore once we were shallow enough. Driftwood and debris covered the blown out beaches, and the waves had withdrawn, leaving the shoreline wide and empty. Someone far away could be seen kicking a kohlii ball, attempting to rid their minds of the lament around them and convince themselves the late afternoon sun was like any other. It was not, however, as I dashed over the dunes to see what town was like. Everything looked haunted, a shelled out version of its summer pride. Roofs had collapsed or been swept away, planks and beams jutting out of the rubble like bones that had broken through skin. In some plots of land only the brick foundation was left, cracked and ruined. I could see some of the insides of buildings, completely washed out or containing some outside tree that had been pinned in. Sand had filled the lower levels of the exposed shelters, and boats lay on their sides in the middle of the path. There was cookware strewn about, and other destroyed personal possessions that we stepped over. Some of the paths we walked were still flooded, unable to drain to the ocean or the bay. I did not venture down the neighborhood of my house, unsure if I was yet ready to see the damage. Other trees that were still standing were completely stripped of the leaves, giving the island a cold wintery feel that was long overdue for this time of year, but somehow warm compared to where we were coming from. But there was still a haunting chill. “Where is everyone?” Tiri wondered out loud. “This surely didn’t take everyone with it.” We ventured further along the main avenue, until a Skakdi was wondering amongst the houses as we were. He came running once he saw us, and I recognized Peck. “You’ve returned!” he exclaimed. “Where is everyone?” I asked. He led us to the back bays, where a string of the islands largest boats sat in the bay. There were people all working on them, as if preparing them for a deep sea voyage. I could see what was going on, but I had to say it to be certain. “Are we… abandoning Utywa?” “We have to, and other islands are doing the same,” Peck confirmed. “You’ve been out there in the country. There is nothing out there for us other than sandbags, which we no longer need, right? With cold months coming, there will be no food here; the best we can do is set sail for somewhere else that might be able to shelter us for the winter.” “Will we return though?” Nireta asked, to which Peck did not know. “There is bound to be a shelter on some vessel for you, and plenty of work to do,” he sighed, heart heavy as he looked around at his ruined home. “Find yourselves some quick, for we set sail at nightfall.” He then headed off, before we did the same. We found Kopaka on our way, sitting on a broken dock as he watched the crews ready themselves. Tiri tapped him on the shoulder, giving him a seldom nod. The Toa of Ice jumped and embraced him, unable to believe his eyes. “I survived, and so did you, brother. Which vessel are you going on?” “I’m not.” We looked at him with surprise, while he looked at the dark waters of the bay. “It’s out there, still,” he said. “I’m not sure if its more fearsome as a raging storm, or simply sitting there, waiting.” “What was out there... it is gone,” Nireta told him, explaining what happened at the waterfall. He listened patiently, but when she was done denied the truth she spoke. “No,” he refused. “It will never be gone. Even its gone from this ocean, it’ll just appear in the next one. And even if that monster has disappeared like you said it has, it’ll still haunt my nightmares for years to come.” “Please, Toa,” I insisted. “If you stay here, you will remain with its memory, and will never come to forget the ordeal. It is gone, and your fears are nothing to worry. I have seen it with my own eyes, the ocean is nothing more than itself anymore.” He was stubborn, remaining on that dock even mere moments before the convoy was ready to set sail. He refused to listen to us, and I couldn’t believe he would remain on Utywa for the oncoming winter, with no food or shelter. I didn’t want to believe it, but as the boats started moving, he was staying behind. When I had turned my back, a shout came from the deck, pointed to the docks. The Toa of Ice had dove into the bays, dashing furiously through the shallows. He porpoised under the waters, until he was waist deep in the bay, and someone was shouting for a ladder to be thrown to let the Toa onboard. I watched him climb aboard the vessel I was on, and rushed up to greet him. Someone threw him a towel to dry off, but he denied that, freezing the water and shaking the ice off of him. Like a baptism, that plunge was, as Kopaka had dove into his fear. The cold had numbed even him, freezing his core until even his uttermost doubts of the Element Lord remaining were shattered, and they blew away over the deck. Our Akaku’s met as we set off, and I could see the rejuvenated look in his eye. He nodded to me, muttering a thanks, before turning to see what work the captain had for him. He had seen the truth of our story as he swam out here, that there was nothing more in the dark waters but mud and wreckage. I gave one last look at our home before turning to the sea, as we sailed out into the thin, chilly airs of winter itself. End of Part I Review

Finally getting around to reviewing this! First off its pleasing to see your return to the library, and I've been anxiously awaiting this story's start. I've read the first few chapters a few times, and as with everyone else, I've been hooked into it. I'm curious at your ensemble of characters, because I'm wondering what each will bring to the table. It seems as if the primary conflict is discovering their pasts, but knowing you, there's more to it than that. But so far you've set up the play with a number of mysteries. I have a feeling that A Play of Light doesn't necessarily mean the beam of light, that it could mean something else, but I'm willing to wait and see. Enough general ranting, I'll get into the chapter by chapter. Three: Your characterization with your elementals is intriguing, such as Toa Nela's referring to being in her element at the beginning of the chapter. But whatever contraptions are being discovered on the island-- the tower of ice, the underground dome Vyroko falls into... they seem to be neutral places, advanced technologically but still playing into the nature aspect of the island. They seem neutral in the sense that they dint benefit or harm our Toa, so it seems the only question is what are they there for? Also, friend, chapter 3 is cut off from the last time I read it, you may want to fix that Four: Reading a little further into the chapter, it looks like Nela is in spirit form when she is at the ice tower? Could this possibly have influence on how she got to the top of the tower so quickly. Jehui and his constant seeing blank surfaces as gazes... does it mean that whatever is going on here on the island is more powerful than them, in terms of control on the island? Your sentence structure, I must comment. short and vague, with odd wordings, leave a good sense of building mystery here, but it sometimes makes me feel as though I'm missing details of the story. What was the third time they encountered the metal? Also, I feel like you havent mentioned Vyroko's Kanohi, if I havent missed it, and have you done this for a reason? Five: This is confusing and fascinating at the same time. In regards to Nehara/Vyroko, they seem o be getting closer in terms of direction to the mountain, but they do not seem... there. And as for the mist people, it seems something Great Being esque about it. But the whole discovering that little feedback system... is the island Jehui found a ship-in-a-bottle form of the real one? I'm going to take a break now, reread stuff, but I'll be back with more, trying to figure out this mystery youve conjured with this story. Looking forward to more!

