Kagha

This again ~~~ I'm an INTJ. Introverted (haha, whaddya know?) Intuitive Thinking Judger. The written profile actually sums me up pretty well.

Oh myyyyyyyyy, how could I stay away? You guys are too awesome.@Kini: Thank you heaps! I know not what picture you speak of, but if Akaku is involved it must be good. I wasn't expecting much out of this story as I basically just threw it together as an "I'm back:" featurette, but I appreciate your appreciation of it; means a lot. I was going for kind of rustic, 'waking up' vibes though, and I felt as though I needed to contrast the old and new BZs. I didn't go into as much description and backstory as I may have wanted, but there's always time for more fics.@Pteri: Well, that was pretty much what I was going for regardless, so ... Hahaha, no, I jest. Thank you!!@Akaku: I missed you guys too! And yes, I know, I was a bit concerned about skewing you guys' personalities. I did my best, though! And wow, has it really been two years? That just feels so ... strange. o-oThanks, all of you guys, for your feedback! I'll be posting more stories soon! I'm looking forward to getting active in BZP again.

5/5.I remember you.- Kagha

Contents Preface 1. Mercenary ~ ~ ~ ~ Original draft Hello, and welcome to the response thread for the epic Daybreak. By this time, many people who know me and follow my work are also well-acquainted with my exasperating self absolution of commitment or responsibility. This chronicle itself is a prime example of my indolent nature, originally started (quite unbelievably) in 2009 and never making it past a seventh chapter instalment before I said sayonara and fell out of BZP entirely. I understand that my flakiness is a deterrent point for many of my supporters, but if my word still holds any validity then I offer you it as a bonding rite to my devotion to this story. Daybreak is inspired primarily and heavily by an old BZRPG called Metru Nui: City of Fear, which was hosted by Munkiman back in the day and had a great deal of participant support paired with a solid storyline, which proved to be progressive as well as intriguing and engaging the duration of the game. Daybreak is meant to loosely carry on after the events that occurred in City of Fear, detailing the aftermath of Metru Nui’s retrieval and the disappearance of the vampires. It follows the adventures of a Matoran named Ayrh in his quest to unravel the web of shadows that, to this day, encapsulates the Great City of Metru Nui, and all the implications of the surviving vampire resistance. Please feel free to post any criticisms, questions, comments, or general feedback in this thread and I will do my best to keep track of and take into consideration your input. I will also be posting notices in this thread on the time frames of each successive update, which I hope to ease any tension some of my followers may be feeling. [Possibly] Important to Note: - City of Fear is a mind-bogglingly long time ago and I've gone through two hard drive wipes, an entirely new computer and a digital identity crisis in that time. I have no information on the profiles that many of you sent me when this was originally started; the only player-based characters that will appear in this story are the ones that have already been introduced in the preexisting chapters. As I do not have the profiles with me anymore, I will be improvising and making their personalities and actions up on the spot -- they may be drastically different than originally intended. I think this is a very unnecessary and irrelevant heads-up now, as I don't expect much of anybody to be too concerned about featuring in the epic or having their characters loyally portrayed, given how long ago City of Fear really was and how horribly inconsistent I was with Daybreak the first time around. This rendition is, though, is going to be a lot more loose than I had originally intended, and will not necessarily follow the City of Fear storyline religiously. Again, this is simply because of a loss of information. Regardless, I think it'll be fun to carry on. - I will be drawing most of the material for the beginning of the epic directly from the story as it was in progress from the old forum. However, I will also be rewriting a great deal of the preexisting material, so it will not be a direct import from the story as it was back when I started it. :: Instalment Notices :: Dec 21 : ‘Preface’ was posted Next chapter expected January 15-30 Jan 27 : 'Mercenary' was posted Next chapter expected March 10-30

Click the script at the end of each chapter to review. Gathered friends, It is an age of conflict. Dark forces clash ruthlessly in pursuit of world conquest. Their advances have been staunched only by the resistance of noble warriors, the heroic Toa, who fight to reclaim the world in the name of the Great Spirit. Over years of warring, legions of hellspawn have been felled, whole lands salvaged from the clutches of evil and nations rebuilt in a cosmic power struggle known to the ends of the earth as the War of Light. Soon, once a mighty and formidable threat, the terror of the Brotherhood of Makuta would become no more than a distant smear on the horizon of history. The sun would rise upon a new age of renaissance for all the Matoran races. Even still, peace, it seemed, would remain elusive. At the end of the Brotherhood’s reign, their wicked ruler was brought to face the finest knight of justice this era has ever known. Makuta, bringer of plagues and master of shadows, engaged in a fearsome battle with his only living equal: Takanuva, wielder of light and son of Mata Nui. In the end, the fiend was slain. Though he was defeated, Makuta made one last gambit amidst his dying throes. He placed a curse upon the earth, that with his passing the shadows of death would not end, but thrive. And thrive, they did. Thus came the birth of a new age, the Age of Vampires. Countless ranks of the Matoran races would be turned from their nature, distorted into savage beasts that lurked in the night and craved the blood of the uninfected. They spread through the lands like a blight, and they congregated at the centre of the holy world, in the great city of Metru Nui, under a new insidious leader known as King. Carnage turned the colour of the reputed island, once a City of Legends, into a City of Fear. The Age of Vampires persisted many years, but it was not fated to last. Full of bloodlust and bored with the stalemate his foes held him in, the shadowy King grew restless. In time, he would summon a battalion of demons and strike at Igni-Koro, the Village of Life, and the heart of the resistance. The last outpost of hope in an otherwise corrupt land was soon to be no more than dust. His advances spawned the Twilight Battle, a conflict reminiscent of the chaos of the War of Light, which would decide the fate of the holy world: restoral, or relapse. In the end, the wreakers of darkness could not stand against the forces of light any more than could their predecessors. King was slain by his own acolytes in a twist of deceit. The shadow of the plague lifted from the skies, and the suns shone once more. Much time has passed since then. The island of Metru Nui has become a City of Legends again. Its fear has been dispelled. The Matoran races have been labouring without pause to return it to its once and future splendour. The shadows still remain, though. Vampires stalk the alleyways, and many of King’s demonic council have escaped capture. Knowing there are monsters in the dark keeps the Matoran united – but they are also united by their hope for a brighter future down the road, and perhaps one day, true peace. They just have to keep walking down that road, together. The war rages on. But though the night is long, the sun will always rise.