Aren't you the one that posted a breakdown of this year by year a few months ago? I looked up glitch mob and got addicted to them from that blog post. I agree with your 2001 and 2008 choices-- Fortune days is a fantastic song that definitely fits the Phantoka/Mistika themes. Anyways, cool video!

Eek! If this is the story I think it is, woohoo! Congrats on that accomplishment!

Know that you can always improve yourself, you can always be a rep stronger or a second faster. I row crew, and no matter how hard you go on the erg machine, the monitor always shows that you can be a tenth of a split faster. Booker Dewitt kinda sums it up best up there, you just gotta want it and obsess over it. If you ever don't feel like it, just tell yourself that you won't be as good if you skip the video as you will if you go to your class. "You have to want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe" Look up "Welcome to the grind" and "Motivation (How bad do you want it)" on youtube, they just get you in that mode where you want to exercise and prove yourself better.

Where Wisdom and Valor Fail Part I: The Places Loved “The town does not exist except where one black-haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the hot sky. The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die.” Walking the moonlit beaches of the Charred Forest, Kapura peered out at the ocean, looking for something in the depths. He was not sure what he was looking for, only that he was looking for something, according to Turaga Vakama. Yet the ocean remained uninterrupted, not even the light breeze rippling its seamless surface. Nothing could be seen out there tonight gleaming in the moonlight that suggested that there was anything on the beach besides the Ta-Matoran himself. He could not even distinguish the village of Ga-Koro under the night’s sky, the fishermen of the town in bed for a few more hours. As he watched the scene, Kapura felt some resonating peace, feeling in the deepest hours of the night a quiet that he rarely knew. This was a night where the shadows were not to be feared, an occasion seldom found on Mata Nui, especially in these “Dark Times”, as the Turaga called them. Makuta had used the Rahi and the very island against the Matoran, and months and years of fighting had left the villagers in a chaotic mind state; they now knew no rest, so paranoid that the Makuta lurked in every shadow that they even carried out their chores in a raging fashion. According to the myths of Ta-Koro, not even the burnt trees behind Kapura were safe. Too much propaganda had built up in the villages of the enemy to where it was said with certainty of truth and little proof. But out on this still ocean, out where all of the worries had not littered, Kapura was certain that the shadows were nothing more than shadows. Makuta could only control the island, the Ta-Matoran knew; The tyrant’s grip could not brush the stars. Surrounded by paradise, he did not want to leave. The sand seemed to nuzzle his body as he sat against a tree of the forest, procuring him to stay and watch this starry night until the sun rose over the ocean. But Vakama would worry, not understanding that some shadows were nothing more than shadows. Reluctantly picking himself up, with nothing to report of tonight, he turned to the path from where he came. He unsheathed his throwing disk as he saw the glow in the forest, which had not been present when Kapura had come this way. Something up ahead illuminated the path of packed ash, unmoving as he took blatant steps toward it. The stillness would have put any other Matoran on edge, nervous for a possible meeting with a new infected Rahi, but the Ta-Matoran was as stoic as the ocean behind him, snaking his way off the path to reproach from a more cautious angle. It was no new Rahi, but a stone that sat embedded in between the roots, glowing red about the dark wood. There were no signs of it having been placed, per lacking fresh tracks leading away from it. Though a bit puzzled on why it was here, Kapura knew exactly what it was, and what the Turaga had said about anyone that might find it. They'd been lost months ago, when the exiled Takua was caught in an ambush set by the Makuta and his Rahi in Kini-Nui, and now Kapura looked around warily for any monsters that might be lurking in the shadows. There were none, he assured himself, but as the stone pulsated, its power within reverberating through the rock, Kapura suddenly knew the night was not as still as it seemed. *** He came back to the village in the dead of night, without a sound, yet the blushing glow of the Toa Stone brought everyone from their beds. Kapura could feel the eyes of Ta-Koro anxiously watching him, and as he crossed the village square to the suva, he felt more nervous than he had ever remembered having been; but he had walked the charred forest for years, with the Rahi hidden, watching in fear, and through them, the Makuta. The villager’s eyes were nothing more, so why should he be nervous? Yet as he approached the suva, he remembered all of the nights he had thought of it as nothing more than ornamental; but with this stone in hand, he finally felt the holy aura that had been long forgotten. He emerged moments later, feeling as when he had awakened for the first time on the beaches of Ga-Wahi. Though he walked with the same stride as he did when practicing, Kapura felt taller and more agile than the Ta-Matoran he had just been. Through his being pulsated a power, remnants of the stone, something that he had not felt earlier in the evening. “Turaga, what does this mean?” the new Toa of Fire asked, crimson hands reaching toward the elder for answers. “Hope, I think,” Vakama replied with a smile, his joyful mask an orange candle in the blackness of the night. *** He was on lookout once again, this time pacing above the walls of Ta-Koro with the uncanny feeling of vertigo, as he was now considerably taller than the rest of the guard. Discontent with walking aimlessly along the pathway, Kapura propped himself on a ledge, while Matoran were nestled in their posts. A colony of Nui Rama had been sighted out in the Wahi that afternoon, and a scout had been reported missing not long after. Jaller and Vakama had put the