Alright, so I just spent the past AM splurging on an undignified number of caffeinated beverages staying up to give a second read to both H&H and LST, which, needless to say, were both as spellbinding and vibrant as the first day you posted them. Since it has been a while since I've attended any form of BIONICLE fic, I feel as though I did need a kickstart to rejuvenate my memory and thrust me into the awesome rendition of the MU that you so elegantly depicted in your saga here, Pteri.I do have a small fusillade of confusions, though (mind you I haven't restarted Wings yet and have forgotten more than I am proud to admit) -- was the backstory on how the Toa Metru became Turaga again, the indecisive buggers, ever elaborated on? It was just barely mentioned in LST. And Ce- and Va-Matoran, I'm confident these mantles will be addressed in Wings but I currently have less than a clue what the affixes represent.I know, I should know more about my besties trilogy universe; I feel bad. /:In any case, though, I'll be caught up in no time.- KaghaPost Script Notice ~~~ Guiizeee, I believe that as fellow fans of Fernie's amazing epics, we should all be able to afford displaying some of our support through limb amputation banners. I whipped up some designs I thought I might post here, you guys may or may not find them horribly offencive. Feel free to grab the URLs with a right click or so and use the banners. If you do use them, remember to hyperlink them to the epic. Different sizes, colours or textures can be produced upon request. Just thought it'd be fun to whip up a few things, show some love. ^^ The punishment for not using one is death.

Decided to do something more far-future sci-fi meets BIONICLE, and here was the product. Enjoy! / / / Chasing Artakha Szora, Toa of Ice, stood on the deck of an Artakha craft, staring into the writhing aether whose only separation from siphoning his life force dry was just a millimetre of hard light. Szora had never gotten over the twisting nebulae inside the Zone of Darkness, nor had he met a single aethernaut who had. It was nothing like flat space, whose stars were remote and dead and whose planets were simple specks of reflection in an empty sea of incalculable distance. Here in the aether, everything was available and everything was present. Languid wisps of immaterial energy curled and tensed their multitudinous tendrils, the mists they emanated proffering panoramas of everything that ever had, did, or would exist in time and space......There were times when he felt as though he could just reach out and skim the scenes with his fingertips, like the surface of a pond. To just have a taste of what very plausibly could be the only manifestation of eternity in an otherwise stagnant universe. To corporally experience this impossible realm that, despite its freakishness, felt more like home than any flat space domain ever had......There were times he tried. The only thing he felt was the electric resistance of the integrity field snapping at his fingertips. For a brief moment the shock made his body phase into full form. It faded, but not quickly enough to prevent the cold pulses ghosting across his supposed-to-be inert heartlight. He exhaled, pushing vacuum from his compressors and watching as quantum intelligence dissipated in the stale air in a shower of blue sparks......‘Szora, you’re acting oddly,’ the words of a crewmate resounded in his cranium. ‘Is something haunting you?’.....It’d been Scrythar, a departed Skakdi navigator from several shiptime months ago. Szora had been startled at his implication. ‘Not slightly. Why?’.....The big husk of a Skakdi had shrugged then, training his hand at the penning of yet another map. Like most aethernauts, Scrythar had reinstated most of his armour with elemental manifestations instead. But instead of just a basic mechanical mast to support the function like several Matoran had, Scrythar had installed a nanoaugmetic limb to replace his forearm. The prosthetic had aether nodes that pulsed and chimed in flat space, but it was only when they entered the Zone did its majesty really come to life. Seraphic energy captured the limb and punched it intangible, leaving just a ghost of an image behind. Like in the myths of prehistoric Spherus Magna, a portion of Scrythar’s body had become capable in reality but manifest only in spirit......Szora was always captivated by how the way he wrote with that arm. He didn’t even seem to think of it. Rather, veins of light coursed directly from his arm into the scribe, which relayed the hololith map with chilling accuracy. In spite of this, the Skakdi always looked unwaveringly focussed on his work......He’d cackled halfheartedly then. ‘For all the relative time in the aether, I’ve probably lived here long enough to witness the birth and death of a few stars. I know a homesick sailor when I see ‘em.’.....Scrythar collapsed the map into a gleaming sphere and phased it into his palm. Then he gestured at Szora with the hololithic appendage. ‘You’ve been looking out into it, haven’t you?’.....Szora had nodded uneasily......‘What do you see?’.....He stopped to think......Then, ‘Home.’.....It was true. For how much he despised flat space, ghost images of the homeworld still washed up in the mists of the warp to stare him in the face before vanishing. He recognised the topography of the globe, and would absently wonder if those many dying spheres he’d seen otherwise in the warp had been glimpses of its future. The idea unnerved him......He remembered how Scrythar had left. They’d been travelling to the Ra Sector in flat space to explore displacements in the aether mapped there. Whenever they set off for a destination, it was impossible for Szora to tell whether the craft was moving or whether the Zone was just shifting around them. There was no friction or velocity, not even a hum going through the floor he could accredit the functioning of the ship to. The excursion could have taken fifteen minutes; it could’ve taken a few decades. Karzahni if he knew......‘Best of luck out there,’ Scrythar had told him. Szora gazed at him in confusion. ‘Where are you going?’.....‘In the aether, stuck inside this thing,’ he rapped on the hull for emphasis, ‘I have all the time in the universe. The Zone makes you immortal, see. Where’s the fun in that?’.....It wasn’t long after in the bridge that Szora found out there’d been a breach in the integrity field on the deck, and that Scrythar was gone. The dumb brute. It pained him that they’d never had a proper farewell ritual, and Szora wondered what he’d found out there......They had gotten to the Ra Sector, and that was where the beginning of the rest of eternity began for him. The displacements were boiled down to stormfronts, aetheric energy that debilitated their ship and left them stranded in the fringes of nowhere. Szora had lost track of how much shiptime had passed; it always went by so fluidly. They released distress calls back into the fringes of the aether dimension, but there was no telling when they’d be reached or responded to. ‘You know,’ the communications technician, a shady Vortixx-descended male, had said. ‘Relative time.’