Guard on full alert, and Kapura had returned immediately to his old post. The two officials had mentioned nothing, as if the transformation had not occurred. Though presence of a Toa was a novelty on the island, he and the villagers would have time to marvel at it later. But wasn’t it the job of a Toa to save others? Kapura thought once he had settled into the watch, curious if they were going to pull him for some other job. Fog was making its way from the charred forest in the distance to the path of the village, and everyone was holding their breath for the Ta-Koran to walk out of it, safe and sound. The order was for a search party provided he was not found by nightfall, but somehow Kapura felt it was far past the time when a party should have been sent out. As all eyes waited for motion from the gloom, the unsure Toa let his own vision wander. The darkening skies of Ta-Wahi were clear of anything dangerous, and the ground was still… but the lava caught Toa Kapura’s eye. The Lake of Fire seemed to pour towards the Koro, the village being some plug that had been pulled from a great drain at the bottom. The lava didn’t usually flow like that toward the village, unless… “Captain,” Kapura spoke up. The yellow Hau jolted in his direction, the breaking of the silence startling him. “What do you see, Kapura?” he asked. “The water drains from a sealed bowl,” he riddled the Matoran, gesturing to the lava. Cocking his head in confusion, Jaller scanned the lake as Kapura had done, and seeing what the Toa saw, he cursed. Red armored Rahi were sneaking their way to the city gates, hovering across the lava they blended into. If they didn’t act now, the beasts would be swarming Ta-Koro soon. Jaller began to issue hand signals, with Kapura relaying them to the Matoran who could not see the orders. The company took aim, and with a mighty heave, the disks flew. As quickly as the projectiles soared away, their targets jumped from their camouflage to come flying back. Wings were beating fast enough to deflect the bamboo as a swarm of Nui-Rama charged in a beeline towards the guards, and all was chaos. Angry buzzing filled the air as they swept on top of the guards with sharp claws. More disks and staffs were unsheathed to beat the creatures back, landing solid blows to counter the Rahi; and though they jabbed back with the fury of a bonfire, the Nui Rama had the edge in size. Kapura leveled the playing field with that factor as he tackled one of the flyers away from a Matoran, almost too fast to see. The time for moving slow was past, and now he dove in with speed enough to match the Rahi’s own, as they spilled onto the ground of the village. The Toa of Fire landed on bottom and was forced to stare into the eyes of a rusted Kanohi mask as the beast snarled at him, revolted as they grappled face to face, and that was enough motivation to kick the beast off of him. It tried flying away, but he snatched its wing with blinding speed and delivered a blow that subjugated the Rama. He would deal with that one later, Kapura thought as he felt the strength of a Toa coursing within him. With the use of his old tricks he was on the wall again, dropping in on another beast as they swarmed over the rest of the Guards. Landing on the back of a beast, he sent it crashing down to the ground with a screech, the shock of its fall leaving it immobilized. Spotting another about to descend on him, he grabbed the stunned creature, spinning it once, twice, and then… he let it go, crashing into the advancing attack, and sent the duo soaring away from the battlefield. The hot flash on his face as he ran back to battle was not from the flush of embarrassment from the bewildered Matoran who had seen that, Kapura figured as he bashed back another invader. He could feel something more behind his punch than had been there before, as if an extra vein of energy was flowing through his arms. His Kanohi had been activated, Kapura realized, his fist collided with another Nui Rama head, nearly cracking its infected mask as he landed the blow. Momentum was building in him, letting his adrenaline rise as his attacks became more furious, throwing punches faster and faster. He could feel the power rising, but he could not muster it down. He was out of control now, even the Matoran backing away as to not get sideswiped. He could hear Jaller yelling his name, see the flames from the lake of fire, a Nui Rama coming at him with high speed… He could not block this one as it came at him, and it felt as if his vision cracked. A claw threw Kapura back, making him blink in pain, but as he hit the stone ground behind him, his eyelids would not come up. *** He awoke to birdsong, though something did not register in his mind that there were no birds in Ta-Koro. A long call made him open his eyes, and all at once fire leapt into his vision. He was flying high above an ocean of lava, clutched onto the tail of a phoenix. Kapura wanted to scream, as he felt nothing but the feathers keeping him from falling to the fire. They were nowhere near any shores, letting the Toa of Fire wonder how long the bird had been towing him for. He could see them struggling, down below; two titans on a slab of rock, fighting something that swarmed above their heads. One possessed the armor of a jungle warrior, coated in plates of the green of the treetops, the blues of the oceans, and the white of the snow, while the other was in darker hues, the red of the lava and the brown of the rock accompanied by the black of a dark night. He had spent countless nights finding nothing out on the shores of Ta-Wahi, and now he knew why, because these were the figures he had been seeking; they had been in this ocean of fire the entire time, not in the water. The latter Kapura sensed was part fire, like himself, but was struggling to control the rock’s stability in the lava flow. From up in the air Kapura watched them wobble; as if sensing his thoughts, the bird dove, and dropped him in the midst of the battle. The two titans took notice, but too distracted by their own struggle to heed him any greeting. Kapura focused on keeping them steady, and before they could fathom what was going on, Kapura was dragging them up a bank of rock that had appeared off to the side. Whatever it was attacking the two could not follow them to the bank, and as the Toa of Fire yanked them from the slab, they were freed from what only they could see. Picking themselves up off the ground, they turned to Kapura, eyeing him with equal parts of curiosity and caution as he himself stared up in awe. “Who are you?” he asked them. “More than any one Toa, their unity come to physical form,” the darker one spoke with a hard gaze. “But a pulse comes from within you that has a greater sense of wholeness then either of our own. Rather, it is us who should be asking who you are, since you are to complete the journey we had set out on.” “Our time is yet to come, Akamai. He may be whole, but he is incomplete, though not by much,” the lighter figure pointed out to his partner. “He still has pieces of himself missing.” “He will have a counter to help him, Wairuha,” replied Akamai. “Though you are as great as we are, Toa Kapura, you will have someone else out there. Whether it be someone to lean on or to rise against, you will not face your troubles alone.” The two titans nodded to him, and then turned toward the rock plain before them. “Wait!” Kapura called. “What was it that you were fighting?” “The same thing that you will,” Akamai responded. Kapura was about to ask what he meant by that, but the bird swept in to take him away, and a yell of fright and surprise was all he could manage. He was then pulled away, as the phoenix began to rise into the black abyss above the lava. *** Though he felt the heat on his face that came from nearby, he felt strangely cold and weak; his chest quivering as he pulled himself up, Kapura opened his eyes to a strained sight, anything beyond what must have been the Sacred Fire a dark, unclear fuzz. Reaching up to his clammy face, he found his Kanohi Pakari gone. His mind felt distracted without it, as if he were unable to focus on anything more than slumping against the wall. The voice of Turaga Vakama sharpened his senses, however, his posture snapping to attention as the elder saw he was awake. He coaxed the Toa back against the wall, offering him a cup, which Kapura thankfully took. “What happened?” he managed to groan between gulps. “You were overwhelmed,” Vakama reported. “You were so engrossed in you mask power that when one of the Rahi shattered it, the sudden loss of all of your strength took you out. I am sorry Kapura, but your Kanohi is gone.” “My... my mask...” he breathed, setting down the now empty cup. “How will I do without it?” “The Suva had minor damage, and I am missing Kanohi as well, but I still have some Noble masks to spare. I will lend you one, for now.” The Turaga passed a mask into his hand, and Kapura fitted it onto his face. His vision cleared, and now he could see the beyond the fire as if it were a sunny day. Kanohi Ruru. Blinking a few times to adjust to the mask, he could see Vakama staring into space with a look of sadness he’d never known the Turaga to possess. “What troubles you, Turaga?” Kapura asked. When all Vakama did was stare for a few moments, the silence lasting longer than Kapura would have preferred, he asked once more. “I want to send you out there, and I know you want to go, but I am afraid of losing you to something greater than a swarm of Nui Rama, that you may disappear into the shadows as the villagers have.” “The fisherman never learned to cast while someone else was holding the rod,” the left hand reminded the elder. “And that is why I must let you go,” Vakama agreed, seeing wisdom in Kapura far beyond his years. “If you’re to journey out there, however, you need more power.” “And how am I to acquire more power?” “Long before you remember, when we Turaga were much younger, we discovered masks hidden around the island. No doubt that now they are guarded by Rahi, but there is a chance that some of them may be missed by the Makuta. If you can somehow find some of these masks whilst in pursuit of our missing brothers, then you would be taking the first step to prove yourself as a true Toa.” “Where would I look for these masks?” Kapura asked excitedly. “In places that only a Toa could reach,” the elder responded. “Places that the rest of the Matoran only see with wonder… or fear.” Part II: The Places Feared “It moves. They are all alive. Even the moon bulges in its orange irons to push children, like a god, from its eye. The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die” The lava flows of Ta-Koro were gone in the blink of an eye, replaced by a sea of emerald leaves on the treetops above Le-Koro. A feeling of nervousness filled Kapura as he sat behind Kongu atop his Gukko Ka; as they prepared for flight, a runway Matoran was instructing the bird to flap its skeletal wings. Once, twice, harder each time, until a sheet of energy appeared on the wings. Kapura felt the tension build in the bird’s muscles, and clutched the seat tightly as he and Kongu exploded into the sky. The throttle behind the bird’s flight left Kapura sitting tight jawed in the second’s seat, one hand pressed firmly on his pack. Beneath the layer of leather, he could still feel the two Kanohi sitting snugly, but he feared for them slipping out and into the forest below. He’d found a Pakari in a swamp cave, in Le-Wahi with the assistance of a ground scout named Tamaru, and a Kaukau in the branches of a Charred Forest tree that he’d always noticed as a Matoran. However, looking at it as a Toa, there was something different about it, and in the topmost part of the web, Kapura had spied the mask, its unworn sheen of grey blending in with the forest. It had taken some climbing to reach, and at the very top of the tree he had been more nervous than he ever had in his life. Now, as he skyrocketed above the tallest trees on the entire island, he couldn’t believe he’d been afraid at the peak of a sapling compared to where he was now. Rocketing through the open sky, he looked ahead to where the Nui-Rama nest stood, but also to the open space that was all around them, where they could easily be knocked into the treetops below. “Here they come!” Kongu shouted above the wind in their faces, pointing toward several specks flying their way. The Nui-Rama flew to meet the approaching Gukko Force, ready to fend off the invaders. Unsheathing