.....Maybe Scrythar had been onto something, Szora decided. It was better than being stuck in this craft, sessile in a sea of morphing energy without any means of latching on to the stream. He’d stand on the deck, like he was doing now, and see the tiny frozen stream of particulate where the field had been breached and the old Skakdi had slipped through. Scrythar. A name that could’ve been famed, but would never be noted for existing. Here in the warp, it seemed even a life was just relative. No flat spacers had been here to see: did it really happen?.....And there were other things that Szora saw in the aether as well. With time, the crust of his planet, materialising in the ghostly mists, was eroded into something much more heartfelt. If he’d been anywhere else his breath might have caught; here he didn’t breathe to begin with. Some emotional entity that dwelled among the circuitry in his chest stirred forlornly, and he found himself desperately reaching for the image. Rather than the shock he usually registered, his hand passed right through. It turned to ice as it breached the hard light. He lost all feeling as the corporality of his appendage disintegrated into a perfect ghost replica – just like Scrythar’s had been......Maybe it was just an aetheric fluctuation. Maybe the Zone had delivered this scene here just for him. For what might be the last time, he grazed a countenance that had first inspired him, all those nonexistent years ago, to ponder the idea of Artakha, to ponder the concept of the heavens......A transcribe played across his augmented sight. Something inside him snickered at the reading: Ignika Centric Time. Matoran jargon; even a set of calculations based on the most precise of protodermic motion on the homeworld was still only relative. Regardless, the missive continued to play. A series of digits tickled his vision......The mean time was special. Eleven aeons, millennia, centuries, and decades down to years and days in flat spacer time had passed since the reunification of the Spherus Magnans and their removed, spacebound cousins on the homeworld. A planet-defining turn in history, so far away now, almost just a shadow of lore. And here he was. Stranded in the aether, a scout deadset on finding Artakha, with half his arm energetically amputated, stroking a seraphic replica of the face of a woman he’d probably never see again. Love means nothing in the Zone of Darkness......A waste of such an eye-pleasing number.

So this is an old repost from the old BZPower. Please message me if I'm not eligible to be posting this, but I thought I might as well. A clump of seaweed rustled in the water as a figure quickly moved through the kelp forest, concealed by the shadows given off by said structures. Tension hung as ripples stirred outward by the movements of a single, large body in motion, racing steadfast through shafts of rare light filtering down from above, leaving behind merely a cloud of distorted water and a flicker of tentacles......Kalmah was in pursuit. The cephalopodan Barraki had just been in the open water, hunting for copepods and fish off the foot of the Kora Seamount, the one and only landform in the Pit, when he had come upon a rich bounty of crabs off the fringe of the forest. Unfortunately, as the eel Barraki commonly did, Ehlek had found a way to ruin a perfectly good feast, blindly taking Kalmah as a squid rahi and attacking him. Normally Kalmah would just let Ehlek get off with a casual jaw-breaker punch and continue to go after the crabs, but in his hunger the moron had scared off the cluster of tasty crustaceans and caused Kalmah an unforgivable amount of pain, delivered by the combination of a volt 0f mind-numbing electricity and the tear of talons through Kalmah’s rubbery, skin-like armor. Upon realizing whom exactly this drift-off squid was, Ehlek had fled immediately, but Kalmah wasn’t going to let him get off with a warning......“Get back here you coward!” Kalmah said, soaring forward with a blast of water from his abdominally located siphon and zipping through the brush at the fleeing green creature......“I didn’t do anything!” Ehlek called back frantically.“Didn’t do anything?” Kalmah roared. He flew by a lobster sitting on the frond of one large thallus, but ignored it. Food would come after he taught Ehlek a lesson. “You nearly shocked me to death, and almost severed off one of my arms, and you say you didn’t do anything?”.....“I told you, I thought you were a rahi!”“I’ll feed you to the rahi when I’m done with you!” Kalmah shouted. He reached out with his right tentacle, which had once been an armored, jointed arm more than seventy thousand years ago, and managed to clasp his tentacular club around the leg of the Barraki. Ehlek let out a screech, and began to struggle in the water. However, Kalmah’s hooks dug into his skin and he fell still. There was a long silence......“I said I was sorry,” Ehlek said nervously, like a timid child who’d just broken a vase......“Sorry doesn’t cut it,” Kalmah snarled.Ehlek cringed, staring at Kalmah with terrified blue eyes. Kalmah hissed and released his grip. Ehlek fell slowly in the water and caught the light of a small shaft, and it gleamed off the armor of his talons and limbs. Unlike all the other Barraki, Ehlek was part of a subspecies of sapient creatures that naturally lived in the water, so the mutagenic effects of the Pit didn’t fully overtake him, and he retained some metallic parts, making him the target of jealousy of lots of them......Ehlek was quiet for a moment. “You’re letting me go?”.....“There’s no point in hurting you,” the squid-base replied. “Just a waste of energy.”.....“Why can’t you come to that realization more often?” Ehlek muttered, scratching a scar on one of his arms. Kalmah smiled. “Because sometimes tormenting you is just fun.”.....Ehlek’s eyes flashed and he shot towards the ground headfirst, throwing up a cloud of gassy dirt that hid just what he was doing. When he reemerged, there was a glassy shrimp in his incisors, and he was grinning triumphantly. Kalmah flinched with irritation. “Give it to me.”.....Ehlek’s grin disappeared. Refusing to hand over his prize, he crunched down, spilling out the shrimp’s fluids. Before he knew it, Kalmah had delivered a solid blow to his face and then seized the animal in one of his smaller arms. While Ehlek stumbled back, Kalmah nicked the shrimp in half with his beaked mouth and ate it......“That was mine!” Ehlek complained.