a disk from the cache Kongu had given him, he began to fire on the Rahi. Having never shot from other than a still wall, the first few were lost to the trees below, and Kapura had to force himself to not glance the disks falling into the green; but his misses had allowed the creatures to bunch in, granting him a better target. The next few were more accurate, clipping a wing of several Rahi. As Kongu steered, Ka moved with an agility matched by only his pilot, dipping under the claws as they swooped at the Gukko. He thrusted forward, the trees speeding past their vision as they soared toward the hive. “They’re plenty mad-angry!” Kongu shouted. They were almost there when a Rama came down upon the Gukko’s wing. It came from behind, twisting its talons into Ka until the energy sheet covering his skeletal wing flickered into nonexistence. The burdened bird went off balance, contesting to stay aloft whilst Kongu pulled at the reins, keeping straight and true for as long as possible. Kapura was a maelstrom of lashing as he fought off other attacks as treacherous, eyes fixated on the Rama as he felt Ka’s descent. Out of the corner’s of his vision, he could see the treetops and the shadows below them, but he would not look at the ground, he would not look at the ground… Ka’s flight failed at the rim of the nest’s opening; crashing against the side, the bird spun, and unable to uphold itself and passengers any longer, it dove, taking Toa and Matoran alike as he dipped into the darkness. Kongu slipped off of Ka and onto the floor of the catacombed hive, stunned from the fall. The Gukko slumped, having taken the brunt of the landing, but other than his attacked wing, was unharmed. Looking to the second's seat, Kongu grew troubled, seeing Kapura was not there. He looked around the area, but the Le-Matoran's eyesight was poor in the darkness of the hive. A screech from above caught his attention, and squinting, Kongu could see fleeting bursts of orange, in the dark beneath the pinprick of white that was the sky beyond the hive. Dots flitted in and out of that spot, but were they Rama beasts, Kongu wondered, or flanking Gukko Force? He silently prayed for the latter, as he got glimpses of the skirmish above. "Is it just you?" a voice called. Kongu startled, whirling to see the frightened mask peeking out from one of the catacombs. "No, up there!" he exclaimed. "I know not how he high-flies, but it is Toa Kapura! Fellow guardsmen distance-followed us as we entered the hive, and we're here to spirit-send you to Ta-Koro!” "I hope you don't mean that in a literal sense," the guardsmen replied, spotting the small sparks of fire that signaled Kapura up in the heights of the hive. "But is it really the Toa?" he asked warily, gripping a Ta-Koran staff. "How could it not be?" Kongu asked. Whatever the Matoran had to say was cast aside as he pointed behind Kongu, as a Nui-Rama could be seen soaring toward the ground. They each readied their tools, but it was not flying, instead tumbling into the ground with a crunch. The two sat tense as they watched it still for several moments, before its wings began to move. Kongu was about to throw his disk when the wings fell again, and Kapura climbed off of the Rahi's back, his Kanohi changing back to the Noble Ruru. "Turaga Vakama still had his Komau," he remarked to the two, shaking his head at the fallen Rahi. "There is something in the swarm's mind, consuming them in the same way as the fires did the forests. Where is the guard?" The tunnel they followed had rotted into existence, decaying bits of hive material stemming off aged pockets of stone. A sickening green, the material was incredibly stiff, strong enough to support the entire hive, yet it crackled like straw when a lick of flame caught a low hanging strand. Kapura snuffed it out as he crawled behind the Ta-Matoran guide, Kongu giving the place a look of revolt. Kapura wanted to burn his way out, slice through the material with his fire, but the thought of what else might be lurking in the walls kept him at bay. An amber glow came from a hollow in the tunnel, a small campfire burning inside between a dozen or so Ta-Matoran. Their yellow toned eyes seemed to brighten upon seeing whom the scout had brought back, and they excitedly thrusted their two-pronged spears into the air as they gave the Ta-Koro salute. “How did you get in?” one of them asked. “We have been sending scouts searching for tunnels to the surface, even perhaps down to Onu-Koro, but to no avail!” “We flew down on Ka,” Kapura explained, gesturing to Kongu beside him. “The rest of the Gukko Force is on its way, and we’re going to fly you out. Is everyone here?” “Only one scout we sent at a time, so this should be everyone,” another called, initiating a roll call. “We are all here, armed and ready. But you, Toa Kapura, look like you need a weapon, if you are to fight the Rama again. Have my staff, and use it as well as you did in the Guard.” Kapura took it, and jabbed into the tunnel, giving it a test. With only a fraction of his power he sent a shot of flame from the twin prongs, producing a whoop from the company. “That is not all though. You must also have this.” The whoops dropped to murmurs, as something else was passed forward, and an emerald stone made its way to Kapura’s hand. Another? he thought, looking at it quizzically. “We found it a few patrols ago, off in another tunnel. It might be best if you held onto it for now.” The Toa nodded, putting it in his pack, and pulling out the Kanohi Pakari, letting it melt into his face. If more Nui-Rama were waiting outside, it would be of some use provided his own strength was not enough. A twisted figure stood in Kapura’s likeness at the mouth of the tunnel, and Kongu was suddenly reminded of the Ta-Matoran’s suspicious words when he had arrived. The Nui-Rama that the Toa had crashed in on had risen, but it was no longer a flying beast— skeletal legs standing on clawed feet, and a body draped in the rotting wisps of the hive, it was now a monster. The head was an amalgam of the two infected masks the Rama had worn, snarling empty eyed at the rescue party; The debauched body looked as if it could not move without disintegrating on itself, but it smoothly raised a slender arm, hook bared at the Toa of Fire, as if to challenge him as an equal. Too nauseated to look longer at the newest underground abomination, Kongu retreated to the back of the company. The rocking flight into the nest had not sickened Kapura, nor had the rotting vibe of the tunnels. But it was the wisps of shadow that seemed to hang about it that made the creature repulsive, something darker than normal shade that his Mask of Night Vision could not dispel. This was no undiscovered Rahi, he somehow knew. It was the same force in the mind of the swarm, independent and far more sinister than an animal’s survival instinct. His grip tightening on the staff he had been given, Kapura jumped at the beast. He went toward the thing in an upward feint, but it followed the arc of the pronged staff, leaping upward and over the Toa. Surprise from the move slowed him a moment too long, and it lunged at him, a hook swinging at his shoulder. The prongs caught it, momentum shoving it back towards its owner. The other hook was swung, his entire other side left open, but it was met with the spear again, and this time it was the creature’s turn to be surprised. Snarling, he shoved at the monster, and swinging his staff, let loose on the creature. Twirling the staff with a double-handed grip, Kapura swung at the masked head, throwing all his force into the blow, but the creature ducked and knocked his feet out from under him. Rolling away as the hooks came down, Kapura sprung up and lunged again, but the hooks came down on the staff; his momentum kept him moving however, and with the raise of an elbow, smashed the creature in the face and leapt over it as it reeled. Spinning, he jabbed at its abdomen, sending a jolt of fire— the responding screech was of anger, and it lashed forward— but it could not land a blow, for the staff went spinning in the Toa’s hands, the monster unable to differentiate what end of the staff was which. Kapura used that confusion to deflect its blows, slashing downward toward its right side and then coming back up to hit the same spot, leading with a parallel hit to one of the masks. The Rama beast was in pain now, its screeching emanating its rage. The novice Toa had gotten lucky with the first few blows, but was unprepared for the force with which its hooks came at him. A shoulder caught Kapura in the chest, and he was forced backwards, his staff spinning now on the defensive. The hooks caught on the prongs, and shoved the Toa again, a lash sent the spear smashing back into Kapura’s own mask. The Rama monster connected one of the hooks with his open shoulder, and Kapura could feel as it dug in. Holding the spear one handed, he swung it into the creature’s arm, before it could dig the hook deeper, and the two tumbled away from each other. Blasts of fire leapt from the dark, cover fire as Kapura charged again, flames crackling from between the prongs of his staff. The creature responded as shadow energy crackled between its hooks, the energies neutralizing as they hit each other. Sending a slash of flame at the abomination’s face, cutting off its vision, he jabbed at its abdomen, and kicked out its feet. But the hooks once again grasped the staff, twisting Kapura’s wrist as they did so. He gave into the monster’s move, and moved with his staff, ducking under the controlling arm. Raising his foot, he kicked at the vulnerable shoulder, before a pain was sent up his forearm, and he backed off. Shadow energy crackled in the “Rahi”’s claw, grazing Kapura’s limb. He yelled in agony, slowly burning the pain off as he charged the hand with fire. Sending a stream into the beast’s face, he jabbed towards its waist, sending more flame into its torso. A screech let him think he was winning, but the blindsided swipe of a hook sent the Toa reeling. Toa and monster were flashes in the dark as the Matoran assemblage watched, the battle disappearing and reappearing all around the cave. Kongu watched with a burning intensity, with the hope to glimpse Ka; as there was no sign of the Gukko Force flank, he hoped to glimpse his bird somewhere in the milliseconds of light. But the shadows engulfed the place, something darker in the air that had come with the arrival of the beast. We have to leave, the Gukko pilot thought as he felt the ground trembling while the fight advanced. It was becoming too dangerous to stay, and if they didn’t escape soon, they would have jumped into their own grave. They had to find a way out, to get out of the way of the danger, and if Ka was up to it, the bird was, at the moment, the only option. It was a futile attempt, to watch streams of fire be extinguished by the shadows they sought to fight off, but the Le-Matoran was also worried, uncertain of how much longer Kapura could hold the beast off. Could he buy enough time for them to escape? The monster had Kapura pinned to the ground, its hooks pushing the staff towards his throat, but the Mask of Strength was holding up. Kapura grunted as he matched the beast’s brawn, attempting to break the stalemate. In desperation, he threw his strength to the side, and they rolled, Toa and monster switching positions. Fire from his palm shot to meet an ascending hook, reducing it to slag. The creature screamed mercilessly, finally admitting agony, and was distracted enough for the Toa to deliver a solid punch, fragmenting its already contorted face. Writhing, it lashed out, knocking Kapura across the hive, and he hit the wall of a catacomb, collapsing onto all fours; as he rose, he wasn’t sure if it were him or the ground shaking harder. The warped Rama jumped at him with enough force that it looked like it was flying, hooks ready to tear the Toa to shreds. Kapura mentally screamed— it was closing in too fast for him to concentrate, he wouldn’t be able to use his speed to escape… The ground erupted between the two, and the monstrosity never made it to its target. Shards flew up in the air in all directions as a hole ripped itself into existence, one of them shooting right into the creature’s chest. The impaling rock cut its flight short, and it collapsed then and there, face a mix of agony and rage as it died. He was transfixed by it, not even stirred by the shapes climbing from the hole, nor the hand reaching