“Those crabs back there were mine,” Kalmah countered. Ehlek thought about that, and then nodded. “So, since you’re not going to get me back with a beating, I’m assuming you’re going to make me do something.”.....“And you assume correctly,” Kalmah replied. “You’re going to help me find lunch.”.....“You just took it,” Ehlek moaned......“One shrimp isn’t going to do,” Kalmah said. Already, he was in the water and swimming again. Ehlek began to follow close behind......“A crab?” Ehlek inquired......“No.”.....“Lobster?”“No.” Kalmah stopped in midwater. “I want... a shark.”.....“Pridak won’t like that,” Ehlek taunted. “You know how he feels about us killing sharks.” A dark scowl fell across Kalmah’s features, and he turned dagger-like eyes onto Ehlek. “Since when do I care what Pridak likes?”.....“I was just saying, you know, after he blinded your third eye...”Kalmah’s tentacle shot out, but Ehlek nimbly dodged it. Kalmah didn’t notice this, though, and continued. “Pridak got lucky,” he said, his voice no more than a whisper. “And it went to his head. I dare him to challenge me to a fight again.”.....“He is our leader...”Suddenly, Kalmah burst into laughter. “He thinks he is our leader. I, for one, do not follow him. Mantax does not follow him. Carapar does not follow him, or Takadox. Tell me, Ehlek... do you follow him?”.....“Of course not!” Ehlek said, not just because he wanted to spare himself of Kalmah’s wrath, but also because it was true. But everybody recognized Pridak as leader, it seemed to him......“He is an egotist,” Kalmah said, “and one day, his massive pride and arrogance would backfire on him. Badly.” He suddenly spun around, arms waving through the water. “I smell a shark.”.....Ehlek was still for a moment, most likely smelling the water, and then a vicious grin spread across his face. “Takea,” he said simply, the name of the most deadly shark species known. Takea sharks were voracious hunters, created by the Brotherhood of Makuta to be war beasts under the legions of the Barraki tens of thousands of years ago, different from all other rahi at the time by the fact that they ate other animals. They were the greatest of all of the other sharks in the ocean because they had metal armor rather than skin, and an inborn instinct to hunt. The meat of a Takea shark was a luxury to the Barraki - and a guaranteed setback to Pridak......“Come,” Kalmah commanded, turning and swimming off in the direction of the scent. They dashed under sparse patches of starry light, coming down from the surface thousands of feet above them and finding the clearest areas of water through which it would shine, therefore giving the effect of countless different moons up in a watery sky. Stiff, lifeless ooze undulated beneath them, littered with trees of kelp, until finally they reached the end of the forest. A flat, rocky shore stretched out for a dozen bio before ending in a precipice that signaled the beginning of the rest of the ocean. And then, what they were looking for: the silvery body of a Takea shark, gracefully descending toward the blackness to hunt for deep-sea squid to satisfy its carnivorous diet......“There it is,” Kalmah said wistfully, floating at the edge of the cliff. He then turned to Ehlek, who was floating beside him, eyes focused on nothing. Kalmah knew that the eel Barraki depended more on sense of smell and sensitivity to movements and electrical currents in the water than eyesight. “Kill it.” Kalmah said......Ehlek turned and looked at him like he was crazy. “What! Why me? It’s your meal!”.....“You owe me. Or would you rather I give you another scar?”Ehlek grumbled before taking flight. He swam off the edge of the cliff into the boundless darkness, approaching the shark less than sneakily. The large fish stopped, sensing his presence. For a moment, it was still, and then it lunged at him, mouth open. Ehlek dodged to the side and summoned electricity, which began to crackle on his fins. The sparks released from his own body and raced through the water, attracting to the metal pelt of the shark. It jolted away, reeling in the water as spasms ran through its body. It roared and charged at Ehlek again. The Barraki effortlessly caught its teeth, which could normally bite through the hide of a razor whale, on his talons. Then he turned the metal claws upward, slicing straight through the roof of its mouth until the tips of his talons were sticking out of its back. Blood floated in the water all around, though unseen in the darkness. Ehlek pulled out his talons and turned to Kalmah, smiling. “Easy work,” he said, “for one who could combat even a Makuta in battle.”.....“Was it not Makuta who sent us here?” Kalmah snapped back, and Ehlek cringed at the memory. The eel Barraki grabbed the body of the shark and swam back to Kalmah. He set it down on the ground of the shore. “There. But I get the tail.”.....‘You owe me,” Kalmah pressed......“I didn’t eat either!” Ehlek retorted.Kalmah ignored the other, fiddling with the shark with his arms and tentacles. He wrapped one arm around its tail and, with a casual yank, ripped it off. He threw it into the water, where it floated in front of Ehlek. “Normally I wouldn’t care at all about you,” he said, “but I know how you can get when you’re hungry.”.....Ehlek smiled, flashing sharp teeth, and began to devour the shark tail. Kalmah wrapped his arms around the shark and lifted it up to his mouth, where he rapidly began to consume it with nips and slices that couldn’t be seen with an untrained eye. Eventually, all that was left was a bloodstained, cartilaginous skeleton, with small bits of meat still hanging from it......“We should leave that in front of Pridak’s sea cave as a sort of token,” Ehlek chuckled. Kalmah smirked sinisterly. “Good thinking, Ehlek.”.....“Thank you,” Ehlek said through a full mouth, still working on the tail. Kalmah wrinkled his face in disgust. “Would you stop being a slob and just eat the Pit-forsaken thing!”.....“Sorry,” Ehlek said, stopping when he realized he was now chewing on bone. He spat out the bits and threw the tail into the ooze. “What do we do now?”.....“I don’t give an octopods scat what you do,” Kalmah said. “I’m going to go leave this as a message to good old Pridak.”.....“Could I possibly follow you?” Ehlek asked, spines rose with anticipation. “I have nothing better to do.”.....Kalmah glared at Ehlek. “Get this through your head,” he said, “I have no wish to be in your company, the only reason I am here right now is because you owed me for scaring away my food.”.....“Great then, I’ll come,” Ehlek said, licking his talons.Kalmah rolled his eyes. “That’s what I thought you were going to say.”.....This time, Ehlek led the way, turning in the water and swimming back the way they came, leaving the edge of the seamount alone. While they swam, he could be heard murmuring hysteric dreams of slaying Matoran on the way. Kalmah sighed. “Would you shut up about those stupid mongrels?” he said. “It’s like watching a whale holding a grudge against a group of shrimp.”