for him. “Come, Toa, it is time to leave.” *** The Matoran had escaped, and except for the buzzing of the wings amongst the catacombs, the hive was quiet once more. The Gukko Force reinforcements never arrived, having been driven off by a more formidable part of the swarm that inhabited the top of the hive; the Rama there now flew around robotically, as though back to business as usual. A few of the flyers hovered above the hole that had broken into the floor of the hive, where their mutilated “cousin” lay impaled by a rock. The Matoran and their Toa had escaped through here, but none of the creatures dared to follow in pursuit. No, the darkness was a rein that tugged tightly if they even tried. All they could do was look at the corpse, and the dark hole that the above creatures had retreated to. So it is true then, a voice whispered through the minds of all the infected Rahi. The Toa has arisen. A wall of dark thought wavered through them, making them screech in pain; then the darkness shallowed, and all was quiet again. *** The descent had brought him to one of the deepest levels of the Great Mine, where the sounds of battle had long faded away into the digging of the miners. The rhythm of it eased his mind, as his thoughts were still worried about the Ta-Matoran. The Ussalry would take care of them, their Onu-Koran rescuers had reassured him, as he was taken down a different tunnel than his people. The elevator he was now on shook as it descended, but it lent a view to the rest of the mine that ultimately calmed Kapura; From this deep down, the glow of the shelves that each Matoran worked on were faint stars in an underground night, he observed as he stepped off the elevator, remembering the stars on the beach in the early hours of the morning. Taipu led him to where a handful of Onu-Matoran leaned over the edge of a pit, lightstones posted to illuminate its contents. They scribbled into tablets as they studied, their mining tools discarded and broken near machines sitting still in the shadows. His footsteps unfamiliar, they looked up from their study, heads askew at the sight of a Toa. "It is embedded in some sort of layer our mining equipment cannot break through," one of them explained, gesturing at the sundial at the bottom of the shallow pit. "But it is of entirely different rock than the surrounding layer. Which would mean it was placed there, and is therefore easy to remove, does it not?” "And why would one put a sundial underground in the first place?" another Onu-Matoran asked, scratching his head. Kapura's brow raised, and he filled his hand with fire as he leaned down to see what the miners spoke of. A slab of the Matoran day cycle, eighteen hours, sat there, embedded in the rock, as ordinary as anything, except for being placed where no light could reach. And was that... the faint whisper of the wind? Leaning closer, he peered at the edges of the circle. Miniscule cracks separated the timepiece and the rest of the rock, air floating through the cracks and brushing Kapura's arm. If it did not go around the entire ring, he would’ve thought it as a natural fault, but he saw what the Matoran had— the sundial was placed there, and there was nothing to bring it up from the earth. "We need to figure out how to extract this so we can keep digging," the first miner said. "But we can't scratch through a single inch of this layer. So if there's no way to dig through it or blow it up, how else do we progress?” The light posts that the miners had set up casted illumination evenly along the sundial, but the fire in Kapura’s hand danced, an uneven lick of shade falling on the rock, shifting as he strode around the circle. Raising his hand as he walked, the height of the fire casted a long shadow with Kapura’s Kanohi. It passed over each hour increment— seventeen, eighteen, one, two, three… But when Kapura’s shadow passed over four, the darkness of the niches on the tile began to deepen, before intensifying into a bright glow. Startled, he stumbled backwards, the fire in his palm extinguishing itself, and the even illumination of the floodlights manifested once more. The miners looked to him in surprise. “What was that?” the first one asked. “Do it again!” The Toa of Fire nodded, relighting his palm. Concentrating on making a shadow at the four o’clock mark, it began to shine once more, and the rest of the symbols followed suit. With a singular flash from all the symbols, they began to sink, some mechanism from below pulling the sundial down. The miners scribbled on their tablets furiously as the edges of the pit formed a staircase, descending down into a blinding white column. They headed down the staircase with caution— though nothing protruded from the icy blue walls of the place, Kapura was still on the lookout for traps, but something told him that this was not a place that would be rigged. It may not be a suva, Kapura thought, but there was a palpation he felt that could not be broken by the miner’s industrial mindset, as they theorized amongst themselves what this could be. At the bottom of the staircase was a pedestal, a golden Kanohi Hau floating upon it. Around the mask was a hologram of the sundial, which morphed into a single word in Matoran- Rahi. Kapura eyed the mask, as the Matoran stood surrounding it, in scripting their finding. A Hau.