.....Ehlek stopped, almost causing Kalmah to barrel into him from behind. He turned around slowly, focusing frighteningly cold eyes on Kalmah, who, to his credit, did not flinch. “They destroyed my fortress! Mine!” he said, sparks now dancing on the tips of his spines. Kalmah clenched his teeth, looking at Ehlek with boundless disappointment. “Get over it.”.....Ehlek hissed, nearly lunging out at Kalmah, but he stopped right before he could make contact. Still, Kalmah didn’t even move, but his eyes goaded Ehlek on. Ehlek knew better, however, and turned back around. He started to swim again......“One of these days, the destruction of Mahri Nui will come,” Ehlek said, “of that I assure you.”.....“I’d like to believe we’d escape this place of damnation rather than the deaths of some insignificant Matoran,” Kalmah replied......“What difference is there?”.....“Lots.”Ehlek rolled his eyes and turned a corner through the forest, passing by a marching sea cucumber. He snatched it up in his mouth and electrified it to death with a single shock, before beginning to munch. “Want any?” he asked Kalmah......“I hate echinoderms,” the squid-based Barraki merely said.Ehlek shrugged, picking the feathery tentacles of the dead creature through his teeth. “They do taste like crud, I admit.”.....“I can imagine,” Kalmah said, retching at the smell of fried sea cucumber. Ehlek chuckled. “Being fickle will not get you anywhere, Kalmah,” he said. Kalmah rolled his eyes. “Right. Besides retaining at least a few precious pieces of my health and sanity.”.....Ehlek snorted. “Down here, who really needs those things?”.....“Me,” Kalmah said simply.Ehlek finished off his meal and ascended a hill, sending shrimp running into the kelp. Kalmah managed to catch some with his arms and guided them into his beaked mouth. In a few minutes, the two were floating at the end of the forest. “Pridak’s sea cave is right off that giant rock formation.” Kalmah said, pointing one arm to some sort of stalagmite at least two kios away......“He was always a loner,” Ehlek said. “Then again, which one of us isn’t?”“Carapar,” Kalmah answered. “That thing depends on someone to help him masticate.” The two Barraki swam down the hill. While Kalmah had changed the color of his body to a dark purplish for camouflage purposes, Ehlek apparently wasn’t worried about getting seen; the eel was grinning and dancing with emerald sparks......“Get down, you simpleton,” Kalmah snapped. “He’ll see you.”“Are you afraid?” Ehlek teased, but his talons twitched in preparation should Kalmah strike out at him. The other Barraki didn’t reply though, simply swam on, tentacles trailing behind. They reached the sea cave, and Kalmah peered into the darkness. A grin spread across his face. “He’s not here.”.....Ehlek rolled his eyes. “I already knew it. I take it you were looking forward to getting confronted?”.....“You could say that,” Kalmah said. He swam into the cave, and unwrapped his tentacle from around the shark skeleton, dropping it in the middle of the room. Though Ehlek knew he was probably tempted, the squid Barraki didn’t bother to look around. There were plaques and tablets and scrolls of seaweed strewn all around Pridak’s cave, and a large rock in one corner that probably served as the shark Barraki’s punching dummy, as it looked torn almost to bits......Ehlek hesitated, eager to start foraging through all the precious information that was stored in here. After all, he might not have another opportunity. But he knew he couldn’t with Kalmah here as a witness. Instead, he ground his teeth in frustration and suppressed his impulses by dragging his talons against his arm......“Now what is this...?” Kalmah said with a hint of amused curiosity, as one of his arms snaked down to the ground to pick up an intricate sculpture made out of a substance rare to the Pit – protodermis. Ehlek shrugged. “Probably an heirloom of some sort.”.....“If there’s one thing Pridak doesn’t respect, it’s the past,” Kalmah said with certainty. “So this is truly a curious...”.....Both Barraki froze, and Ehlek smiled like a maniac. “He’s coming.”Kalmah grinned. “The current will carry away our scent; come on,” he said, tossing the sculpting down and swimming deeper into the cave, where a hidden tunnel made a secret entrance to the outside. He slipped his flexible body through a small patch of reeds, and Ehlek did the same. The two Barraki quickly fled the cave right as both sensed Pridak entered. Before too long, they could hear his roaring and cursing......Kalmah emerged from beneath a deep sea coral and spread out his tentacles to halt his momentum. He turned around, and his face expressed no more than elation – a rare instance in time when he actually showed emotion......Ehlek swam up to him. “He’s going to find out, you know,” he said. “Your scent will be on the skeleton.”.....Kalmah shook his head in denial. “No,” he said. “Yours will. You’re the one who stuck your talons through its back.” He turned to Ehlek, wearing a con artist’s smile of achievement. Ehlek, suddenly furious, shrieked and blasted out with electricity at the Barraki. “You liar!”.....Kalmah knew that the blast was unavoidable, so he made no move to dodge, deflect, or otherwise get around being hit by it. He flinched in pain as the shock ran through his body, but after thousands of years of being with Ehlek, he’d gotten somewhat used to it. “I did not lie at all,” he said, and it was true. “And you owed me.”.....“Oh, go take your “owe” scat and shove up your mantle!” Ehlek screamed, lunging out at Kalmah. He dodged out of the way, however, and caught Ehlek’s arm in his tentacle. He twisted, and Ehlek growled in pain. “Stupefied with anger, you strike out blindly,” Kalmah said, kicking Ehlek with another of his arms and sending the Barraki hurtling backward. “Everything, including plain violence, requires thought and strategy.”.....Ehlek pulled himself of the ooze and spat out a mouthful of mud and pebbles. “One of these days,” he said, “I’m going to go and prove you wrong about your stupid strategy philosophy by ripping your guts out of your gills.”.....Kalmah snorted. “And soon, sea cucumbers will grow fins and learn to swim.” He said. “Get real, Ehlek; the only reason I spew all this “stupid strategy philosophy” is because it’s true. Grow up.”.....Ehlek suddenly turned stiff, and memories ran through his head. Energy raced along his head and he turned to Kalmah. Slowly, he said, “Why don’t you just shut up?”.....Everybody, even rahi, knew not to deal with Ehlek when he was really mad, and this was one of those times. Kalmah backed off, swimming away to increase the distance between them. “There’s not much to do anymore,” he said, trying to change the subject, “I’m going to go back to my sea cave and dream about death and destruction.”.....Ehlek huffed. “You go do that. I’m going to go hunting again.” Nothing could satisfy an eel’s hunger......Kalmah nodded. He turned to swim away, when his eyes caught something in the distance. It was not rare to see a sinking piece of flotsam, but this one was different in the fact that it was shiny. And golden......Ehlek beat him to the question. “Do you see that?”Kalmah swerved to face the Barraki. He was not looking into the distance, but Kalmah knew he could sense electricity levels and movements in the water for hundreds of miles around. Then that must mean, he thought, this object has some kind of energy emission for him not to just disregard it as debris......Kalmah decided right then that it was best to go check out the glowing object, but as always, Ehlek beat him to it when he straightened and began to wind himself through the water before the squid Barraki could move. Kalmah followed, gaining speed with constant siphon jets. Before long, they could make out the object clearly, and it was apparent that this was some sort of mask. But a Kanohi that glowed when not in use was unheard of, not to mention one that retained color......“Where is it?”Kalmah stopped in the middle of the clearing. Mountains and hills shot up all around him, and the golden mask was no longer in sight. He rose up a tentacle to signal Ehlek to calm down, and concentrated for a moment. Suddenly, both Barraki raised a limb and said, “That way.”.....Not stopping to revel at the simultaneity of their actions, the two quickly headed into a tunnel at the foot of one of the mounds and began to swim towards the source of movement and energy that was the mask. For too long, all there was was just a dark wormhole of rocks and mud. But then, they reached the end, and emerged into an empty field......“Where is it?” Ehlek shrieked yet again, unable to spot the mask still. Kalmah lifted his tentacle and pointed at the one single light shaft in the center of the field, where a golden object shimmered as it fell, blended perfectly into the illuminated water. It hit the ground, sending up a cloud of dust and dirt and sending out a ripple of breathtaking energy to all who were around......Both Barraki stared down at the mask. Now that they were within twelve feet of it, they knew that it was more than just a sunken lightstone sculpting or whatever else. The curve, the symbol, the shape... all of them hinted toward the single greatest mask of all legend. Ignika: Mask of Life......Kalmah’s arms all stiffened, and analysis of the current vicinity, what he could use against the being beside him, and all the known weaknesses of Ehlek ran through his mind in an instant. On Ehlek’s part, he was simply flabbergasted at what he was seeing, and he knew that Kalmah would probably challenge him for possession of the mask in front of them......Sparks danced on Ehlek’s back, and Kalmah’s arms all assumed an inconspicuous combat formation around him......“Well,” Ehlek said. “This is awkward.” - - - -Kagha

For a moment I think that I hear a sound, but when I swing around there’s nothing to greet me but sprawling black woods. The trees are charred and black, malformed and decrepit carcasses that once a thousand years ago may have been lush and verdant. The soil is stale, ashen, packed and withered with time. Mist curls and banks around the trees. I let my eyes linger on the scene, the ocular functions in my mask rapidly diagnosing the feed with stats and auto-focus. Beneath my chest, I feel my heartlight pulsate just a hertz quicker.I know this place, my mind whispers, but the specifics are lost to me. Slowly, I gain my bearings and break the hollow stare I have on the ghost forest, easing my joints and striding away. My limbs grow continuously weary with each step, even the reinforcement of the pistons in my armour doing little to ease the strain. The landscape is unchanging with time, and a smidgen of my conscious questions to what destination I am working toward.Another voice breaks my concentration, and this time I’m certain it’s no phantom. I crane with unnatural speed and my oculars do likewise, pinpointing a fleeting shade kios away in the forest. In an instant, it’s gone, but by then I’ve already broken into a sprint.I don’t know why I’m running. I don’t know what I so desperately need from this apparition.“Stop!” I plead, my voice thunderous over the deadness of the woods. I instinctively trigger my mask and suddenly the world is painted in vibrant white-black, with my target a blur of crimson motion. I barely feel my body labouring or my legs bounding as I fall into pursuit: the whole of my mind is focussed on that red point, growing closer and closer in my vision. Finally it swells to nearly blot out my peripherals, and I lunge. Two bodies collide and we topple violently down the hill, smashing through decaying twigs and ashy dirt.Our plummet is halted with a crash, and there’s a moment of astonishing silence. I power my mask down and struggle to gaze at the subject of my pursuit. His face is bare and weak, maskless features curled into a painful grimace. Tears well up from glowing jade eyes.My heartlight flares in nostalgic agony and I feel the wavelength crawl the span of my body. I know this being, I can feel it, but something is clouding my memory. “Who are you?” I demand.“Kagha…” the figure says, but his voice is an echo a million mios away. “This isn’t real. You have to come back…”“Kagha?” I repeat, before realising it must be my name. “Come back? Back where?”But the figure proffers no answers, and his body and cloak are fading, falling away into a collection of ash and dust. In a matter of seconds, the powdered remnants of this being are swept away into an abrupt gale and dispersed to the rest of the woods. I stare longingly at the emptiness: gone, just like everything else in this Karzahnine realm I’ve inhabited for the Spirit knows how long. Don’t leave me.My fingers graze something warm. There’s some kind of crystal lodged in the dirt beside me, meticulously symmetrical and gleaming with an internal flame. A line of inscriptions written in light fleet across its surface. Hesitantly, I lean in my head to decipher them.”Come back!”And before I know it, the world explodes in a cascade of white. # I wake up screaming and manage to smash my face into the headboard, but for the first few instants I’m still too asleep to register the pain. When it finally surges in, so does the major portion of my better conscious, and I’m aware that it’s dark all around. Moreover, the “headboard” I slammed into is curiously positioned directly above my face, and less than a quarter-bio away at that.As though it would do anything, I squint my eyes to see clearer. The smart protometal of my mask responds as naturally as I’d expect, but there is an absence of the ocular augments I’ve become used to. I reach my hand to feel my face and my knuckles scrape against the tiny ceiling, which I am now aware is made of frigid stone.My heartlight reveals the most of my situation. Long shadows are cast in a very form-fitting box, with deep corners and an ancient musk about it. I’ve become so disconnected with reality that it takes several minutes for it to dawn on me: I’m in a coffin.Oh Spirit, I’m in a coffin.