… Just like the minerals that the Onu-Matoran needed to mine, this was what Kapura needed to dig up, a mask that he had not had, that would have been useful in the fight with the shadow creature… But how had it been placed here, miles below the surface in a place that had only been recently uncovered, in almost a thousand years of mining? A Matoran reached up to remove the mask from the pedestal, but his hand passed right through. He tried it a few more times, refusing to believe that it was an illusion. Puzzled, Kapura stepped forward to reach for the mask… …and made contact with it. Kapura reeled as his vision exploded, scorching fire and lava replacing the Matoran miners and the staircase. He was elsewhere, watching the swinging fire sword of Akamai as he and Wairuha fought a legion of crab-like creatures in the darkness. The Toa of Fire wanted desperately to help, to fight alongside, but could not leap into the scene. They struggled, and once the Kaita even fell. Then sparks showered over the two, and Kapura was eye to eye with a rusted, pitted mask just like the ones the Nui Rama wore. But where the eyeholes on the masks of the Rahi were dead, a pair of crimson eyes glared at him, before forming a claw that reached at him. But another light came from somewhere else, before— “Toa Kapura!” somebody called. He was sprawled on the bottom of the staircase, once again seeing the white and blue walls that surrounded him. A Matoran peered at him from above, worry on his mask as he saw the Toa laying on the steps, and another lightly shook his arms. “Kapura, are you alright?” He nodded, righting himself as he sat on the stairs, the Kanohi Hau still clutched in his hand. “You don’t want to dig deeper here,” he answered him, his eyes insisting they returned to the mines. Letting the mask melt into the face, he urged the Matoran back up the steps. “You want to… dig up, toward the light.” A small smile was on Vakama’s mask as he watched Kapura walk though the Ta-Koro gate, the newly restored guards raising their staffs in salute to their rescuer. He could not have been happier to see the Toa; while he still walked in that slow stride he always practiced in, there was a new swagger that the Turaga’s left hand possessed, an air of experience that had not been there when he’d left on his mission. For all his happiness though, Vakama looked back into the depths of his dwelling, an anxiousness entering his chest. Maybe this is it, he thought nervously, returning his gaze to the Toa of Fire. Maybe he is ready. “I did it, Turaga,” Kapura said in his raspy voice. “Practice has paid off, like you said it would, and it helped me find the Kanohi.” “Indeed it has, and I congratulate you,” Vakama nodded, his fingers fidgeting on his staff. “I have watched the suva fill with great pleasure in your absence. You have done well.” He was speaking vaguely, he knew, but his mind was elsewhere, as a decision was tearing at the Turaga. Now was the time to choose— not only if Kapura was ready to bear it, but if Vakama was willing to finally pass on the responsibility. Yes, it is time. “But there is still more we need to discuss on that matter. Please, come inside.” The fires of the hut burnt low around them, crackles of flame filling the air as the two sat with a table between them. “The Guard has informed me about what happened in the Nui-Rama hive,” Vakama began, “and now I fear of what else is on this island that we are ignorant of. The Matoran’s stake here dwindles as we remain in our villages, while Makuta becomes bolder.” “I can feel him out there, Turaga,” Kapura agreed. “His spirit is in the Charred Forest, and other places of destruction, where wisdom and valor have failed. The Makuta is out there, on those verges. But isn’t our discovery of the infected masks an advance for our side?” “It is, but there are creatures out there, in corners of this island that I hope you never have to visit, where the Rahi are loyal to the Makuta even without one of those masks,” Vakama woed. “But, given your success so far, I think you are ready to face them.” “Turaga, what of the other Toa stone that was found?” Kapura queried. “Is it possible that there is another Matoran out there that Mata Nui would want to be a Toa?” “There could be,” Vakama supposed, reaching into the shadows of a slot in the wall. “But they would not be the Toa that you are.” Coming back to the table, he placed an object in front of Kapura. It was a dull orange, but shined with a golden hue from the fires that reflected off of its surface. “It looks like a Kanohi mask, but it is not one anyone else on Mata Nui wears,” Kapura commented. “You have gathered the many masks of the island, but this is one mask that you will not find out there,” Vakama murmured to Kapura. “This is the Kanohi Vahi, the Mask of Time; I would call it a Great Mask, if it were not far beyond the levels of a Kanohi Pakari or Hau. This is the most powerful mask on the island, Kapura, and its power is like no other force that you will ever know.” “Greater than a Great Mask?” he pondered. “How did you come upon it?” “I wasn’t always just a village leader, or a storyteller,” the elder smiled. “There was a time before this time, when I did… other things.” He did not say any more on the subject, and upon silent agreement, Kapura did not ask. “But the Vahi, yes, it is greater than a Great Mask, Toa, which also means it is harder to control. But with your conquering of the Great Masks so easily, it is a mask I hope that only you can control.” “M-Me?” Kapura stammered, taken aback. “Why would you expect only me to be able to control it?” “That is what I mean when I said no other Matoran could be the Toa you are— your mind is different from the other villagers, something I saw on the day we came to our island home. You have trained your body and mind as you practiced going slow in order to move fast. The discipline to do that is possessed by none in this village, perhaps even the island, other than you. The Vahi will slow one’s movement, and since you have already learned how to operate under the condition, you can overcome that particular setback of the mask. It is something you have trained for in all your time here, and I believe it is your destiny to master the Kanohi.” Kapura looked into Vakama’s eyes, remembering all the practice they’d done together in the first year; it had never made sense, articulating all of the parts of the stride Kapura was now fluent in. He’d never been sure of what it was for, but he did it anyway, and it went from an idea of Vakama’s to Kapura’s whole philosophical idea of life. But he saw now the plan that was in place, and as much as the Toa wanted to shake the dark thought of being used, he couldn’t. The training was woven through his being, physically and mentally, but there was something deep inside Kapura that disagreed with what was progressing. “This mask, it would not be used against common infected Rahi,” Kapura guessed, tracing his finger over the edge of the Vahi.

screen name as Nick Silverpen

I cannot pull the source, but for 2008 they considered going back to the island of Mata Nui and the Toa Nuva would fight the Karda Nui Makuta there