“Help me!” I screech at the top of my lungs and pummel the coffin face, but the noise is only reflected back. My heart is racing now and my body tenses up with a serious claustrophobic fit, until I rear my hand back again and strike –No resistance.Momentum springs me from the coffin like a gust of wind and I pass straight through the stone without damaging it, surfacing into a world of light that makes my eyes burn. Whatever I did to make it happen stops immediately though, and I fall back to my feet and tumble head over heels down a crude mountain of similar coffins and other stone artefacts. My senses all crush together and my mind goes blank, every time my shoulder hits hard rock reverberating through my entire body. My feet go flying out below me and I’m due to roll again when my fall is broken and I’m swished into light air as easily as a feather.“Kagha? Is that you?”The bubble that contains me is invisible and there’s an apprehensive jitter that comes with reaching out at nothing to stabilise myself, but I slip against the force sphere and manage to get a glimpse of my captor. Standing at least ten bios below at the foot of the sepulchre is a green-armour clad Toa. She wields a broadsword and wears a Calix, which is currently screwed up in disbelief. Kagha. That’s the name from the dream. My name, I remember. But who is this?“I’m afraid I have no recollection of you,” I stammer, every word feeling alien as they curl out of my mouth. “Nor of this locale at all. So you would pardon me if I don’t respond properly.”The field of force vanishes and the ground rushes up to meet me. Pain sprouts in my hands and knees and I yelp sharply, oblivious to the footfalls as they grow closer. As soon as I make it to my feet where I intend to squirm further, my body is frozen by the presence of a blade at my throat. The woman is leaning forward, fury in her eyes, and her lips are drawn back in a snarl. “Just as snide as you were in the Prefall, are you? What nerve you have, you slimy piece of Visorak spawn.”I cringe.“Was it something I said?”She draws back and at first I expect her to hit me, but she simply lets out an incoherent growl. Taking a few steps back, she batters the air with her fists and not a split second later I find the tip of the same sword affixed again before me, poking between my eyes. “You think you can just waltz back in here again? Really? You’re scum, Kagha. I don’t know why you bother.”I frown. “I’m sorry, who are you?”The blade falls. In the space of a second all the anger on her face is washed away with genuine surprise. “You really don’t remember? By Mata Nui, you’re oblivious!” She draws a vox bead to her mask and pinches it. “Akaku? You’re going to want to see this.”“Akaku? What is that, some kind of rahi?”That makes her laugh, a kind of laugh you can only have when somebody you’re comfortable with says something witty. The only problem with that scenario is I have no idea in the Pit who this person is. “I’m sorry, was I being funny?”“Just shut up.” She shakes her head, still laughing. “Even now, you don’t know when to close your mouth.”Stranger or not, that stings a little bit. Indignantly, I turn away and pretend to be fascinated with the ruination of a mausoleum I currently find myself in. The pile of coffins and broken statues is at least eleven bios high and a total mess. Many of the stone deathbeds are sundered open like eggshells, ash spilling out, and pieces of decaying armour are scattered across the scene. Shivers crawl down my spine thinking I was once a part of that. How am I alive?Surrounding the ominous mound, huge cathedral pillars erect a stolid palace roof far overhead, though many of them are crumbled and withered as though they underwent merciless bombardment in the past and were never cared for following that. At the very end of the gargantuan chamber, dark walls draped with lichen-ridden banners span at least the length of a coliseum, and the only sources of light are a massive gate at one facing end and stained glass windows high up near the roof. It seems like a peaceful place, in a gothic, deathly kind of manner. Every breath I inhale feels old, used.As the woman has ceased speaking by this point, there is a shroud of silence gripping the entire place. Something tells me that the application of that word is wrong though, the faintest of drones in my jawbone, gradually working out to a full-on mechanical roar. In the distance, of course.“What is that?” I ask my captor.“That,” she responds succinctly, “is Akaku.”Then the wall caves in and slabs of rock fly everywhere, a detonation of debris like the place was just struck by a missile. I lose balance and fling myself back, landing on the ground hard and pleading into every outlet of energy in me to stay alive. In the peripherals of my vision, beyond credibility, I see my female captor simply standing there and facing into the blast, not moving an inch, arms casually akimbo.The mechanical roar is painfully present now and a bestial vehicle rolls in. Spiked tracks devour the ground and a hulking frame lurches to a stop, its ear-shattering motor – the sound I heard earlier – powering down into an intimidating purr. A hatch in the roof of the vehicle pops open and a vested Toa appears. Clenched in his teeth is a stick of cured antidermis, puffing grey smoke into the stale air. “By all that is mythical! Kagha! That really you?”An ocular lens on the Toa’s mask, quite similar to the one I remember so closely, whirs and extends as he inspects my face. He whistles, hops out of the vehicle, and takes another puff. The armour he wears is heavy duty stuff, reinforced and plated, and is a deep green shade. Two membrane-encased blades clatter against his back.I step back as he approaches. “How do all you people know me?”Noticing my nerves, he stops. He and the female share a glance, and then he turns a friendly smile in my direction. “You’re suffering from memory loss. Happens to ‘em all, at least the one’s we’re able to get back. Just a little while ago, B.Z. Nui had a collapse. Even prior to that, ranks of denizens were being struck by some sort of plague, and they fell into incurable comas. You were one of the first to go.”I laugh hysterically. This man is nuts.“B.Z. Nui? Collapse? What are you talking about?”He shakes his head. “Here. Eat this,” he reaches into his belt and withdraws a tuba. “Black Six gave me a bunch, says they’ll help the survivors regain their memory.”I stride forward to take it, but then I hesitate. What if it’s poisonous?Akaku seems to have read my thoughts and he makes a reassuring gesture. “Trust me.”For reasons beyond imagining, I trust him. Reaching out, I take the tuba in my hands and examine it for a moment. Then I break off a chunk and I slip it in my mouth. Juices flow down my throat as I chew the organic matter and at first I’m not sure if it’s working. “Am I supposed to feel any different or—?”Heat surges through my veins and my head swells like helium. My joints lock and I fall to my knees, and I’m not sure if I’m imagining the animalistic growl that’s wracking my body or I’m really uttering it. Everything turns orange for a few moments and then, normal. The pain wears off and I’m sweating beneath my armour. My breath comes in tatters.And I remember.“Kagha! Are you okay?”Akaku is at my side, a look of guilt and surprise on his mask. I glance into his eyes and all of a sudden I feel a completeness, a familiarity, because I know what world this is now. Because I’m no longer slave to that dream. He helps me to my feet and the female Toa – Inferna, I remember – is rushing over to help balance me.“You guys … I remember. I’m sorry I left …”“Calm down, Kagha,” Inferna interjects, and suddenly I’m being dragged by the shoulders toward the vehicle. Akaku opens a port in the side and they sidle me in. I immediately fall down in the seat. “Let’s get him back,” Inferna says as she and Akaku climb into the bridge. They gear up the transport and we back out the way we came in (through the wall, that is) until we’re rolling away down a deserted cobblestone street, leaving the shadow of the ancient cathedral.“What do you remember, Kagha?” Inferna asks.I push myself upright in the backseat and massage my temples. “Um, I’m not sure. It seems so far back now.”“Think,” she urges.“I’m trying! Mata Nui… okay, it was back in B.Z. Nui.”“During the Prefall.”“I guess,” I concede wearily, really still having no clue what this Prefall is. “Anyway, I was on my way to the library. There were new publications out and I know I was interested in making some purchases. There must have been some telepath though, because I kept receiving this mindspeak to go into some alley. I tried to resist but the telepathy must’ve been really strong, because I found myself going there. There was a Vortixx there, I remember. A male.”“What did he want?” Inferna is glaring intently at me now.“He offered me a Rhotuka. Said it would make all my problems go away. It’s name was in some dialect I’d never heard before … I think he called it ‘ayaurell’. And that’s as far as I can remember.”Out of nowhere, Akaku bursts into laughter. “Wow. I’m sorry, that was really cruel of me, but that sounds like a poster story for wayward Matoran. You took contraband from some shady Vortixx in an alleyway? Could it get more cliché than that, Kagha?”Inferna slams a fist into his shoulder and the Toa of Air curses colourfully.“Shut up,” I jab, but my voice sounds adolescent. “It wasn’t my fault.”“No, it wasn’t,” Inferna agrees. “The important thing,” she punctuates this with a glower at Akaku, “is that you’re back. And not dead.”“It sure would suck if you were dead,” Akaku grumbles, although I suspect his heart isn’t entirely in that sentiment. I brush it off. “What about Reep? HN? The other Seneca… are they okay?”“Better shape than you,” Akaku quips.Inferna sighs. “You’ll see. We’ll be there in time.”That’s when I look out the window and notice we’re driving across a long, winding bridge several kios far, arcing in a continuous upward spiral overlooking an unimaginably distant blue sea. Behind us is a long stretch of distance on an industrial road preceding the beginning of the bridge, the road itself curving off of the canyon edge of an enormous island. Cities and people may have once populated the island, but now smoke billows from vast ruins and industrial squares cave and collapse in on themselves. From a distance I see chute systems in disrepair, skyscrapers folded in half, farmlands ridden with blight. Even then, the rest of the island stretches far into the horizon, its second end distant beyond sight, and I can only imagine the destruction extends further.“Is that...?” I say around the lump in my throat.“Prefall B.Z. Nui. Before the Renaissance,” Inferna tells me. She can see the pain in my face. “Don’t worry, though. Look up.”I do. Through the window, the sun shines through an unbelievably blue sky. Against it is the silhouette of an airborne metropolis. The winding road we’re on spirals into the firmament and ends at the gate of this floating city, a sprawling complex whose levels I can’t begin to comprehend at this vantage point. Inferna notices me gawking and smiles. “That’s the new B.Z. Nui. There’s been a lot of construction and the Turaga are discussing a great deal of reform and progress. Black Six still worries about those stranded down on the island though. So he sends teams, like us, to scout out and search for survivors, like you.”I frown. “The libraries, were they reconstructed? My books…”She smiles reassuringly, but there’s pain behind her smile.“No. Don’t tell me.”“This is the Afterfall, Kagha. The Renaissance. It’s an era for rebirth. That ayaurell stole you away for a time but it didn’t steal this.” She taps the side of her forehead, and I nod. From the driver’s seat, Akaku turns to face me briefly and grins. I look to meet his eyes.“Welcome back.”For a moment, my heartlight swells and turns homely orange. “Thank you.” # Author’s Note: Hello, BZPower! So, as you have (hopefully) already read just now, this was a B.Z. Nui story and the first I've posted in what feels like, I don't know, a million years. The characters used in this are meant to represent of course myself, Inferna Firesword, and Akaku: Master of Air. (I hope you guys are okay with that, if you're reading this ... >.>)So yes, this is my first post in quite a very long while. I feel terrible for leaving BZPower; real life (IRL, ayaurell, get it? heheh I'm so clever ...) kind of caught up with me and I fell out of it. But I could never just turn my back on Bionicle, so I came back, and now I'm back to stay. This time I mean it.So yes. Message me if you want to. Reply if you feel you must (I would appreciate it ^.^). If you are either Inferna or Akaku or any of the other Toa Seneca for that matter message me because I want to talk to you because I miss you guys!! And yeah. I'm going to get reacquainted with the site. Very spiffy looking, I must say.~ Kagha

Kinetics would be pretty useless, wouldn't it? It's basically just a subdivision of psionics -- being able to control movement with mental force. That's included as psionic power on BS01, so kinetics is really useless in my eyes. -Kagha